Wild seafood quality is mostly a race against time and temperature — and it’s won or lost across a chain of hands, from the boat to the dock to the line to the truck. Our piece of that chain runs on one idea: take the fish in fast, keep it cold, and move it through without wasting a minute.

Quality starts before the fish reaches us

A plant can’t undo rough handling at sea. How the fish was bled, chilled, and iced onboard, how long the run in was, how it was stowed — that’s set before a boat ever ties up at our dock. That’s why we talk with fishermen and tenders about handling and timing before a landing. Once the fish is on our dock, our job is to keep it cold and move it right.

Why being on the Spit matters

We’re at 800 Fish Dock Rd, right on the working waterfront — boats land at the facility with no extra truck move between dock and line. That removes a delay most plants can’t avoid, and it lets us stage the crew and line around a boat’s arrival. Location only helps if you’re ready for it, though: crew, ice, totes, packaging, and cold storage all set before the fish comes off.

What happens when a boat lands

Every landing’s different, but a good offload runs the same way:

Plan. Before the boat ties up, we confirm timing, species, and rough volume, and stage the crew and line.
Offload. Fish comes out of the hold and into receiving. A good-sized sockeye tender load — around 35,000 lb — comes off in a matter of hours. Orderly beats fast: keep it moving, handle it as little as possible, keep it cold.
Receive & grade. Fish is checked and graded — size, condition, temperature — with sockeye and halibut each handled their own way.
Process. Through the line by species: dressing, cutting, cleaning, grading.
Chill & pack. Kept cold throughout, packed to spec (fresh or frozen), labeled for traceability, and into cold storage or onto the truck.

When the volume or the spec makes it tight, protecting the fish beats chasing the clock.

Held to real standards

Our Homer plant is registered with the FDA and holds MSC Chain of Custody certification — one of the most rigorous, widely recognized standards for traceable, sustainable seafood, keeping certified fish accounted for all the way through the chain. Downstream, the wider 7 Seas operation runs a CFIA-licensed, SQF-certified processing plant in Richmond, BC, with consistently strong third-party audit scores. Certification sets the bar; quality still comes down to trained people doing it right on every landing.

What it means for buyers

You don’t see the offload — you see the box when it arrives. Disciplined handling helps protect receiving condition, appearance and texture, usable yield, and remaining shelf life, and keeps things consistent order to order. Nobody makes every wild fish identical — our job is to control what we can and not waste the quality the fishermen brought in.

Want fish handled this way? Send a wholesale inquiry → and a 7 Seas rep will follow up.