Eat the Fish enters new business waters due to pandemic

Like many people in northwestern Ontario, Paul Drombolis grew up loving fish and fishing.

He says as a young man he chased brook trout and steelhead in local streams and rivers around Thunder Bay. He fell in love with the area and the fish. Although it started out as simply as a fever for angling, as he grew older, Drombolis wanted to make a career out of fish. 

Then, one day, that dream began to grow into an idea. 

"It was an idea that kind of sprung up between myself and a friend while we were out actually camping and fishing," Drombolis said. "And we kind of thought, 'you know, why isn't there an easy way for people to connect with fishermen that want to sell their catch locally?' So we created this idea to bring more fish to the Thunder Bay Country market."

Drombolis said the name Eat the Fish came from the desire to teach local people about the different species of fish that commercial fishermen harvest and sell. And they wanted to promote seeing people eating more of that local fish.

In 2018, Eat the Fish launched an began selling mostly locally harvested fish including whitefish, lake trout and walleye. Two fishermen from Nunavut were also brought on and supplied Arctic char. Business was good and growing.

Then, in March of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was declared. The Eat the Fish business plan was dealt a major blow.

"The impact was pretty great because we were selling fresh fish into restaurants," said Drombolis. "We had tremendous support from restaurants like the Tomlin and Bight and they would run fish steady on their menu. And then overnight, those restaurants were forced to shift their operations greatly or close entirely, So, we lost those customers."

Drombolis said the loss of the restaurants cost Eat the Fish close to half of of its annual business. And then, because of the pandemic, regular customers weren't able shop in the same way at the country markets. So, that traffic was down as well.

 Drombolis said it was time to rethink how they were going to connect with people.

"We're hoping to shift towards what's known as a community supported fishery," said Drombolis. "So this will allow customers an opportunity to — at the beginning of the season — purchase a package from us that will ensure they have access to a portion of a fisherman's catch. So they'll be able to say, 'you know,I want 10 pounds of whitefish each month' and they will be able to subscribe to a plan that will give them the opportunity to do that."

Drombolis said this system not only guarantees the customer fish, it takes some of the guess work out knowing how much fish to bring in. He said it also allows Eat the Fish an opportunity to work with the small and medium sized fishermen that want to make sure that they have a consistent market for their fish.

"Now we'll know we definitely have customers at the beginning of the season," said Drombolis. "And then it's just a matter of filling those orders throughout the fishing season." .

Drombolis said he hopes the new Community Supported Fisheries model for Eat the Fish will be launched by late March.