Questions about buying sustainable seafood from i love blue sea

• Why we're different
• How does shipping work?
• What is my order shipped in?
• How do I store all this great stuff I just got?
• I'm local. Can I pickup my order?
• Why do I have to order two or three pounds of some items?
• Sustainable means...
• How do you ensure traceability in your inventory?
• I want to learn more...
• I'm not happy...
• What about Mercury?
• Carbon Monoxide. Wait, what??
• What is sashimi grade? Is it safe to eat raw seafood?
• What is the difference between fresh and frozen sushi/sashimi products?
• I still have questions...
• How about some cool links already?!
• Wow you guys really are cool! Has anybody noticed?
• Who took all the great product pictures?

Regardless of your location you should be able to enjoy ultra fresh seafood. How fresh? After shipping our seafood to you, the remainder goes to the top sushi restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, you should be able to choose from a wide selection – not just what the purchasing agent at your supermarket thinks is most popular or has the best profit margin. But most importantly, you can use your purchasing power to make a change. By purchasing sustainable seafood you are telling the industry that the health of the oceans are important to you and supporting those that are dedicated to being that change.

We fillet or pick your order and package it into all eco-friendly packaging materials right before it is shipped. Please see below for our shipping schedule.

Seafood products are very perishable. Since FedEx will deliver without someone present, we recommend that someone be available to receive shipments upon delivery, or shortly thereafter. If you are sending a gift to someone, please notify them when to expect the delivery. If no one is available, and the package is left unattended for an extended period of time, we cannot guarantee that the seafood will remain cold. Better yet, have it delivered to your office and not only will you have something cool to show off, we will also donate $2 to the Monterey Bay Aquarium!

We’ve spent countless hours looking for “green” packaging materials and everything we use is better than the industry standard. Even still, we are not perfect and are constantly looking for more environmentally friendly ways to do things, so if you know of better alternatives, please let us know!

Corrugated Boxes - Our brown boxes are 100% recyclable and our logo stamped onto the box is from a water-based ink. Please recycle according to your municipalities' guidelines.

Packing Peanuts - The packing peanuts we use are 100% recycled material. We always try to use the smallest box possible to reduce the number of peanuts necessary and so you don't have a house full of peanuts when you open your package!

Tape - The tape used to seal our boxes has a water-based adhesive. The adhesive is non-toxic. So feel free to lick it if you want! It is the most environmentally friendly commercial tape on the market. Although it's not recyclable, when a recyclable tape does come on the market, we'll be the first to buy it.

Gel Packs - The gel packs we use are reusable and non-toxic with a biodegradable gel. To reuse, either re-freeze or refrigerate to use on bumps and bruises or to keep food or drinks cool. Or, puncture the plastic, discard biodegradable gel into trash bag or outdoors, and recycle the #4 plastic accordingly to your municipalities' guidelines.

Silver Colored Insulated Liners - These insulators are made from 100% recycled materials. Keep it in the box to use as a cooler or to recycle these liners again, visit this link to find the nearest recycling center for this material.

After going to great lengths to find you the freshest seafood available, we want you to know how to keep it fresh! Most importantly, never let seafood stay unrefrigerated for long. Once you open your package, be sure to put everything in your refrigerator or freezer as soon as possible. You can stop here or if you really want to keep everything pristine, read on...

Refrigerating Fish...At the very least, place the fish in the coldest part of your refrigerator - usually the bottom crisper. If you want to really be a pro, check out this link that shows you how to easily make an awesome seafood storage container out of tupperware.

Refrigerating Shellfish... Since fresh shellfish need to remain alive until they are consumed, they cannot be stored in airtight containers or they will suffocate from a lack of oxygen. Place in the refrigerator and cover them with damp paper towels or another damp cloth to keep them from drying out.

Freezing Fish... If you plan on freezing for later use, fresh fish can be frozen for up to two months in a refrigerator freezer compartment and three to four months in a deep-freeze. To thaw, slowly place fish in pan, cover and leave for 24 hours in the refrigerator. To thaw more quickly, place the whole fish (in a watertight bag) in a sink with cool running water, allowing about 1/2 hour per pound.

Freezing Shellfish... An option for longer-term storage of fresh shellfish is to freeze them. While any seafood loses quality when frozen, this is still an acceptable way to store your oysters. Shuck (remove from shell) the oysters and immediately place them in a shallow waterproof container. Place the container full of oysters in a freezer with a temperature of no higher than zero degrees Fahrenheit. Remove the container from the freezer and allow the oysters to thaw in the refrigerator when you want to use them.

For even more tips... here’s a great link from Matt Wright.

