About Us

About Sammy's Seafood

Sammy's Seafood Inc. is a fresh seafood purveyor in Southwest Florida, founded in 2002.

SAMMY’S SEAFOOD is a local wholesale seafood distributor in St. Petersburg, Florida founded in 2002 by a husband and wife team who both hold Masters degrees in Marine Science and Aquaculture. Sammy’s Seafood’s focus is to support our clients with the best seafood products and service in the Bay and become a necessary part of their kitchens-commercial and residential.

Sammy’s strives to be different in seafood procurement by supporting the local industry and focusing on all things fresh from local boats and captains to local farms and farmers, to fresh frog legs from Lake Okeechobee and seaweed and drum from Mote Marine Lab.

Our Mission

Sammy’s Seafood believes in preserving the marine environment and the seafood industry for future generations, and agrees with the standards set by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program. Sammy’s uses seafood that has been harvested using the best management practices in an effort to maintain and sustain our oceans, fish stocks, and reduce overfishing for long-term socio-economic benefits. Sammy’s strives to serve to deliver the best seafood and service so our clients won’t want to go anywhere else.

Our History

SAMMYS SEAFOOD started over 20 years ago by Katie and Emilio Sosa in St. Petersburg, FL With a MASTERS in Marine Science and a Masters in Aquaculture between them. Sammy’s was started out of a mutual love and respect for all things marine related.

Sammys seafood are certified dealers in the state of Florida and holds quota in both grouper and snapper for our boats and captains in the Gulf.

Sammys strives to be different in the seafood industry by highlighting and supporting our locally owned and operated businesses from captains to farmers to help support our local community and the seafood industry in Florida. We strive to pay attention to quality, service, sourcing and educating all our end users on the choices being made when ordering seafood and how those choices affect the community around us. From Monterey Bay Aquarium Seawatch partnerships and our own personal TRACE program, Sammy’s Sustainability Commitment is to help better preserve the marine environment and seafood industry for our future generations, by the choices we make now.

Sammys local sourcing and methods of catch are listed below and captured in our personal TRACE program. TRACE is a tableside tool for end users to see where, how and from whom their local catch arrived.

Local Sourcing of Seafood in Tampa Bay

Grouper

GROUPER rules the market in seafood sales in the TAMPA BAY AREA. Tampa Bay IS the GROUPER capital of the world. With tourism growing each year, Florida has been working hard to preserve the industries that support the tourism trade- FISHING!

Marine Management Decisions

For years, local fishermen have caught as much grouper out of the local waters as they wanted. There was only a shallow water grouper closure in the SUMMER MONTHS (June 1st-Sept 1st) and again during shallow water reproduction (Feb1st-April 1st). Over time however, modern fishing methods has required stronger sanctions to protect the local populations.

IFQs

Individual fish quotas was implemented in 2007 for the grouper, snapper, tilefish program. This was implemented by the government to further protect the populations as the closures were not proving effective enough. Mexico continues to follow the closure in FEB but does not follow a quota system. The IFQ system distributes yearly allotments (QUOTA) to local fishermen and wholesalers, or whomever bought into the system.

QUOTA System

Sammy’s Seafood invested in the QUOTA system and has been able to supply their captains and boats with the QUOITA, BAIT and ICE to fish. Sammys has worked for years developing relationships with our local Captains and boats. To source directly from Captains and boats in the Florida wholesale industry, you are required to be a certified Florida DEALER. Sammys is a registered and certified Florida wholesale dealer in the State of Florida (#8174). As a certified dealer, you assist the state of Florida on all transactional data of fish through a trip ticket program. This data helps navigate the fish populations, health and biomass and therefore assist in the setting of catch limits and closures to help keep the populations thriving.

The Marine Fisheries Trip Ticket Program

Commercial fisheries landings and fishing effort data have been collected by the state of Florida since November 1984. Florida law (Chapter 379.362(6), and Administrative Code 68E-5.002) requires that all sales of seafood products from the waters of Florida must be reported on a Marine Fisheries Trip Ticket at the time of sale. Trip tickets include information about the harvester, the dealer purchasing the product, the date of the transaction, the county in which the species was landed, time fished, and pounds of each species landed for each trip. Tickets can be tracked and submitted digitally to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. All records are confidential and exempt from the Open Records Act (Florida Statutes, Chapter 119) by F.S. 379.362(6).

The Individual Fish Quota Program

On July 2, 2009, NOAA Fisheries Service approved Amendment 29 addressing new commercial regulations for Gulf of Mexico reef fish. The rule establishes a grouper and tilefish IFQ program for commercial fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Grouper and Tilefish IFQ Program

The grouper and tilefish IFQ program was created to address overcapitalization of the grouper and tilefish fleet. The IFQ program divides grouper and tilefish quotas among commercial fishermen. IFQ shares are the percent of the quotas assigned to each fisherman. Allocation is the pounds of fish each fisherman has the opportunity to harvest each year.

IFQ share or allocation holders will be responsible for cost recovery fees and IFQ dealers will be responsible for fee collection and submission on a quarterly basis.

