Offering connections to sustainable, wild catch from the small boat fleets of the Oregon Coast - straight from their hands to yours.
“The bonds between people that give them a sense of community are forged not only at the table, but throughout the whole process of putting food there.
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Blue Siren Shellfish is an Oregon-based, independently owned brand and logistics company focused on celebrating and sharing the local harvest supported by Oregon's wild ocean and network of estuaries and bays.
WHAT WE DO
In the past, we’ve played the role of commercial harvester, licensed wholesale fish dealer and shellfish shipper. These certifications enabled us to sell our product directly to restaurants and retail shops, as well as other licensed dealers.
Today, although retired from fishing and wholesale sales, we continue to work with directly with fishers, farmers, urchin ranchers, and small to mid-scale seafood processors to curate connections between consumers, chefs, restaurants and institutions. At this time our primary role is value chain coordination.
“What’s this!?”, you may ask?
Currently, we hold a Value Chain Coordination contract with Yaquina Lab to support a local seafood initiative known as the Oregon Ocean Cluster. This work, at its heart, is aimed at getting more local seafood onto local plates and reducing waste across the supply chain by upcycling byproducts into valuable goods and materials. Our role is to help connect people, coastal products, and projects to resources around the state so that we can keep more local seafood local, affordable and accessible. We can help licensed seafood companies connect to chefs, restaurants, schools, and other buyers who want to source more food locally. If you are a licensed harvester wanting to do your own thing, we can also connect you to shared-use facilities where you can process your own catch to sell beyond your boat.
For more information on this project or to get involved, please email Kristen at vcc@thepeoplescoast.com
Read more about the Oregon Ocean Cluster here!
https://oregonoceancluster.com/
THE REST OF THE STORY
Looking Back, and Looking Forward.
15+ years ago would have found our team hustling around the kitchen of our newly opened, farm-to-table restaurant in Eastern Oregon. We never dreamed that a simple love of food and place would take us where landed in 2015: commercial fishing on the mighty North Pacific.
Our founding team:
Kristen is a mountain girl from western North Carolina, and Aaron grew up on a small ranch in Echo, Oregon. What started as a small farmer’s market food stand escalated (within a year!) into a full-service dinner house, as the growing demand and taste for high quality, scratch made, local food became apparent. Building and running the restaurant was a hands-on effort from start to finish - from designing the kitchen and renovating an old farmhouse, to sourcing product, cooking, baking and managing a great staff. Through it all, the energy of creating and sharing good food carried us into a whole new appreciation for the art and skill of our Northwest local food producers, as the high quality of products available made it all possible.
During this journey, some of our best times were our adventures to the Oregon Coast, where we could revel in the mountains, the mist, the rivers….the magnificent forests. And of course, the ocean.
Oh, the Ocean. With all of her glorious bounty.
In 2014 we gave in to her call, traded our aprons for Xtratufs, and moved to the coast. Soon after, Aaron built a 24' wooden dory, which lead to begin learning the trade and life that is commercial fishing.
It’s something that’s taken hold of each of us in our own way, and although we still have a lot to learn and we have both moved to other things, we are so thankful and continually inspired by each day on the water that taught us, brought us closer to nature, and to our community as we shared the beauty and harvest of Oregon’s wild seas.
““We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.”
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Interested in more info on what we’re up to these days?
Drop Kristen a line: bluesirenshellfish@gmail.com
Click below to view more construction photos of F/V Storm Trooper, our original commercial fishing dory that got it all started.
