Fair Fish SA program aims to connect local fishermen and their customers
THE new Fair Fish SA program aims to reduce the gap between port and plate by connecting fishermen with their customers. Simon Wilkinson heads out with one local hero and follows his catch from the time it leaves the water until it is served in one of Adelaide’s hottest restaurants the next day.
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THE pale light of an overcast dawn is barely enough to work with as Bart Butson slips his boat into the still, grey waters of Port Wakefield harbour.
It’s a ritual, fortunately, that he has down pat after a near-lifetime of fishing.
Bart’s boat isn’t much — just a simple tinny with no cabin and no machinery, so the net bundled neatly at the stern must be fed out and hauled back in by hand.
For anyone with a picture in their head of a ravenous, industrial-scale trawler, it’s quite a reality check.
Bart relies instead on an intimate relationship with his local patch, a feel for the tides, currents, birdlife and other signals that will tell him where and when to fish — knowledge passed down from his father and grandfather whose methods and equipment were virtually the same.
On a good day this could mean a haul of somewhere north of 100kg of seafood — perhaps garfish, whiting, squid, snook and tommies depending on the season — but there are no guarantees.
A fair go
Telling the stories of fishermen such as Bart, and building a direct connection between them and the home cook, is one of the main goals of a new community-based model for seafood delivery, Fair Fish SA.
A dozen small-scale fishing operations, covering a variety of regions and species, have been part of a pilot program over the past year that worked with chefs in some of our top restaurants, including Iberia, Chianti and the Summertown Aristologist.
The scheme is now open to the public, who can subscribe on the Fair Fish website and, starting from July 1, pick up a special box of freshly caught mixed seafood from Port Adelaide each Saturday morning. An app will be used to advise customers what seafood they will be getting, where and when it was caught, and to learn the story of the people who caught it.
“The beauty of a community supported fishery is that the supply chain is so transparent,” says Tom Consentino, from Wildcatch Fisheries SA, which is behind the project.
“And you can reduce the time considerably between when the fish is caught and when it ends up on the plate.”
Net gain
To show how the new system can deliver fresher seafood, and discover what it means to those involved, photographer Brad Fleet and I joined Bart for a day on the water, then followed some of his catch until it was served at Iberia the next day.
We meet at Port Wakefield’s ramp at 7am, where a few more of the town’s six net fishermen are also preparing to launch.
Bart and his son-in-law Shaun Martin load bags of ice into the chest, check their net is in order and throw in a bag with a flask of coffee before motoring out slowly past the mangroves crowded along either side of the channel. The day is icy but still and, with barely a ripple on the surface of the shallow Gulf waters, the weed swaying on the bottom is crystal clear.
Bart watches the movement of the tide and glances now
and then at the display on his echo-sounder but it hardly seems necessary.
When the boat reaches the right spot, Shaun undoes the ties on the net and throws out a buoy attached to the leading edge. Then, as Bart putters along a gently cured course, he feeds out the net, leaving a line of floats trailing behind.
The plan is the same as always. Make a large semicircle before slowly bringing the two ends together, hopefully trapping the fish inside the ring. The net is then hauled in, slowly shrinking the circle and forcing the catch into a small pocket where they can be scooped out easily.
The process can’t be rushed however — go too fast and gear will break or the fish escape — so, as he motors gently along, Bart tells his story.
FAMILY TIES
His grandfather came to Port Wakefield in the 1960s as a builder, saw the fishing boats by the water and decided on a change of career.
“My father followed in his footsteps and I followed him,” Bart explains. “I’ve been fishing for my whole life – since I was three years old. I used to skip kindy because I thought it was a bit boring. And essentially it has been the same type of operation for the past 50 years.”
What has changed, though, is how the seafood gets to the consumer. “When my grandfather fished, we used to sell from the boats down at the wharf,” Bart says. “Then markets developed in
Adelaide and interstate so fishermen would send their catch away from the community. And the public lost access to their fish somewhat. They weren’t the priority.
“Now, with Fair Fish, we are going back to the old. The fishermen are trying to reconnect. We are going to be sharing our story with the community, and our product with them. A product that is essentially theirs anyway.”
MIXED BAG
Bart hopes the process will help people understand that fishing, like farming, is both seasonal and regional. While his Port Wakefield patch is productive in winter, with favourites such as calamari, gar, whiting and tommy ruffs in the area, it is much quieter over summer.
“Because the water at the top of the gulf is shallow, it gets hot quickly and fish don’t want to live there,” he says. “I fish a bit but we slow it down, mend our nets, fix the boat.”
Summer, however, is the season when snapper will be caught further offshore, and other species move south.
A greater appreciation of the potential of less popular, secondary species could be another benefit, Bart says.
“We hope to broaden people’s horizons. The secondary species can be great. If you get them really fresh, they can be better than the prime species.”
