We’re so excited to introduce you to Delia Becker and Scott Rempel, part of a community of shellfish growers on Cortes Island, BC. We’ve spent close to a year getting to know Delia, Scott, their shellfish, and the local shellfish industry, and we are so pleased that we’ve finally found a way to offer live, premium-quality oysters directly from the pristine waters off Cortes Island to our Vancouver members!
We first met Delia back in the June of 2015 when she emailed us looking for a way to connect her lovingly-grown oysters and clams to local consumers. She had heard about our CSF and was very eager that our innovative model of connecting fishermen directly to consumers might provide an alternative to selling her shellfish overseas, as is the case with the vast majority of our locally grown shellfish. We were intrigued at the possibility of being able to offer ethical, local shellfish directly to our members and at being able to help the shellfish growers of Cortes Island continue their traditional, small-scale way of life!
In September of 2015, I attended the Social Ventures Institute at Hollyhock on Cortes Island and decided to reach out to Delia to see if we could meet in person while I was on the island. Delia trekked across Cortes Island and met me for tea on the beautiful, scenic grounds of Hollyhock. The hours passed barely noticed as Delia told the incredible story of her life growing up in Ghana and moving to Canada at the age of 10. Delia studied marine biology and conservation and has a powerful sense of social justice and community which aligns beautifully with the values of Skipper Otto’s.
After graduating from university, Delia worked for a shellfish company researching mortality rates in oyster farms. When the shellfish farm shut down, they told Delia just to dispose of the oyster seed. Although the seeds were just the size of poppy seeds, Delia couldn’t bear to let her “babies” die. She put them in a bucket, tied it off the edge of the dock near her home, and forgot about it for a few weeks. When she returned, she was baffled to find the bucket filled with healthy, thriving oysters! She had inadvertently learned an important piece missing from her research about the right growing conditions for oysters.
Thrilled at the potential for her discovery, Delia worked together with others in the oyster growing community to develop what they called “bouncy buckets” which vastly increased the survival rate of oyster seed. Then, instead of patenting it and selling it for profit, the group of growers and marine biologists began to use it to help increase the stability of coastal communities around the world. Delia and Scott travelled to Brazil to work on a project funded by CIDA and the Brazilian government to help revitalize languishing Brazilian coastal communities whose small scale sustainable fishing way of life had been eliminated by large-scale off-shore fishing. This project introduced the unemployed fishermen to growing oysters using the nearly fool-proof bouncy buckets.
“It brought tears to our eyes to see how it was turning villages around,” Delia said. “People could stay in their communities and rebuild their homes. Bouncy buckets helped that whole process.”
Since the Brazil project, others in Delia and Scott’s community have taken the bouncy buckets to Vietnam and other communities around the world to do similar projects.
Today, Delia and Scott live in Powell River and travel by boat to tend and harvest their own beach oysters in Teakern Arm near Castle Falls Provincial Park.
“We are doing this because it’s about providing a really healthy food that’s good for the environment and good for the community,” Delia said. “Oysters are such a low-impact, high quality food! They produce about 1/10th the carbon footprint of beef. They are helping us reclaim polluted areas of the ocean. And the health benefits of eating shellfish are huge!”
One of the great challenges faced by small-scale traditional oyster growers is finding processors willing to custom process their small batches. We spent the better part of the last year trying to find a processor willing to work with us and were thrilled that Sawmill Bay Shellfish on Quadra Island agreed to custom process for us! Thanks to them, we are now able to provide these beautiful oysters to our local Vancouver members!
As a family of salmon fishermen, we’re not experts on shellfish, so we wanted to be sure that our Cortes Island oysters were of absolute top quality. And who better to help us determine that, we thought, than our friend Chef Ned Bell of Yew Seafood + Bar at the Four Seasons in Vancouver! Ned agreed to receive a shipment of oysters and try them out. He confirmed that the oysters are of “premium” quality, calling them “creamy, briny jewels of the ocean.” We know you’ll agree!
Our first member oyster pick-up will be Thursday, March 31st at the Fishermen’s Wharf! Not sure what to do with live oysters? Check out this blog post for lots of info on safe handling, shucking, and cooking your oysters!
2023 prices are shown here. Prices do fluctuate each year. Higher price ranges reflect the inclusion of shipping costs for locations outside of Metro Vancouver.
Arctic Char is caught between the months of November and March. We usually carry it from December onwards and often sell out by late spring or early summer.
PRODUCT
SEASON
Artic Char
NOV-MAR
PRODUCT
PRICE
Artic Char portion
$27 – 32 per lb
Shellfish
Our wild, pink and spiny scallops are individually frozen and packed into 2lb packages. They can be cooked from frozen in one of your favourite clam or mussel recipes. We also offer cans of smoked scallops. In Vancouver, we offer live options at various False Creek Fishermen’s Wharf pick-ups during the year. Mussels are a special treat and one we offer every week during their season, while live Dungeness crab and beach oysters are usually available a few times a year.