TRACE™ Program at Sammy's

In addition to the quota system, closures, and seasonal restraints, SAMMYS has created their own internal system for illuminating to their end users, the ability to access information, from a password protected portal, on their seafood catch. Trip tickets are required to be processed on all catches made out of the local waters so scientists and regulators can track the movement of the fish, and get their fees covered. In this way, all the captain, depth and species information shared with the state is made available to SAMMYS end users as well. Something that can be done on a cell phone tableside.

Methods of Catch in Tampa Bay Area

Spear Fisherman

Spear caught fish are the most desirable. Sammy’s Seafood was on WEATHER channel reality show “Deadliest Catch” showing how this industry works. Hog snappers are a typical fish caught best by spearfishing-use of spear or guns.

Long Liners

Longline fishing, or longlining, is a commercial fishing angling technique that uses a long main line with baited hooks attached at intervals via short branch lines called snoods or gangions. A snood is attached to the main line using a clip or swivel, with the hook at the other end. Longlines are classified mainly by where they are placed in the water column. This can be at the surface or at the bottom. Lines can also be set by means of an anchor, or left to drift. Hundreds or even thousands of baited hooks can hang from a single line. Long liners often pull the largest catch-thousands of pounds, as they are out the longest period of time and can drop their lines for miles at a time. Long liners can source from depths of 900 feet. BY CATCH is a function of longliners-as they cannot control what they catch.

Hook and Line

Hook and line is one of the oldest and most widely used methods of fishing. It is a simple technique that relies on the use of a hook, line, and bait to catch fish. At its simplest, fishing hook and line involves baiting a hook with a lure or bait and attaching it to a line. Hand lines, hand reels, and powered reels are used commercially in all jurisdictions to target finfish. You can control WHAT you catch and kill on hook and line and the fish are very fresh as they do not stay out that long.

Pole/Troll

Pole/troll fishermen use a fishing pole and bait to target a variety of fish, ranging from open ocean swimmers, like tuna and mahi mahi, to bottom dwellers, like cod Pole/troll fishing is environmentally responsible and a good alternative to pelagic longlining. This is a very expensive process that is not often used to sell local seafood. Often used for mid pelagic catch.

Purse Seine

Purse seine fishing is a consistent and efficient method, enabling fishers to catch and freeze onboard large quantities of tuna. Purse-seine vessels fish either by spotting free-swimming schools of tuna or by utilizing floating objects that attract fish, either with natural or manmade objects. Most used for large mid pelagic catch.

Gillnet

A gillnet is normally set in a straight line. Gillnets can be characterized by mesh size, as well as colour and type of filament from which they are made. Fish may be caught by gillnets in three ways: Wedged – held by the mesh around the body. Gilled – held by mesh slipping behind the opercula or tangled. Used on large catch, mid pelagic fish.

Traps/Pots

Traps and pots are submerged three-dimensional wire or wood devices that permit organisms to enter the enclosure but make escape extremely difficult or impossible. They are used to catch fish, crustaceans or molluscs. LOCALLY we use for STONE CRAB, lobsters, blue crab, Black sea bass.

There are two main types of trap: a permanent or semi-permanent structure placed in a tidal area, and bottle or pot trap that are usually baited to attract prey and are periodically lifted out of the water.

Trawls/Dredges

Trawls and dredges are fishing methods that involve dragging a net or a bag along the sea floor or above it. Trawls are used to catch fish (pollock, cod, flounder) and SHRIMP in local FLORIDA waters that stay above the sea bed. Trawls can have high levels of bycatch, which is the unwanted catch of other species. Dredges are used to catch animals that live on or in the mud or sand, such as scallops, clams and oysters.

Client Testimonials

We have five black & blue restaurants from Buffalo to Boston, and growing. Our specialty is both steak and seafood. Steak is heavily controlled, with every cow sourced back to its origin, and genetics closely monitored. The ocean is the new wild west, with far less oversight on sourcing, provenance, and sometimes even species. Sammy’s was able to provide us with not only fresh fish, but also a birth certificate of sorts for our seafood, which gave us an immediate competitive advantage. We capitalized on this partnership to create a successful “trust our fish”* program. And the back-end support for delivery, shipping, and QC is better than our large broad liners.

We prefer to use fresh sustainable seafood, from local waters to help local providers.

Supporting local fisherman and taking care of the gulf is a pivotal to Parkshore Grill, and the TRACE program is a great way to highlight the restaurants involvement with the community.

We want our resources to last, and prefer sustainable seafood not only because it is the most fresh and best quality, but it supports the local economy.

It’s a nice way to guarantee where the product came from, it’s really cool! It helps keep local economy moving strong.

We prefer to use fresh sustainable seafood, from local waters to help local providers.

The TRACE program encourages guests to order the fish over the fillet when they know that it comes from our back yard!

Ricky T's uses Sammy's seafood TRACE program because our restaurant is on Treasure Island Florida, on the Gulf of Mexico. People travel from all over the world to experience the gulf, and the fresh fish that comes from it. The trace program allows us to take the smoke and mirrors out of ordering fish from a restaurant. The Gulf of Mexico is how we make our money so it is important to us to use a seafood company that only use's sustainable methods of fishing to ensure the health of gulf fisheries.

Ninety percent of the seafood sold and served at Locale Market is from Gulf, inland and coastal Florida waters. Using the TRACE program not only assures us that we’re getting the freshest fish from the local fleet, it tells our customers we care about the seafood they consume and where it comes from.