CATCH OF THE DAY
The truth is that, while he can take an educated guess, Bart doesn’t really know what he has caught until he begins dipping into the “pocket” with a small, handheld net. While a few snook have been caught by their gills in the mesh, his scoop is filled each time by calamari and more calamari.
They are big beasts mostly, their torpedo-shaped bodies sleek, slippery and shining with iridescent greens and blues as they are transferred into plastic tubs, then into an ice chest. One particularly feisty fellow gives Bart a face full of ink and water.
The net is emptied and the catch estimated to be around 80kg of squid, which pleases the crew. It’s just before midday.
Gear is stowed, the boat cleaned and, as he heads back to port, Bart calls two of the chefs with whom he has developed a close relationship through Fair Fish .
KEEPING IT SIMPLE
Andrew Douglas, at Iberia, and Toby Gush, at Chianti, both put in an order for squid they know will be delivered the next day in superb nick.
“The idea of Bart calling me from the water and telling me what he’s got — it doesn’t get better than that,” Toby says.
“You can taste the difference in the simplest things. It’s like carrots from the farmers’ market as opposed to ones that have been in storage.
“With the calamari, we just grill it and serve with lemon, parsley and garlic. And everyone goes crazy for it.
Andrew agrees. “The biggest thing is the quality and freshness of seafood we get,” he says. “It is shortening the supply chain and the time taken to get the fish. And I like to give money straight to the guys who are doing the hard work.”
Andrew, who also takes the snook in his delivery, says he is happy to work with the sometimes random assortment of seafood he is supplied.
“You can’t always catch the same thing each day and we like the variety and talking to Bart and seeing what is good,” he says. “One of the reasons we started using these guys is to cut down the amount of bycatch being thrown away. We like to take it and turn it into something delicious.”
SPECIAL DELIVERY
Back on land, the procedure is simple. The boat is towed a few blocks to a shed, where the catch is weighed and packed with a plastic sheet keeping the ice from making direct contact.
It is then left in a cool room where it will be picked up by a delivery truck at about 3am.
From here it goes to SA Seafood Express at Torrensville where the chefs will pick up their consignment the next morning.
Andrew fillets the snook, rolls it with serrano ham and serve it in an escabeche-style sauce for lunch that day. The calamari is grilled and served with a chickpea puree, green olives and orange dressing.
“My love of fish has expanded exponentially since we started working with Fair Fish,” Andrew says.
It’s a sentiment Tom believes will be shared by home cooks who subscribe to the service.
“I think the story can get lost when you fillet a fish and put it behind glass in a supermarket cabinet,” he says.
“This is an alternative model. We’ve eliminated a barrier by … allowing people to engage directly with the fishermen.”
MEET THE FISHERS
Bart Butson
Port Wakefield
Bart Butson is a third generation fisherman using traditional net methods.
Dennis & Karen Holder
Port Adelaide
Dennis and Karen Holder have been part of the SA blue crab fishery for nearly 30 years, starting in Ceduna before moving to Adelaide.
Justin Cicolella
Port Wakefield
Besides being a local AFL hero, Justin is a fisher and family man based in Port Wakefield. He is a member of the third generation of Cicolella’s who have fished in the area.
Michael Pennington
Ardrossan
Michael fishes for South Australia’s iconic snapper, continuing a long family tradition on the Yorke Peninsula.
Ashley Perkins
Yorke Peninsula
Ashley’s speciality is the famed King George Whiting. He is obsessed with maintaining the high standard of his product.
Tracy & Glen Hill
Coorong
Tracy and Glen are phenomenal advocates for the protection of the environment in which
they operate.
Michael Fooks
Kangaroo Island
Mike’s family has been in seafood for over 50 years. He has spent his career in sectors including lobster, charter boat and marine scale fishing.
Craig Fletcher
Spencer Gulf
Craig is the SA Seafood Producer of the Year and brings in superb calamari from the Spencer Gulf.
Hugh Bayly
Coffin Bay
As a young surfing enthusiast, Hugh moved to the west coast in search of his next wave. He joined the fishing industry more than 40 years ago and now targets ocean jackets.
Justin Chenoweth
Port Lincoln
Justin grew up in Adelaide Hills before moving over to Port Lincoln where he now line fishes for nannygai.
Rod Mathews
Port Wakefield
The ocean’s call drew Rod to Port Wakefield where he has fished for 35 years. His sign on the highway is now local folklore.
Adam and Christy Barnes
Fisherman Bay
Adam nets for scalefish like silver whiting and gar and also has a licence for blue swimmer crab.
Subscribing to Fair Fish costs $22 a week for two serves of fish, whole or filleted.
Minimum sign-up of four deliveries spread over eight or 12 weeks.
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