Finding the Freshest Local Catch at Tuna Harbor Dockside Market
BY Kay Ledger
February 8, 2021
Attractions
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Get closer to your food source Saturdays from 8am until 1pm at the Port of San Diego.
FISHERMAN SPOTLIGHT
Fisherman Tristan Hayman is first mate on the fishing vessel Bigfoot. He and Captain Randy Hupp catch deepwater rockfish using rod and reel for the EcoLeeser booth. Hayman became a commercial fisherman four years ago “to pay for my fishing habit,” he says.
Jenn Sablan’s popular Island Life Foods offers uni, briny lobes of the sea urchin. She buys the urchins from local divers, cracks and cleans them, then slips the raw uni back into the shell. Also for sale is tuna poke marinated Hawaiian-style, or in a spicy sauce. “It’s all about the taste of the fish,” Sablan says.
VENDOR SPOTLIGHT
Family-owned Saraspe Seafoods specializes in lobster and spot prawns when in season. They also catch crab and fish such as bonito and ocean whitefish. Sarah Saraspe says seafood that was swimming in the water yesterday offers better quality.
“The fish here is so fresh it’s still wriggling,” said a man to a passerby as he waited for the Tuna Harbor Dockside Market to open. The market, featuring seafood caught by local fishing boats, is held on the dock behind Seaport Village on Saturdays from 8am to 1pm.
Kay Ledger
Kay Ledger studied writing at UCSD and poured plenty of hot jam on the floor as a jam kitchen intern while earning her culinary arts degree at Grossmont College.
FISHERMAN SPOTLIGHT
Fisherman Tristan Hayman is first mate on the fishing vessel Bigfoot. He and Captain Randy Hupp catch deepwater rockfish using rod and reel for the EcoLeeser booth. Hayman became a commercial fisherman four years ago “to pay for my fishing habit,” he says.
“The fish here is so fresh it’s still wriggling,” said a man to a passerby as he waited for the Tuna Harbor Dockside Market to open. The market, which features seafood caught by local fishing boats, is located on the dock behind Seaport Village on Saturdays from 8am to 1pm.
