Profiles

Sean Dimin

Sean Dimin and his family own Tobago Wild, a supplier of hand-lined fish from the island of Tobago at the southern end of the West Indies. Tobago Wild works only with local hand-line fishermen and ensures top quality to their clients by processing and shipping fish within hours of its capture. Tobago Wild provides a direct connection between buyers and fishermen while working to sustain the fisheries they all depend on.

What is your favorite seafood to eat?
I spent my childhood summers on Cape Cod and have since always cherished a real New England lobster dinner. I noticed the price has been unusually high as of late because of the low supply left from last year and the early bad weather. Hopefully, the price will come down in time for me to get my taste this summer. If not, any lobstermen up for a swap?

What's the most popular seafood item that Tobago Wild offers?
At first wahoo sold the best because it was an easy, fairly well-known, eco-sustainable substitute for many swordfish recipes. Since we began marketing Tobago’s blackfin tuna, it has far surpassed wahoo’s popularity. Blackfin tuna is the smallest of the true tunas (which include bluefin, bigeye, yellowfin, and blackfin). It rarely grows past 25 pounds and is only found in the south-western Atlantic Ocean.

While the bigger tunas have been heavily fished around the world, blackfin tuna has been largely ignored. In Tobago, all of the blackfin tuna we procure has been caught using hand-lined fishing methods, meaning fishermen literally pull single fish in hand-over-hand leaving the population healthy and almost unaffected. Tuna aficionados looking for a sustainable choice have discovered blackfin's beautiful coloring and delectable texture. Health conscious consumers love the fact that Tobago Wild blackfin tuna contains only 0.048ppm of methylmercury, putting it 95% below FDA action levels and 70% below other tuna labeled “low-mercury.” We love it when curious diners try something different and end up liking it more. Choosing alternative species takes real pressure off highly demanded traditional fish species.

How did you get interested in the issue of sustainable seafood?
My family visited the island of Tobago back in the winter of 1996 and stayed in the remote fishing village of Charlotteville. We went out fishing with these rough and tumble dudes who hauled in huge fish – tuna, wahoo, mahimahi, amberjack, black-eye kingfish and others – hand-over-hand into their small, open pirogues fitted with 40-horsepower outboard engines. The rush of being 12 years old, coming to shore with a boat full of beautiful fish, ended abruptly when I learned that all the other fishermen in the village had also had a fruitful day and there was no one left to buy our fish. That day, my father hatched the idea of Tobago Wild.

Almost 10 years later, after reestablishing relationships with the fishermen, my dad and older brother built a HAACP-certified processing plant and began a daily truck route to the remote fishing villages dropping off ice and picking up each day’s fresh catch. The fish is processed each night into fillets, loins or whole fish, placed by individual order into advanced insulated packaging, and handed over to FedEx the very next morning for priority delivery to restaurants and retailers across the U.S. We never wanted to change the way the fishermen fished and always realized there would be a natural supply cap to the small island. We didn’t realize right away that we were reinforcing sustainable fishing – it was just the right way to do it. We came into the business with the interest of the fishermen in mind. We thought if we could create a bridge between remote fishing villages in Tobago and demanding restaurants in New York, we would be doing good for everyone. Now, joining a larger and more knowledgeable community, we realize that by eliminating inefficiencies of traditional distribution methods we can extract a greater value from a smaller supply of wild caught fish. This in turn allows the fishermen to earn more while preserving smaller-scale, eco-sustainable fishing methods.

How would you describe your philosophy on ocean conservation?
I believe that the men and women whose livelihoods are at stake will make the right choices for the longevity of their respective fisheries. We need to protect these local fishermen, processors, and dockhands from a “Tragedy of the Commons.” Too many fishermen, local and non-local, going after the same few fish are going to panic and try to get all they can now. If a fisherman feels protected in his exclusive membership to a fishery he will be compelled to think about the future of that fishery and, as a result, his own future.

I see it like this: locally-managed fisheries marketing locally-caught fish. It’s promising when I see a menu touting Wellfleet oysters, fresh Alaskan salmon, wild Texas shrimp or, better yet, Tobago Wild anything. I love the job of promoting all the good work these fishermen do and figuring out the logistics of getting their fish direct to the consumer. At Tobago Wild we have a little saying- “Fish local. Eat global.”

How has your philosophy changed what fish you offer?
We’ve been approached by foreign fishing vessels looking for a better market for their fish. These boats are catching big tunas, swordfish, marlin, lots of species common to our U.S. market. While we don’t judge the work they do, we decided that we don’t yet know enough about long-lining fisheries in the Caribbean and the impacts they have on the environment. We understand that the sea has more to give than can be caught by hand-line fishing in Tobago, but until we feel comfortable with a particular fisherman we can’t endorse his fish.

Have your customers noticed?
They have. This business is no longer a business of commodities. It has unfortunately come to the breaking point where buyers need to be more conscious of where their fish comes from and how it was caught. We operate our business on a completely transparent level, tracking individual fish from point-of-catch to point-of-sale. Our customers get a certain satisfaction when we can tell them that the fish they are about to receive was caught yesterday by Sye from Charlotteville. It creates a real connection, which has been lost over time, between the chef, diner and where his or her food actually came from.

Do you feel it limits what you can offer?
No. If a species of wild fish, game, foul, anything needs time to rebound and rebuild its numbers, I feel responsible to support that effort. There are so many other uncommon or overlooked fish species around the world with healthy populations that we can introduce into American gastronomy – that’s part of the fun.

Have your clients worked with you in sourcing sustainably caught seafood?
We had one client come down to Tobago for a week just before opening a pioneering new restaurant in Washington, DC which serves only sustainable fish. He wanted to see where his fish would be coming from and got the full experience by going out with a fisherman and fighting fish hand-over-hand. Later in the day, while we were snorkeling, he convinced me that we should grab a sea urchin and bring it to shore to eat. We had a trying time getting it through the surf with its near sphere of needle-sharp spikes and neither of us wearing gloves. We were very much in the mindset of the Old Man and the Sea: “Fish, I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends.” We cracked it open and enjoyed it right there on the sand. Now, every time I talk to him he asks me when he’s getting his first shipment of urchin. I don’t think this is the conventional answer to your question as much as it is an anecdote of what our chefs do to push us to source new things.

What trends have you noticed in seafood in the past 10 years?
It must have been about 10 years ago that there was a concerted ban by American chefs on swordfish. I was only a young teenager but I remember the conversations people had about the issue. My parents loved to buy swordfish steaks for the grill from the fish market near Hyannis. They justified that mouth-watering treat because they bought local, harpooned swordfish from Cape Cod fishermen. I didn’t really understand all the issues at the time and may never revisit that particular one, but since then I have noticed not so much of a trend but a real movement taking place. People are having more and more conversations about seafood. The crisis we now have with wild fish stocks is coming to the forefront of consumer consciousness. The more people talk and discuss the better. I am grateful for Seafood Choices Alliance who creates the community to answer the tough questions, develop the right connections, and help raise awareness at this critical time of need.

Why do you work with Seafood Choices Alliance?
Because I can’t pretend to know everything about ocean conservation and neither can the next person. We need to do this together.

Posted June 11, 2007

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