Today we’d like to introduce you to Joshua Lake.
Hi Joshua, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Growing up in a large Filipino family here in San Diego, gathering around a massive, seafood-covered table was the typical way we celebrated birthdays, holidays, or just good ol’ family time. Bangus (whole fried milkfish), Kinilaw (ceviche), and Sinigang (fish head stew) were delicacies you’d find on Christmas, Easter, or whenever the Lolas and cousins got together for mahjong. But it wasn’t until I turned 22 and first visited my island roots that I truly discovered my lineage’s connection to the ocean and its bounty. This was also where I experienced my first true fish market, a huge, unmarked warehouse filled with dozens of vendors all selling their fresh (and sometimes still swimming) fish just yards away from the ocean. I was amazed by the raw, unprocessed, uncommercialized seafood and culture that lay before me and how starkly different it was from the corporate, perfectly portioned, desensitized supermarkets we had back home. Safe to say, I was hooked.
Fast forward to 2023, when I decided to expand my media production and marketing career in a post-pandemic world. The deep impacts of COVID-19 on my personal and professional life realigned my moral compass, inspiring me to support my hometown community in any way I could. I applied to become the Seafood Marketing Manager for a USDA project held by the San Diego Regional Policy and Innovation Center and the San Diego Fishermen’s Working Group. I saw the opportunity as a perfect chance to put my skills to work while helping the city I love, and lo and behold, I got the job!
I was quickly welcomed aboard by my team of motley crew members–Pete, the lifelong fisherman and political spokesman for the local commercial fishing community; Steve, the retired harbormaster and coastal communities’ consultant; and Rachel, the 40 under 40 awarded director of innovation for the local nonprofit. We put our heads together to tackle the daunting question: How can we inspire San Diego to appreciate and utilize more local seafood? With the help of our network of partners, including California Sea Grant, the Food System Alliance, the Port of San Diego, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Tuna Harbor Dockside Market, we set out to develop a marketing strategy to promote our commercial fishing community and motivate San Diegans to eat more local fish; fish, I might add, that is more sustainable, traceable, environmentally conscious, and fresher than any of its imported competition!
On a personal level, I hope that in the next year, I will earn the trust of the fishermen to continue educating me so that they will be proud of my representation of them. I hope that the restaurants we serve will share the names of the fishermen and their vessels providing the fish on their menus, proud to showcase their delicious local catch. I hope to teach restaurants that buying locally is good for the environment, has societal benefits, and is also good for their bottom line. And I hope to spread awareness to the general public of the benefits of eating locally, give them the tools to know how to do so, and inspire a greater connection to our local seafood system for all of San Diego.
All in all, our mission is simple but not at all easy: strengthen and shorten our local supply chain, increase local fish purchasing, elevate the vitality of the local commercial fishing industry, and raise the profile of this valuable community for years to come. On paper, we are looking to sell more local catch, but in reality, we are attempting to create a cultural shift in mindset and practice. Penetrating, disrupting, and then shaping the already iron-clad local seafood system is no small feat, so we intend to start this process by spreading awareness, providing education, and fostering appreciation for our fishing community–a cultural pillar of our seaside city’s heritage. Pursuing these tasks pushes our collective, cross-sector team into new and uncharted territory, but as we navigate these unknown waters together, the aim to better our local seafood system and our beloved San Diego County remains our shining north star.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The further we venture into this project, the more we find that smooth sailing is a rare luxury. One major challenge we face during this project is a general lack of knowledge and experience in commercial fishing for the non-fishing team members. As you can imagine, the career, lifestyle, and knowledge base of commercial fishermen are quite different from those of the land bound. Fishing is a craft full of nuance and specialization, something the average person doesn’t readily understand. Fishermen risk their lives in the open water to hunt wild species that provide food for their communities. Because of this high-stakes environment, they tend to be very protective of their practices, often leading to private trade secrets. Also, from a teamwork perspective, fishermen spend much of their time miles away from shore, often for days at a time, so scheduling meetings or phone calls is seldom successful. Beyond their time on the ocean, they’ve spent years developing a personalized marketing system for when they return to land with their catch–a system that doesn’t fit into conventional marketing strategy because of the short shelf life of their product. Because of this, each fisherman has different ways of storing, processing, selling, and delivering their seafood products, so unionizing their efforts is easier said than done. Taking a traditional marketing approach to this decentralized sector of producers has proven to be quite a hurdle, but for the most part, many are happy to help in the ways they can as they see the value in our team’s vision. With all these factors in mind, learning to productively collaborate with these seafaring professionals has come with a learning curve that can only be addressed by taking time to understand their work, needs, and goals.
