Father's Day has a way of making you think about where things come from.
Not just people, but ideas. Traditions. Values.
Our company exists because two fishermen were fortunate enough to have fathers who taught them to love the ocean.
Steve Johansen grew up fishing with his father, Irv. The son of Scandinavian immigrants, Irv spent his life on the water and passed that life on to his son. Steve was still a teenager when he bought his first fishing boat. Like so many fishermen before him, he learned by watching, listening, and spending countless hours alongside his Dad.
My father took a different route.
At fourteen, Paul Chauvel left a remote town in Australia and went to sea. After years as a merchant mariner, he eventually settled in Canada and became a fisherman. He loved the ocean in a way that only fishermen seem to understand. Not romantically. Respectfully.
He taught my brother and me to fish.
More importantly, he taught us why it mattered.
Like many boys growing up around boats, I thought fishing was about catching fish. My father understood that it was really about paying attention. Watching the weather. Understanding the tides. Respecting things that can neither be controlled nor hurried.
Years later, after I inherited his boat, I found myself standing on the deck with my own sons.
Somewhere along the way I realized that very little had changed.
The equipment was different.
The regulations were different.
The world was different.
But the lessons were exactly the same.
Pay attention.
Work hard.
Take care of what has been entrusted to you.
Leave something behind for the next generation.
When Steve and I founded Organic Ocean, we weren't thinking about Father's Day. We were thinking about fishermen, seafood, and how to build a better supply chain.
Looking back, I realize that the company Steve and I built was shaped by our fathers in ways neither of us fully appreciated at the time. The values they passed on—respect for the ocean, respect for hard work, and a belief that some things should be preserved for the next generation—became part of the foundation of Organic Ocean.
Both of them believed that wild seafood was valuable not simply because it was delicious, but because it connected people to a place. Both understood that if fisheries were not managed responsibly, future generations would lose something that could never be replaced.
That belief became part of our mission.
It is why we support small-scale fishing families.
It is why we advocate for sustainable fisheries.
It is why we care so much about getting exceptional seafood from the people who harvest it to the people who appreciate it.
This Father's Day, many families will gather around a table.
Some will serve salmon.
Some will serve halibut.
Some won't serve seafood at all.
What matters is not what's on the plate.
What matters is who is sitting around it.
The older I get, the more I appreciate that some of life's most important gifts are not things that can be bought or sold. They are passed down quietly over time.
A love of the ocean.
A respect for nature.
A story.
A tradition.
A meal shared together.
From our family to yours, Happy Father's Day.
— Dane Chauvel
Co-Founder, CEO and Fisherman, Organic Ocean Seafood Inc.
