Prime Seafood supplies fresh fish and shellfish only from those populations that are robust and managed sustainably and which do not contain dangerous levels of contaminants (such as carcinogens found in "farm-raised" salmon). Our chefs tell us that our seafood is the highest quality and freshest available in the Washington D.C. area. We deliver Monday through Friday. Taste the difference yourself.
Many believe wild Pacific salmon, halibut and sablefish are the most delicious fish in the world. They are certainly the most nutritious. We deliver four species of wild Pacific salmon - king (or chinook), sockeye, keta (or chum) and coho (or silver salmon) - as well as Pacific halibut, sablefish (or blackcod) and lingcod (shown here). The fish are flown overnight to us as soon as the fishing vessel unloads its catch and it is graded for quality to meet our standards. Not only is it the best quality available worldwide. It is also the freshest. And since we have no warehouse (or the expense of such overhead), we have to deliver the fish and shellfish immediately thus assuring our customers that they are getting the freshest wild products available from any source and at the best price for such high quality fish.
We provide routine deliveries of fresh king salmon harvested in peak condition from the pristine waters off Central and Southeast Alaska and northern California (see map). We provide troll-caught wild king salmon (both "Reds" and "Ivory" Kings) from April through October. From July through August we provide an exceptional sockeye salmon taken from Upper Cook Inlet and landed at Soldotna on the Kenai Peninsula.
Our primary supplier of halibut, salmon and sablefish is the Seafood Producers Cooperative (SPC). Its 500 members are the small boat salmon, halibut and sablefish fishermen who work the waters from northern California to Alaska. SPC is the largest and most successful fishermen's cooperative in North America, and it has built a worldwide reputation as the quality leader in the North Pacific seafood industry. Prime Seafood is the only Washington-area distributor for seafood caught by members of the SPC and supplied by its processing facilities (pictured below). Detailed descriptions of all our fish products from SPC including salmon, halibut and sablefish can be found at SPC's website.
Salmon trollers docked at the Seafood Producers Cooperative's processing plant in Sitka, Alaska
We also now obtain fresh halibut, king salmon and coho salmon from Wheeler Seafood of Auburn, WA. The halibut are landed on Kodiak Island, at Homer and Seward on the Kenai Peninsula as well as at various ports in Southeast Alaska. The kings and coho salmon are generally obtained from Southeast Alaska, coastal Washington state (including Puget Sound) and the Columbia River.
During much of the year, we can obtain king salmon (both "reds" and "ivories"), coho salmon, king crab, tanner crab and Dungeness crabs and crabmeat from a fisherman-owned company in Washington state known as Ivory King Seafoods. All these seafood items are "day boat" fresh, meaning they have been out of the water less than 24 hrs when we receive them. The fishermen limit their trips to one day and land their catch in the afternoon. It is flown to us overnight arriving the following morning.
When storms in one part of the Pacific coast prevent fishing and/or departure of aircraft (an all too frequent occurrence), we now have alternative sources of top quality halibut, sablefish and salmon on which we can rely for relatively uninterrupted deliveries. This is a major improvement for Prime Seafood over the situation during our first years of operation. Since 2006, we have been able to provide regularly scheduled deliveries about 95% of the time.
Beginning in 2009 we began distributing wreckfish taken at the base of a vertical wall in 800 - 1,000 feet of water at the site known as the "Charleston Bump" which is located 130 miles southeast of Charleston, S.C. on an edge of the Blake Plateau. Thanks to our supplier Craig Reaves, owner of Sea Eagle Market in Beaufort S.C., we "piggyback" wild Carolina white shrimp, wahoo, black seabass, triggerfish and grouper with his weekly wreckfish shipments to us.
Our west coast oysters, Mediterranean mussels and Manila clams are provided by our strategic partner, Ron Forino, co-owner of United Export Services, who arranges to have them shipped overnight directly from their growers in British Columbia, Canada, and in the Puget Sound-Hood Canal areas of Washington state.
Our yellowfin tuna, swordfish, white seabass, Dungeness crabmeat and sablefish are provided by P & T Flannery Seafood Co. of San Francisco.
