I've worked in Maine fisheries for most of my life, and since 2011 I've been running Downeast Dayboat, a Direct to Consumer seafood business specializing in Maine scallops. I drive up and down the coast of Maine to collect my products, and I'll never forget the day a Sorrento scallop fisherman's eyes lit up when he saw crabmeat in the back of my van.  Maine crabmeat is his favorite seafood (mine too!) but despite living in a fishing village on the coast of Maine, he couldn't find it locally. Earlier that day, a passerby, seeing the seafood logo on my van, called me over to ask if I could sell him some clams.  This was in Port Clyde Maine, the center of a thriving soft shell clam industry.  And I had to ask myself: why can't these people in the very center of Maine seafood production buy great seafood locally?

The answer is that the US distribution system no longer meets the needs of today's consumers.  It's designed to move quantity quickly, which means funneling seafood from far flung places to central warehouses from which it can then be distributed through multiple channels.  Large scale efficiency often comes at the expense of quality, and it also limits distribution to some of the very places you'd think would have the easiest access (like Maine fishing villages).  This system works fine if you have low expectations (think crab sticks, shrink wrapped farmed salmon and frozen fish sticks) but today's consumers expect more. 

I launched Downeast Dayboat to help show Americans what scallops are supposed to taste like: by shipping directly to peoples' homes within 24 hours of harvest, I can offer scallops of a quality unavailable anywhere else. And I now offer other premium Maine products.  But shipping individual packages directly to people's homes comes at a cost: packaging and shipping costs often exceed the cost of he seafood itself. 

So I was thrilled when I learned about Skipper Otto, a British Columbia company whose founder Sonia Strobel pioneered an innovative way to distribute top quality seafood across Canada.  By combining a membership model, online sales and community partners for local pickups, she was able to translate the sizable chunk of each sale that would otherwise go to air transport into lower costs to consumers and better prices for fishermen.  Getting membership dollars up front allows Sonia to purchase, package and freeze seafood at the optimum time each season. Customers then use their membership dollars to purchase seafood for pickup at community partners in their neighborhood. Rather than air shipping individual boxes, Skipper Otto places multiple orders for each location into boxes to be transported via low-cost reefer trucking services.  And by offering pickups once a month, customers are able to make larger purchases at lower cost and they always have premium frozen seafood on hand.  

I wanted to do something similar in the US.  So in 2023 I applied for and received a grant from the Department of Agriculture's Local Food Promotion Program to launch Dayboat Blue.  You might wonder why I needed grant funds to do this: if it's such a successful model, wouldn't it just support itself?  The answer is that it often does take money to make money: I've bootstrapped Downeast Dayboat for 13 years and it's still a struggle, because the vast majority of Americans don't know seafood of this quality exists.  Nowadays people find their sources online, and Social Media and Google Ads  cost money (newsflash: the first few companies that come up when you search for "premium seafood near me" likely paid for their positions). Sure, I offer the very best seafood available anywhere, great service and a great mission/story, but that doesn't matter if no one knows I exist.  Companies with investor-backed ads claiming sustainability, mission and flavor, even if they're empty promises, are going to appear well above me in searches. And that's a shame, since my mission is to get fishermen better prices while getting consumers better seafood, so there's significant public benefit if my company grows. 

So grant funds were critical to hiring a project director, establishing the website, launching and most importantly, promoting the program.  To get these funds, I submit reimbursement requests for agreed-upon expenditures at the end of each month, and then the Department of Agriculture reimburses me for 75% of these expenses. We launched the program in December 2024 and were just starting to promote it when I received some surprising news: After multiple unanswered inquiries into the status of the program, I was told last week that only those costs incurred on or before January 19th 2025 were being processed - never mind the contract that states otherwise. This means roughly $30,000 I've already spent and was expecting to be reimbursed for immediately is currently in limbo.  I don't know when or even if I'll receive it, and I don't know if I'll receive any of the contractually-agreed-upon funds I'd counted on to promote Dayboat Blue.

Needless to say, this is a stressful situation.  I've been able to borrow from my retired school teacher mother and I'm happy to say some of the regular customers from the bar I worked at until recently have also helped me out so I don't have to lay off my employees (yet).  It's still stressful, but I'm going to turn a negative into a positive: I'd planned to launch Dayboat Blue in a few northeastern locations and then gradually expand nationwide.  But in a stroke of good luck, Skipper Otto is about to offer home deliveries, and since Dayboat Blue uses the same software, we can do that too.  We're now accepting memberships from all 48 contiguous US states.  The goal is to get as many members as possible by mid April, then set up community partners in the areas they're most needed.  If we're not able to establish a community partner within a convenient location of all members, I can offer buying clubs where one member agrees to be a pickup location in exchange for a discount, or we can ship directly to people's homes with a larger minimum order size.  These shipments will still be less expensive than what I can offer through Downeast Dayboat because frozen seafood can be shipped via 2-day transport through most of the US and we're going to be able to ship multiple orders at once in most cases.  Shipments will begin in May.

This isn't exactly how I wanted to expand nationwide: I was hoping to use the agreed-upon grant funds to promote the program throughout the US.  But I don't have a  billionaire friend to support my outreach efforts, so I'm relying on the fact that I truly do have the best seafood available anywhere, and I've got Downeast Dayboat customers who know that and who might be willing to tell their friends about this new program. By focusing on frozen seafood and working with community partners, I can get it into peoples' hands far less expensively than what folks are used to.

If you're skeptical about frozen seafood, I would urge you to try what I have to offer.  You can sign up for as little as $100 and I guarantee once you try what I have to offer you'll be won over by the quality of the seafood as much as by the convenience (not to mention the price).

I'm disappointed that my small business has been forced to confront the uncertainty and financial strain of the halt and possible cancelation of funding for my new program.  But I want to revolutionize seafood distribution in the US, and I'm someone whose word you can count on.  When I tell you that Dayboat Blue will deliver ultra-premium seafood at affordable prices, you can put your money on it.

Any questions?  Feel free to write me at togue@downeastdayboat.com with Dayboat Blue in the subject line.  This funding uncertainty (aka breach of contract) has required me and my project manager Louisa (center) and ops manager Carli (on the right) to do some quick thinking, but we're committed to this project, and we can't wait to show you what seafood is supposed to taste like.