For sure! We offer discounts for picking up in person at our warehouse on the corner of 18th and Illinois, so use coupon code welovelocals and swing by Saturday at 10 am. If that time doesn't work, just let us know and you can come by during the week. Still have questions? That's cool! Just contact us!

When a fish is filleted, there are two pieces, one for each side. For some of the larger fish, each fillet weighs two or three pounds. We have the minimum so you’re able to get the whole fillet and nothing is wasted! If it’s more than you would have ordered, split an order with coworkers or neighbors, invite some friends over to enjoy with you, make a few meals out of it over the course of a week or freeze some for later!

Lots of things to lots of people. To us it means that the population of the species is healthy, well managed and farmed or caught in an environmentally friendly way. We are constantly monitoring every product we sell to ensure that your purchase is supporting those fishermen that are responsible stewards of the sea. We follow the guidelines established by both the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Greenpeace.

Traceability is a huge problem in the seafood industry. Fraud and piracy are rampant, especially in the uncontrolled areas of the high seas. i love blue sea shares our customers’ concerns over this important issue, which is why we’re doing something about it.

First, we realize certain fisheries have higher levels of pirate involvement, and we refuse to offer products from these sources. For example, even though bigeye and yellowfin tunas can technically be sustainable if they come from certain areas and are caught in certain ways, there is such a high level of fraud that we do not sell these fish at all. We choose products where traceability is high and illegal catch is low or, even better, non-existent.

Beyond this, we package all of our seafood at our distribution warehouse so we can inspect the bill of lading, and we insist that our suppliers provide us with individually barcoded fish that can be traced back to their points of origin. This allows us to sell fish with as transparent a chain of custody as possible, not to mention a clean conscience. The foremost reason that we exist is to make it easy for everyone to buy sustainable seafood. i love blue sea aims to improve the seafood industry by directing pressure up the supply chain – we only deal with fisheries that are sustainable and ethical. Transparency remains a challenge, but we do our very best every day to give our customers what they want and deserve – honest fish from honest suppliers.

Right on! Explore what’s going on here and arm yourself with the knowledge to start making smart choices about our oceans. Knowledge is power!

Then we're not happy! We want this to be the way you get your seafood fix from now on. If something is not up to your demanding standards - please let us know! We will do everything in our power to turn that frown upside down.

Oceanic predators such as bluefin tuna, king mackerel, shark, marlin, and swordfish eat at the top of the food chain and live for a long time, thus accumulating high levels of mercury. These fish also tend to be severely over fished and will not be sold on this site. Eating sustainable seafood not only helps the sea recover but lowers your exposure to mercury.

To keep tuna lollipop-red, many vendors now treat the fish with carbon monoxide gas (also listed as tasteless smoke), meaning the fish could sit in your trunk for a year and still look fresh. Not only is this deceptive but it is dangerous to your health. While the FDA allows this practice, Japan, Canada and the EU have all banned it. But no worries, unlike many markets and restaurants - we will never sell fish that has been treated with CO.

Sashimi grade is a meaningless marketing term that does not mean seafood has been subjected to any guidelines or regulations. Our seafood is sushi quality. Sushi quality means the freshest seafood available to consumers, you! Our sustainable seafood is used in many of the best sushi restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area. Seafood you buy at most supermarkets can be a week or more old and often not always properly taken care of. In other words, not the kind of stuff you want to be eating raw (or at all, really)! Please remember that fresh seafood may only be safe to eat raw for up to 2 days after you receive it when properly stored. After that, unless 'danger' is your middle name, it's best to cook it before enjoying.

Believe it or not, usually more than half the sushi you get at your favorite restaurant is previously frozen. Properly frozen seafood is completely safe for raw consumption. Most of our frozen seafood is individually quick frozen at sea meaning when you thaw and eat, the fish will be hours old. We keep our frozen seafood in -20 degrees coolers until you order it. We then ship it with gel packs that let it gently thaw en route to you. Although it's okay to freeze our fresh seafood, we recommend not refreezing this, but enjoying within a week of arrival.

A philosopher once wrote, “No man really becomes a fool until he stops asking questions.” So ask away! Email or call us anytime of day (we may be out fishing, but we’ll get back to you).

• Great collection of recipes and resources for sustainable seafood by our friend Jacqueline Church
• Big list of sustainable seafood recipes

Thanks! A few people have. Read all about it...

• Sustainable Seafood Delivered: I Love Blue Sea Makes a Splash
• Portrait of a Gourmand – Martin Reed – i Love Blue Sea Sustainable Seafood
• Sustainable Sushi Pioneer, Casson Trenor, notices us!
• Mark Bittman writes about us in the New York Times!

The great ones were taken by Kenneth Muha. He's cool to work with and very skilled at getting the right shot. Check him out!