Sea to Table, a Family's Direct Line from Sustainable Fisheries

Chefs in St. Louis like him because they can serve fresh Mahi-Mahi just 24 hours out of the water. A single-boat fisherman in the Bering Sea likes him because he now has a national market and increased revenue. FedEx likes him because they have a contract to use gel ice and time/temperature indicators to deliver perishable goods from Tobago to restaurants all over the United States. He’s also a proactive member of the newly-formed Common Spaces cooperative workspace in Brooklyn, quick with a beer run or pizza order. So if anyone’s keeping track, there are many reasons to like Sean Dimin, co-founder of possibly the only direct-ship fish distribution company dealing exclusively with sustainable fisheries.

A local fisherman named 'Boogeyman' off the island of Tobago.

Sean’s business, Sea To Table, runs three distinct initiatives—Tobago Wild, Alaska Wild, and Dixie Wild—each committed to connecting independent fishermen and fishing communities with an expanded market within the United States. To a large extent, these are fishermen working with techniques that are intrinsic parts of their cultures and predate any international fishing industry. Methods by which families have fed themselves since the beginning of their civilization, developed to sustain only their small communities without disturbing natural marine populations and environments. While this limits Sea To Table’s transactions, it makes each one far more valuable.

As demand increases, Sean will begin to look for new offerings, rather than tamper with the delicate and traditional fishing methods his sources employ. With a culture closely tied to fishing and the health of the seas, Alaska was a natural place to turn, after first opening in the warm waters of Tobago. Most recently he’s expanded to offer wild crab and shellfish from the American South. To ensure they’re offering what’s best for the sea, as well as for their customers, Sea to Table partners with Blue Ocean Institute, a conservation organization created to inspire a closer bond with the sea and translating scientific information into language people can understand.

Sea To Table was actually dreamed up while Sean was still too young to know much more about the world other than that his dad liked to take crazy vacations, as far as his frequent flyer miles would take him. One such family trip found Michael Dimin, then a plastics manufacturer, and his tribe in Tobago, a tiny island at the end of the West Indian archipelago off the coast of Venezuela. The local fishermen there head out each day in wide, low, solo boats, and hand-line their daily catch. After witnessing his kids return from an afternoon trying their hand at the work, and returning alongside the locals with more Red Snapper than could be sold within their tiny island marketplace, Michael thought about the restaurants at home that would salivate at the chance of access to this bounty. It would be ten years before he and his boys would return to set up their first HACCP-certified processing facility in Tobago, relaying the day’s catch and filling orders from as far away as New England and California.

Though the business has, at times, included both his father and an older brother, Sean is currently the daily contact for both ends of his network, the fishermen and the chefs. Several times a week, Sea to Table sends out an Evening Fish Report, which basically acts as a menu for restaurants nation-wide who sign up for the newsletter. At that point it is basically first-come-first-served for the overnight direct delivery of the impossibly fresh catch. It’s Sean’s job to keep the fish flowing out, the money flowing back to the fishermen, and make sure everyone’s happy along the way. While he does take special care of some of his 4-Star chefs, with an early heads up about a particularly stunning catch or making sure a standing order can be filled, Sean’s day is filled with calls to buyers of all stripes, making sure they received their order quickly and were happy with its quality and freshness.

With a food chain spanning wide in either direction, and a business that separates itself from traditional industries, Sea To Table could almost be managed anywhere in the world. Wanting to remain close to his first customers in New York, as well as his home in Brooklyn, Sean has found an office distinguished more by its tenants’ principles than their business models. Common Spaces is an open floor-plan office space carved out of reclaimed desks, salvaged kitchen parts, and vintage chairs, and home to a dozen small sustainable businesses like Sea to Table. Whether connecting consumers directly to food and farmers, like Sean, or filmmakers to movie-goers, running international youth and education programs, or designing urban green-roofs, the Common Spaces office is a hot-bed of socially and environmentally responsible enterprise. In being an official cooperative, each member company contributes per their skillset to keep the space functioning smoothly. Highly attune to the financial resources passing directly from chef to fisherman in his work, Sean is one of the members responsible for keeping Common Spaces books in the black as well.

His corner desk at Common Spaces is important to a business like Sea to Table for many reasons, as it offers supportive “co-workers” (without increasing payroll), dedicated secure workspace (unlike a kitchen table), and most importantly, credibility and validation of his professionalism and dedication to his suppliers and customers. When your business is designed to support communities thousands of miles away, contributing to a community of one’s own seems to be just as important.