A related issue, and one that holds a great amount of weight for this project, is the need for more infrastructure to support the fishermen here in San Diego. If there were more places for fishermen to store and process their catch, this would immensely alleviate the pressure to flip their fish so quickly. If there was an affordable cold transportation and delivery service available to our fishermen, providing consistent deliveries to restaurants would be a breeze, incentivizing more chefs to utilize local catch. Unfortunately, there is a severe lack of infrastructure on the waterfront to solve these problems, which has created a deeper effort to find creative ways around these obstacles while the solutions to the infrastructure needs are being developed.
On the other end of the equation is another large obstacle to break down and overcome: the consumer, but more specifically, the chef. Chefs and restaurants run a delicate operation, of which they’ve taken many pains in order to perfect. Trying to disrupt these systems is a large task and one that is generally met with pushback. In order to be incentivized to use these premia, albeit costly, local seafood products, a chef must understand the importance of local, sustainably sourced products and recognize how they add value to their business. This mindset is shared by a slim percentage of the average chefs who are often forced to prioritize low cost and efficiency over quality and sustainability. Realizing this has led our team to produce a stronger push toward educating the restaurant and consumer culture about why serving local seafood is so important to not only their business’s success but that of the San Diego community at large.
Part of this education involves teaching consumers about the many, yet not commonly known, species our fishermen land locally. There are over 50 local species seasonally available for consumers and chefs to try, but because the demand for non-local species like salmon, shrimp, cod, and tilapia has become the norm, that is what our collective palette has grown accustomed to over time. A large part of our mission is to encourage the consumption of the delicious local species our native waters have to offer, which include tuna, spiny lobster, yellow tail, crab, opah, rockfish, mahi mahi, halibut, mackerel, sea urchin, spot prawn, sheepshead, squid, swordfish, and so many others! To help restaurants and markets see the need for utilizing local catch, we want people to start asking where the fish and seafood on their menus and in their display cases come from. A simple “Do you have any locally sourced seafood options?” will show restaurants and markets that there is a demand for local catch, encouraging them to get educated and get behind the locally sourced movement we hope to foster with this project.
A wise engineer-turned-fisherman once told me that engineering is taking one large problem and breaking it down into many little problems. As we push forward in this project, we continue to discover problems that may not have been accounted for while drawing our initial map. But we embrace this struggle, as we know that beyond the choppy waves lie calm waters full of opportunity and prosperity for the fishing community and seafood system of San Diego.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’d like to take this time to tell your readers about what sets apart our local commercial fishing industry and its amazing seafood products from the international competition that occupies over 90% of the market space in San Diego. Here are 12 examples of why San Diego seafood products are unparalleled by their imported counterparts:
#1 – QUALITY
Nothing beats the taste of freshly caught fish! Imported seafood products must travel long distances to get to your plate. And in that time, the quality drastically diminishes. If you want the best flavor and nutrition out of your seafood, fresh local products are your best option.
#2 – SUSTAINABILITY
In order to maintain a healthy marine ecosystem, California has the strictest regulations for commercial fishing in the world. And our fishermen are proud to adhere to these rules! Without them, we could overfish our waters, leading to massive disruptions in both our environment and food supply. Purchasing locally helps support these sustainable practices and reduces the amount of unethically sourced seafood products in our diet.
#3 – STRENGTHEN THE SUPPLY CHAIN
As we learned during the pandemic, supply chains are complex and fragile systems that are vulnerable to disruption from a number of societal and economic factors. Buying directly from local fishermen helps to reduce these risks by shortening and strengthening the supply chain to its simplest form – producer to consumer.
#4 – SUPPORT THE LOCAL ECONOMY
Sadly, only 8% of San Diego’s seafood products are sourced locally, meaning that our dollars are predominantly bolstering external economies. But despite that figure, thousands of jobs are supported by the San Diego seafood industry. So, when you buy directly from our local fishing community, you can take pride in knowing that your money is being spent maintaining jobs and livelihoods for our fellow San Diegans.
#5 – CLIMATE-FRIENDLY
Today, the majority of seafood products in our grocery stores and restaurants are sourced internationally – think Central & South America, Asia, & Europe. These products often travel thousands of miles to get to our consumers, burning a lot of gasoline on the way. To help reduce the carbon footprint of the fishing industry, we should all try buying from our local fishermen.
#6 – ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY
Fishermen have an intimate relationship with our marine ecosystems and are often the first to notice environmental shifts. Because of their vested interest in conserving our ocean resources, our local fishing community is committed to and takes pride in maintaining the long-term health of marine wildlife and ecosystems through sustainable fishing practices.
#7 – TRACEABILITY
When you buy seafood from a grocery store or even most fish markets, you don’t know where the fish came from, who caught it, how it got there, how fresh it is, if it was caught ethically, or who your dollars are supporting. When you purchase directly from your local fishermen, you will be able to answer all of these important questions.
