Author: Mildred Bell

A few towns north, fishing boats idle back into harbor at the same hour that tourists are still eating breakfast, and there is a section of the Oregon Coast where the fog never quite lifts before noon. The majority of drivers on Highway 101 completely overlook it. They are observing the lighthouse signs, the haystack rocks, and the overlooks. They’re not paying attention to the weathered dock, the hand-painted bait shop sign, or the diesel and brine odor that indicates something genuine is going on here. One of those locations is Port Orford. It is, to put it simply, a…

It’s possible that the shrimp on your plate originated in a Vietnamese pond, traveled through a Chinese processing plant, arrived at a port in California, and ended up on a New Orleans restaurant menu labeled “locally sourced Gulf shrimp.” Technically, no one lied, or at least that’s what the law permits them to assert. The unsettling truth at the core of American seafood labeling is that. The industry has long been aware of a loophole that allows imported seafood to be processed alongside domestic catch, combined into a single batch, and then sold to customers under labels suggesting local origin.…

There’s a subtle trend in how people eat, not so much in restaurants as in home kitchens, lunch desks, and the kinds of meals that people take pictures of before finishing them. bowls of seafood. They’re appearing everywhere, and to be honest, it’s difficult to ignore why. For years, registered dietitians and gut health specialists have been encouraging people to eat seafood, and lately, the science has begun to catch up with the enthusiasm. Eating at least two servings of seafood per week offers quantifiable, significant health benefits, according to a thorough review of more than ten thousand studies conducted…

One area of Market at 25th has a distinct scent from the others. You’ll find it if you walk past the bakery case, the produce stacks, and a few neighbors chatting about nothing urgent while leaning against something. Forrest Spaits, the owner of East End Fish Co., a 400-square-foot fish counter, appears to have quietly decided that Church Hill needed real fish and then just went ahead and made it happen. Most mornings, before the lunch crowd even considers coming, he’s sold out. It’s worth taking a moment to consider that detail alone. Spaits is not a veteran of the…

When you’re scanning your options for food while strolling through an airport terminal, a certain kind of resignation sets in. A sandwich shop chain. You know the name of the burger stand, but you’ve never been thrilled about it. Perhaps a bar with heat lamps serving nachos. The majority of people simply eat whatever is closest to their gate without giving it much thought. That’s the way airports operate, or at least how they used to. At T.F. Green International Airport in Rhode Island, something is changing, and it has a distinct fresh seafood scent. On April 28, Spring House…

A satisfying bowl of clam chowder has an almost combative quality. It comes thick or thin, cream-white or tomato-red, and someone at the table has already sworn allegiance before you’ve even lifted your spoon. For example, chicken noodle soup doesn’t have the same weight as this dish. It feels more like resolving a minor cultural dispute that has been simmering since the 1800s than it does like a cooking exercise to rank ten clam chowder recipes. Let’s start at the bottom: simple condensed can chowder with extra cream. It’s not particularly bad, but it tastes more like someone’s recollection of…

Some dishes seem almost too easy to write about. A dish you pass by on a menu, ignore at the grocery store, or perhaps vaguely remember from a depressing office lunch or your grandparents’ kitchen. For many, that dish is smoked mackerel pate. And that’s a real shame because, when done right, it’s one of the most satisfying, punchy, and captivating things you can put on a table for almost nothing. This dish, dressed up with sourdough soldiers and a small pot of cornichons and priced between nine and fourteen pounds, is probably on the starter menu of any half-decent…

There’s a particular sound that hits you before you even see the counter at Pike Place Fish Market — the shout of an order, then the echo of three or four voices repeating it back, then a wet thud as a salmon lands in someone’s waiting arms. It’s been that way since 1986, when a near-bankrupt fish stall reinvented itself as performance art. So when word started circulating that Seattle’s most famous market was entering a new expansion phase, the first question on everyone’s mind, fairly or not, was whether the fish would keep flying. They will. That much seems…

When a regulation is still two years away, an industry experiences a certain kind of denial. It seems far away. Controllable. Until it isn’t, it is someone else’s problem. That’s about where the majority of American seafood suppliers appear to be at the moment due to the European Union’s Forced Labor Regulation, which comes with something more direct than tariffs or quotas: a complete prohibition on selling anything in the EU that was produced, even partially, using forced labor. On December 14, 2027, the regulation will go into full force. It sounds like a lengthy runway. When you take into…

When you inquire about seafood labeling regulations, coastal communities exhibit a certain optimism that falls somewhere between resignation and unwavering hope. It’s easy to see why when you stand on a dock in Biloxi and watch boats arrive loaded with Gulf shrimp. The current state of federal law largely permits the people transporting those nets to compete with frozen imports that are labeled however the seller pleases. Last year, Mississippi approved its own fix. Restaurants and supermarkets were required by House Bill 602 to label seafood as “Domestic” or “Imported,” with actual fines ranging from $500 for a first offense…