Catalina Offshore Products Mission Helps Harvest a Fishful Future
Dave Rudie with a haul of red sea urchins. Image courtesy of Catalina Offshore Products.
Bag in hand, Dave Rudie jumped into the waters off Catalina Island to pick sea urchins for the new Japanese sushi trade. He couldn’t have known that forty-five years later, his company Catalina Offshore Products would become one of Southern California’s premier seafood purveyors and a recognized industry leader.
As demand grew for uni – the edible, golden treasure found inside urchins – Dave turned his garage into a processing plant and delivered to sushi chefs throughout San Diego. Eventually, the operation moved to a warehouse and became one of the city’s first exporters of California uni. It may have remained the only product the company sold but the 1982-83 El Nino forced a change in course.
Cyclical El Nino weather events bring warmer-than-normal water temperatures across the central and east-central Equatorial Pacific. The warm water causes kelp to fail, leading to a cascade of problems for sea life, especially urchins, who starve without seaweed, their favorite food.
Without a steady source of premium uni, Catalina Offshore Products had to diversify. Today, the company sells local and regional seafood buying directly from boats whenever possible. The focus has grown on a wide range of responsibly harvested products from California; from local urchins, spot prawns and lobster to tuna, opah, and other pelagic species. Fish don’t know boundaries, but Catalina Offshore Products has reached across to Baja, Mexico, establishing relationships with small dayboat fishermen and co-ops to provide a steady supply of fresh Pacific yellowtail, snapper, grouper, and more.
By the 90’s, the company expanded from a strictly wholesale operation to offering online customers fresh overnight deliveries. In 2012, the walk-in fish market opened, anchoring the company’s longstanding reputation as a trusted source for high quality, affordable seafood.
Understanding the relationship of healthy oceans and well-managed fisheries, Rudie has long worked with fishing commissions, served on fisheries planning boards, and represents fishing processors in regulation negotiations. Dedicated to promoting sustainable, science-based ocean industries, the company’s commitment has influenced legislation to the benefit of fishermen and fisheries research, and conservation efforts, including the establishment of Marine Protected Areas. Catalina Offshore Products continues innovating in collaborative opportunities with science, fishing, processing, and culinary partners.
Tuna grading at the San Diego plant. Image courtesy of Catalina Offshore Products.
In 2019 the company teamed up with NOAA Fisheries, local fishermen and chefs to celebrate the full culinary potential of San Diego’s seafood. With opah as the star – an incidental catch with huge potential and serious under-utilization – Catalina Offshore Products is working to increase the fish’s value by expanding consumer’s seafood palates beyond the center cut fillet.
Catalina Offshore Products is excited to again partner with NOAA Fisheries on Fishful Future toward more complete use of locally caught tuna, while identifying new economic opportunities for San Diego’s fishing, processing and culinary industries.
Much has changed over four decades in business but some things remain true to Catalina Offshore Products’ humble origins – Dave Rudie still goes “searchin’ for urchin” every chance he gets and the company still processes local sea urchins by hand.
Resources
Visit Catalina Offshore Products in person at their San Diego location (5202 Lovelock St, San Diego), or online at www.catalinaop.com.
To learn more about opah and our collaborative efforts, explore this page.
