Today's Catch. Facebook to Table.
HOW MARSHFIELD FATHER AND DAUGHTER DUO, KERIN AND KEN ROTH ARE BRINGING SEAFOOD—FACEBOOK TO TABLE
BY ALYSSA QUACKENBUSH
Photo Credit: South Shore Direct Source Seafood
One typical March day at sea for New Bedford based commercial fisherman Doug Durr came to an unusual--and frightening--conclusion; the crew had 500 fresh lobsters and nowhere to sell them.
Earlier on, after Doug and his crew had already set out for the day, Governor Baker had made the official announcement that all restaurants were to be temporarily closed due to Coronavirus concerns. The state was facing a serious shutdown. Unknowing, the crew carried on their day’s work, only to return to shore and discover that there was nobody to buy their catches.
Doug’s nephew, Troy, who works in real estate but cares deeply about fishing, put up a post on Facebook in an attempt to get some of those fresh lobsters sold to friends and family. To their surprise, the post was shared nearly 200 times and Troy and Doug began receiving hundreds of messages from people asking for lobsters. The demand had gotten so crazy in such a short amount of time that Troy was finding it logistically difficult to respond to all of these people by himself. They needed a bigger platform.
So Troy established a Facebook group called, South Coast Direct Source Seafood. There, he hoped to be able to publicize and promote the fishermen’s catches to a larger audience. An idea that has been thrown around for a few years but had not yet come to fruition, the pandemic seemed to be the perfect time to get the group started. It was a near-immediate success and gained far more traction than Troy had imagined. Doug and Troy figured that if they could get about 3,000 members, it could be a sustainable marketplace for fresh, local seafood even after restaurants started opening back up and the virus had passed. By the third weekend, over 10,000 people had joined the group.
Over the past few decades, the seafood industry’s supply chain has expanded beyond reason. Instead of a direct ocean-to-table, locally driven industry, as it was back in the day, increasingly more middlemen have been included in the process. This means lower profit margins for the hardworking fishermen, higher retail prices for the consumer, a worsened environmental impact, and “fresh” fish that isn’t fresh at all after being flash-frozen and shipped all across the world before hitting your dinner plate. Troy estimates that even in a coastal town with such a booming seafood industry, about 70% of what is caught here gets exported, and about 70% of what we eat is imported from other places. The solution is simple: get back to the basics. Buy directly from the fishermen.
By creating this sustainable marketplace for fresh, local seafood that’s simultaneously supporting the local fishermen who catch them and providing locals and tourists with high-quality fish, the Facebook group is reimagining--or rather reinvigorating--the traditional ways in which we consume seafood.
KERIN AND KEN ROTH FACEBOOK PAGE, SOUTH SHORE DIRECT SOURCE SEAFOOD GROUP
Only a few months in, the South Coast Direct Source Seafood group on Facebook has garnered over 50,000 members. They've gone from helping Doug’s boat to helping five boats sell their catches and they only hope to expand further. People have reached out to Troy for help in their communities all over the place, from Cape Cod to New York.
When Ken Roth, who has been fishing out of the Marshfield Town Pier for 22 years and counting, approached Troy about starting a similar group for the South Shore, Troy was certain that Ken had the right intentions to run the group in a way that would best serve our local fishermen and communities. They worked together with the help of Ken's daughter Kerin to create a South Shore Direct Source Seafood group.
PHOTO CREDIT: KATE M SCHREIBER, FACEBOOK POST
With nearly 3,000 members, Roth’s FaceBook Group, South Shore Direct Source Seafood has also been a wild success. Kerin, a student at UNH, additionally works two jobs as well as handling the demand of moderating as Admin of the the group. Kerin says she has been impressed by how quickly it’s taken off; “Seeing how excited people are when they get their catch makes it all worth it!”
These groups fulfill fresh marketplace ideals of the past, which seems to be something that's been missing in this community and other coastal communities for some time. Troy recalls that at the beginning of the shutdowns they had a first-come-first-serve system for the lobster pick-up. The average wait was about an hour and a half, and people were happy to wait that long for the high-quality fresh seafood they were receiving and to help out the local coastal economy and the livelihoods of the fishermen. As everything progressed and order forms and pick-up times became available, lines got significantly shorter, but the joy and appreciation the customers have for their fresh lobster remains.
Your local fishermen and lobstermen work harder than anyone outside of the industry could imagine, and keeping everything fresh and local is a direct way to support them that benefits entire communities like Marshfield.
Support local--your fishermen (and your taste buds) will thank you.