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Best of the City Dining 2013: Daily Catch

Growing up on the Sunshine Coast, Dylan McCullochs and Ryan Johnsons childhood memories included family outings to watch the arrival of spawning salmon. When they wanted crab for dinner, they simply went out in their boats and pulled up their traps.
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Growing up on the Sunshine Coast, Dylan McCullochs and Ryan Johnsons childhood memories included family outings to watch the arrival of spawning salmon. When they wanted crab for dinner, they simply went out in their boats and pulled up their traps.

Over time, however, they noticed changes in our oceans fisheries, changes they didnt like. And when they decided to quit their day jobs in construction and open a business together, they wanted to be a force of positive change.

The Daily Catch Seafood Company was the first in Vancouver to be 100 per cent Ocean Wise. That means every fish they sell has to be caught in an ethical way (all their salmon is hook-and-line caught), not in danger and resilient to over fishing.

We have a very close relationship with our suppliers, says McCulloch who, with Johnson, makes daily trips to the Port of Vancouver to choose that days selection. We know when each fish was caught and where it was caught and how it was caught.

They decided to open their store on Commercial Drive because they knew people in the neighbourhood shared the same values. McCulloch says their research showed that the Drive had the highest percentage of vegetarians and since many vegetarians still eat fish, theyd have a captive market.

Theres more to be done to protect our fisheries, McCulloch says. More than 80 per cent of the catch is sent overseas, and the millions of dollars spent on supplying the worlds demand for fish means that not everyone shares their commitment to sustainability. Fish by fish, choice by choice, theyre hoping to be part of a changing ethos.