California Coast & Ocean

value,” Fujita said. The goal is a sustainable local fishing industry that enables fishermen to make a living while protecting marine life and habitat and allowing the region’s ports to continue processing and distribution.

The demand for fresh and wild seafood products of local origin has been growing, much like the demand for local and organic produce, meat, and dairy products. Fishermen are realizing they need to tap into that demand. The Heritage Group is talking about marketing fish and shellfish in a variety of ways, including directly from fishing boats to consumers, as is being done in Santa Barbara and at Pillar Point Harbor on Half Moon Bay. They are thinking of “value-added” products that could be developed. Instead of sending fresh albacore overseas for canning, or shipping premium fish like black cod (sablefish) to Asian markets, they might prepare these delectable fish for sale to California consumers. To reinvent the local commercial fishing industry, a creative business plan based on sound market and business analysis will be essential.

The business model adopted by Mark Tognazzini and his family is an example of the kind of creative thinking that’s needed. A commercial fisherman for 35 years, Tognazzini sells some of his catch directly off his boat, the Bonnie Marrietta, notifying his list of customers by e-mail every Thursday of his “Weekly Specials.” He also features local fish on the menu of Tognazzini’s Dockside Restaurant in Morro Bay, which he runs with his wife, Bonnie, and their family. They bought the restaurant in 2004. If you ask for the special, he is likely to come to your table with a logbook and look up who caught your fish and where. He invited fellow fishermen to decorate the restaurant’s 23 tables with personal photos, placed under glass. The restaurant’s back door opens onto the wharf. Diners are apt to see fishermen both inside and outside the place.

On the day I ate lunch there, John Lindsay, operations manager for the nonprofit Morro Bay Fisherman’s Wharf, had stopped in for a cup of coffee and a chat. Tognazzini had just leafed through the Spring/Summer issue of Coast & Ocean and highlighted some lines in the “Fishwise” story, which stated that “some salmon fishers still use longlines.” This is not true, Lindsay said, and Tognazzini agreed. “Salmon are all caught by single hook, except by Indians.” [True in California—not longlining but trolling is the hook-and-line method for salmon; some tribes use gillnets or traditional dipnets.—Ed.]