#8 – VARIETY
Did you know that there are over 100 wild harvested species that are landed in San Diego County? And each one has different characteristics, seasonality, and flavor. Ditch the grocery store’s minimal options and expand your seafood horizons by exploring this week’s fresh local catch.
#9 – PRICE
The price of seafood depends on many factors, including travel mileage from the source, competitive supply and demand, and costs for processing, packaging, storage, distribution, and delivery. When you buy directly from the local San Diego fishermen community, you help cut out unnecessary middlemen and minimize the overall cost of the product.
#10 – CONVENIENCE
Purchasing local seafood is as easy as going to the grocery store. There are tons of excellent storefront locations with huge assortments of freshly caught seafood, and even waterside markets where you can buy the fish directly from fishermen only hours after they’ve been caught. Whole and pre-cut products are available, so taking home some ready-to-cook seafood is a breeze.
#11 – FAIR LABOR PRACTICES
The United States, and California in particular, has some of the strictest labor laws and most ethical and fair practices in the world. Because of this, purchasing from our local producers ensures that the fish on your plate is harvested using the highest standards possible. The same cannot be said for all imported seafood products, so be sure to support these principled practices by getting your fish from a local source.
#12 – HERITAGE
The history of fishing around the world dates back thousands of years, and San Diego is no exception. Fishermen are hardworking, humble, community-focused workers, and the fishing lifestyle is packed with unique challenges and dangers. Commercial fishing is a core part of our city’s culture and history, and we, as San Diegans, must work to preserve and learn to appreciate it for all it offers our Seaside community.
If you’d like to find the freshest seafood in town or meet the fishermen who work hard to provide their top-tier catch, be sure to check out the Tuna Harbor Dockside Market–An open-air fishermen’s market where the fishermen and their families sell their seafood products directly to consumers. The market is open on Saturdays from 8 am until 2 pm or until the fish is sold out. There is a cutting booth so you can take home perfectly processed filets that are ready to cook. And if you’re hungry, you can find the freshest fish and chips, poke, and even grilled lobster prepared with all local species caught just hours before they’re cooked! If you can’t make it on Saturday, you can also find all local species for sale at Tunaville Market and Grocery in Point Loma from Wednesday to Sunday. Tunaville prides itself as one of the only places that sells all local catch from our commercial fishermen, so be sure to check them out if you want to support our local seafood producers!
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
Having once been dubbed the “Tuna Capital of the World,” San Diego recognizes its commercial fishing industry as an integral element of America’s Finest City’s economic backbone. However, due to the ever-growing pressure to compete in a global market, our local seafood producers are consistently undercut by foreign suppliers who often lack sustainable regulations and fair-trade practices, causing massive shifts within the macro economy of the seafood industry. As the demand for these international products grows, so does the damage to the health of our ocean, food supply, and local economy.
Due to the opaque nature of the international fishing industry, these issues remain largely hidden to 3 million plus San Diegan consumers at the receiving end of this global supply chain, who unknowingly perpetuate the cycle. On a statewide scale, the effects of the global supply chain are not only felt locally in southern California but are consistent throughout the entirety of the Golden State. Since the 1970s, California’s commercial fleet has dwindled substantially–The commercial fishing fleet that once championed 32,000 fishermen in the mid-1970s now barely retains between 3,000 to 5,000 today.
Consequently, a staggering 90% of seafood eaten in California is imported, and in San Diego, less than 10% of the seafood consumed is domestically produced, let alone locally landed. This imported fish often travels thousands of miles to reach our markets, impacting the environment through massive fuel consumption and the products’ quality as their freshness diminishes over this long transportation time.
Beyond the environmental and food quality repercussions, the local economy and supply chain are also dangerously affected. More imports mean more dollars leaving the hands of our city’s producers and creating a deeper dependency on an already fragile international supply chain. So, in the face of all these factors, how do we as a community respond? Where do we go from here? These are the questions that we look to answer with this project.
At the end of the day, our goal is simple: more local fish on local plates. But to do this, a greater understanding and appreciation of our local seafood system, its products, and its workers must be established. This feat is one that will require a cultural shift in attitudes and practice, which can only be accomplished via education and teamwork. So, as our project’s multifaceted team navigates these unexplored waters together, we strive to create the essential systems needed to coalesce the fishing community around a shared vision and marketing strategy, setting it up as a critical component of the San Diego food economy for decades.
By creating a marketing strategy that targets and engages chefs and restaurants to support local catch, we will be one step closer to uplifting sustainable locally caught seafood. By providing direct outreach and education through promotional marketing and events, consumers will be delighted to learn that the fishing community in San Diego is a key part of our region’s sustainable food system. And as the mission and message of this project continue to spread, we hope to fulfill the old adage that “a rising tide lifts all boats.”
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sandiegofishermen.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandiegofishermen/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100095316893814
Image Credits
Jason Houston
