Skipper Otto's Community Supported Fishery

Skipper Otto's Community Supported Fishery (CSF) creates a direct connection between local fishermen and consumers with the joint goal of protecting ocean resources and improving our local food system.

The CSF model ensures that independent, small-scale harvesters can continue to fish using the low impact practices their fathers and grandfathers used before them and still remain in an industry that is rapidly becoming dominated by big business and aquaculture.

CSF members buy in at the beginning of the season and receive a share of premium, wild, local, and sustainably caught seafood. Members have boat-to-fork transparency, knowing how, when, where and who caught their fish.

Our primary fisherman, Otto Strobel, has been fishing the British Columbia coast since the 1960s. Since that time the number of independent fishermen like him has been reduced to a skeleton fleet. Skipper OttoA?¯A?¿A?½s CSF was started by OttoA?¯A?¿A?½s son and daughter-in-law (Shaun and Sonia Strobel) to make it possible for Otto and a few of the hold-out independents to remain fishing. Skipper OttoA?¯A?¿A?½s CSF was the first CSF in Canada, and the second in the world.

The CSF has now grown to support 20 fishermen and to offer halibut, tuna, spot prawns, and crab, as well as a large variety of salmon fillets and smoked/canned items.