Day Boat Seafood LLC was established in March 2006 by lifelong anglers and longtime friends, Howard Bubis and Scott Taylor. Both responsible fishermen and successful businessmen, Howard and Scott saw Day Boat Seafood as a rare opportunity to combine a commercial venture with their love of the sea and their dedication to its preservation. Their goal was to build a company based on the tenant “always do the right thing”. This philosophy embodied both their personal convictions to protect the ocean while supporting the local fishing communities. They do not see sustainable commercial fishing as a way to make a living, but a way of life. Quite simply, we live where we fish.

In 2006, Florida east coast fishermen worked with the National Marine Fisheries Highly Migratory Species Division to develop a hand-gear commercial swordfish fishery; with a practical by-catch interaction of zero, it is considered to be one of the greenest fisheries in the world.  Our business plan was to buy buoy-caught swordfish from local fishermen, sell their product, and return to the fishermen the proceeds, less the packaging, freight and a profit for the company’s operation.  This concept allowed the company to “partner” with the local fishermen, insuring the highest quality product while applying a management strategy that would ensure strong fishery stocks for generations in the East Coast region of the Atlantic Ocean.

In early 2009, many commercial longline vessels were faltering under the weight of the bad economy.  Howie and Scott made the decision to provide solid financial backing for their operations and assumed the management of a failing commercial fishing dock and the operation of 4 longline vessels in Ft. Pierce.  Today, those vessels are still fishing and our fleet has grown to 18 longline vessels.  These vessels supply 75% of our MSC certified Atlantic swordfish and 100% of our fresh tuna.   We provide all maintenance, repairs,fuel, ice, bait, tackle and provisions for each trip.

We are supplied hand-gear MSC certified swordfish from our 35 commercial buoy gear fishermen, delivering ice and bait and picking-up their catch with our refrigerated fleet of trucks.  We have 300 independent commercial boat owners that supply 80% of the other 36 species that we sell.  We are proud to support the efforts of these small commercial fishing families.