2023 prices are shown here. Prices do fluctuate each year. The higher price ranges reflect the inclusion of shipping costs for locations outside of Metro Vancouver.
Scallops are caught between Nov-Feb each year but we aim to keep them in stock year round. Live Mussels are available at weekly pick-ups between July-March. Live Dungeness Crab is available at on 2-3 occasions only between Aug-March. Live beach oysters are available on 2-3 occasions only between Nov-March.
PRODUCT
SEASON
Scallops
JAN-FEB
Oysters
JAN-FEB
Mussels
JUN-APR
Dungeness Crab
JUL-SEP
PRODUCT
PRICE
Scallops
$24-$29 per 2lb box
Beach Oysters (Fishermen’s Wharf only)
$13.75-$19.50 per dozen
Mussels (Fishermen’s Wharf only)
$8.95/lb
Dungeness crab (Fishermen’s Wharf only)
$20-22 per lb
Salmon
We carried a wide mix of salmon products in the 2023 season. While specific offerings can vary from year to year, we always have lots of salmon to choose from. Our mainstay products are flash-frozen, boneless, skin-on fillets and portions – in sizes between 1lb and ½ lb each. We also carry hot smoked and cold smoked salmon and a variety of canned salmon products too.
2023 prices are shown here. Prices do fluctuate each year. Higher price ranges reflect the inclusion of shipping costs for locations outside of Metro Vancouver.
Salmon is caught between the months of June-October on the BC coast but we aim to keep it in stock year-round.
PRODUCT
SEASON
Sockeye Salmon
JUN JUL
Chinook Salmon
AUG SEP
Coho Salmon
JUL AUG
Chum Salmon
OCT
Pink Salmon
JUL AUG
PRODUCT
PRICE
Sockeye salmon fillets
$24-$27/lb
Chinook salmon fillets
$27-$30/lb
Coho salmon fillets
$26-$29/lb
Pink salmon fillets
$15-$18/lb
Candied pink salmon strips
$17-$19 per 1/2 lb package
Maple sockeye nuggets
$22-$24 per 1/2 lb package
Peppered sockeye salmon
$21-$22 per 1/2 lb package
Sockeye salmon lox
$12-13 per 100g package
Hot smoked sockeye
$20-$22 per 1/2 lb package
Canned salmon
$8-$14 per can
White Fish
Specific offerings can vary from year to year, but our mainstay products are flash-frozen, boneless, skin-on fillets and portions – in sizes that are usually around 1lb each. Lingcod fillets are usually available in both 1lb and ½ lb portion sizes. Lingcod cheeks are in roughly 1lb portion sizes. Halibut and sablefish collars are low cost options for stews and soups. Hake was not available in 2023.
2023 prices are shown here. Prices do fluctuate each year. Higher price ranges reflect the inclusion of shipping costs for locations outside of Metro Vancouver.
Halibut is caught between the months of March-November, lingcod in May, sablefish in the summer and rockfish late spring and summer. We aim to keep halibut, lingcod and rockfish in stock year-round while sablefish can be available mostly in the late summer and fall.
PRODUCT
SEASON
Halibut
MAR-NOV
Sablefish
JUL-SEP
Lingcod
MAY-JULY
Yellowtail Rockfish
JUN-SEP
PRODUCT
PRICE
Halibut fillets
$37-$40/lb
Sablefish fillets
$27-$30/lb
Lingcod fillets
$20-$23/lb
Yellowtail rockfish fillets
$13-$16/lb
Halibut collars
$10-$13/lb
Sablefish collars
$8-$11/lb
Lingcod cheeks
$28-$31/lb
Tuna
Our albacore tuna is flash-frozen at sea to ensure it is sushi-grade. We carry both full and ½ loins which range in weight between a little over 1 lb and a ½ lb. We also offer thin sliced cold smoked tuna lox in 100g packages and three types of canned products – regular, no salt and smoked tuna varieties. Unlike some other tuna species, albacore is a smaller species which is low in mercury which makes it safe to eat more frequently!
2023 prices are shown here. Prices do fluctuate each year. Higher price ranges reflect the inclusion of shipping costs for locations outside of Metro Vancouver.
Albacore tuna is caught between the months of June and September but we aim to keep it in stock year-round.
PRODUCT
SEASON
Albacore tuna
JUL AUG
PRODUCT
PRICE
Albacore tuna loins
$24-$27/lb
Sliced cold smoked albacore tuna
$9-$10 per 100g package
Canned albacore tuna
$7-$9 per can
Prawns
Our wild, flash-frozen spot prawn tails are special – even as spot prawns go. These prawns are caught live, quickly tailed and packed into 6 oz or 1 lb tubs aboard the boat, topped up with sea water, then frozen at sea to capture their just-caught freshness and negate the need for any preservatives. Our tubs of spot prawn tails are easy to thaw in minutes and perfect for your favourite shrimp or prawn recipes.
2023 prices are shown here. Prices do fluctuate each year. Higher price ranges reflect the inclusion of shipping costs for locations outside of Metro Vancouver.