When David Jackson opens the door to the smoker at Whidbey Island Seafood Co., the aroma hits you like a wave, sweet and woodsy. Oceanic, but not fishy.
Jackson, the plant manager, loaded the smoker around 7 am after a salt cure—keta salmon on top, then trays of smoked sockeye in popular flavors, like dill and lemon pepper. And, of course, their salmon candy. The fish glows as heat intensifies the flavor and creates that distinctive flaky texture.
“It starts out in a cold smoke, then we turn it into a hot smoke once we can seal the juice into the fish,” says Jackson.
Brothers Andrew and Adam Hosmer run Whidbey Island Seafood out of this smokehouse and processing facility near the waters of Oak Harbor. When guests at Town & Country Markets buy a package of that hot smoked salmon, or a tub of smoked sablefish pâté, its deep flavors represent a family business with a delicious commitment to sustainability. Not to mention a visibility into each fish’s journey that’s almost unheard of in the seafood industry.
A Lifetime of Fish
The Hosmers grew up on water, and in a house where even the magazines and board games were all about fish. A youth spent sailing and sport fishing impressed upon them the importance of protecting the water and its fish populations. “You have to protect the resource so it’s there for future generations,” says Andrew.
Their father, Chuck, captained the fishing vessel Baranof. Andrew, then Adam eventually joined him, harvesting crab and sablefish from the frigid Bering Sea. It’s not an easy life. Crews are gone for months at a time, working 16-hour days in punishing cold.
The Baranof uses hook-and-line fishing methods, generally considered the most sustainable. Crews take tremendous care to prep and flash-freeze their catch within a handful of hours. When these measures happen at sea, “you lock in all that freshness,” says Adam. “It’s basically a fresh fish.”
That hard work and sacrifice often gets lost as seafood moves from boat to dock…to processing facility…to distributor to store shelves. During an off season at home, Andrew and Adam considered how to bring that same level of visibility to the next stages of a fish’s journey—the things that happen after it arrives at the dock.
Truly Traceable Seafood
In 2019, they launched Whidbey Island Seafood Company with a childhood friend, Devin Parrick. The Hosmers knew commercial fishing; Parrick knew how to build an e-commerce website. The business began by selling filets of astonishingly fresh salmon, cod, tuna, and rockfish filets direct to consumers online.
Between those personal relationships and a flotilla of recorded data, the Hosmers can trace their product back, in some cases, to the exact location, depth, even the weather on the day it was caught. By handling every subsequent stage of the supply chain they can tell you, right down to the person, who processed and packed each fish by hand, even the person who drove the delivery truck (which is often their mom).
“If we asked a boat to write “Town & Country” on a fish, we could probably deliver that exact fish to the store,” says Andrew. He’s only half kidding.
Whidbey Island Seafood sources from six fishing vessels, fellow family-run operations that “are trying to make a change in the industry” with their methods, says Andrew. In some cases, the product you buy might have been harvested by an actual Hosmer. Adam still spends five months a year fishing on the Baranof.
Two Family Businesses, One Approach to Sustainability
“There are so many layers to the seafood industry and how you get fish from the water, through the fisherman, all the way to the final consumer, it’s such a complicated web,” says Bill Liston, Town & Country’s Seafood Specialist. The Hosmer brothers’ approach echoes Town & Country’s own rigorous policies around sourcing from resilient, well-managed fish populations.
In 2022, Whidbey Island Seafood purchased a longstanding smokehouse and processing facility in Oak Harbor. This gave them a staff of three and the ability to launch a line of smoked seafood products. Adam remembers his excitement upon seeing his company’s smoked salmon in the cooler at Town & Country—and not just because he was a regular shopper at the Mill Creek Town Center location. As a commercial fisherman, he always notices a grocery store’s seafood section. “You had the live tanks, you had quality fish, and it always looked so good.”
“Town & Country is a family-owned business, and we love supporting other family-owned businesses,” says Heather Bolewicki, the T&C's Director of Meat & Seafood. “For the next generation of consumers, traceability and sustainability are huge. They’re willing to pay a little bit more for something they can feel good about buying.”
Reducing Waste Tastes Great (Even Dogs Agree)
It’s hard to believe something as delicious as Whidbey Island Seafood’s smoked salmon and smoked black cod pâté began as an effort to reduce waste. By scraping trim from the backbone, the staff can harvest about 5% more meat from each fish.
Fish carcasses have occasionally become fertilizer, but more often end up as crab bait. “People just come in, put their name on a list and we give ‘em a five-gallon bucket with the carcass bag,” says Adam.
Though the most ingenious form of waste prevention has to be the bits of trim that get baked into pet treats, ensuring canine companions get their share of quality wild-caught omega-3s. The treats are tested and approved by Andrew’s rescue dogs Grander and Roo and Adam’s rescue sheepdog mix, Rigger. The brothers adopted Roo and Rigger from the same litter, proving this is a family business on every level.