In Louisiana, where I come from, there’s an unspoken law: Never be caught short on shrimp! I love shrimp just about any way you can cook it: poached, grilled, sautéed, broiled or breaded and fried. Shrimp pairs beautifully with herbs, spices and most sauces, making it a perfect accompaniment to grains and vegetables. It’s awesome in soups, salads and savory dishes. I even love shrimp on pizza and in quiche! But my first experience is always my favorite: Shrimp Etouffée — a specialty of my own great state.

And when you stock up on shrimp, it’s important to know what makes our farmed shrimp a great choice. We source from only three producers and have traceability back to their farms. And these are not your typical farms; our producers meet our standards for protecting the environment by avoiding mangrove areas to protect sensitive ecosystems and maintain good water quality. You’ll never find added phosphates or sulfates in our shrimp — we don’t want anything to take away from the sweet, delicate flavor of shrimp raised right. In fact, our shrimp are harvested to order and flash frozen within hours of harvest and you can taste the difference. Learn more about what sets our shrimp apart.

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Our Alaska troll-caught Coho salmon is $8.99 for today only! If you love salmon, make sure you stop in today to hook this one-day deal.

$x.xx = amount of savings will vary

Troll-caught wild Coho salmon is caught one fish at a time by hook and line from small boats called trollers. Individually handled and never frozen, this salmon has a uniquely flaky, tender texture and mild flavor. If you love salmon as much as we do, you probably already have a few favorite salmon recipes up your sleeve. (Make sure to share them with us in the comments!) Here are some of ours:

Hungry for more? We’ve got a boatload of delicious salmon recipes for you.

Hurry in because Alaska troll-caught wild Coho salmon is only available for a few short weeks, and the summer’s best salmon deal is happening today!

We’d love to know how you showcase salmon in your summer meals.

We’ve got your fresh, wild Alaska salmon here! This Friday only, our troll-caught Coho salmon will be on sale for $8.99 a pound. Our buyers in Alaska work directly with fishermen and processors to bring you wild salmon as soon as they start running. It’s never frozen which means you get that incomparable fresh summer salmon flavor. This sale is for one day only so make sure that you stop in this Friday, July 29^th to hook this sweet catch!

$x.xx = amount of savings will vary

What does “troll-caught” mean, you ask? (No, it doesn’t mean caught by a troll! Read on!) Trollers are small boats that fish by hook and line. Fishing this way means that there is little impact on the environment and minimal bycatch, or non-targeted catch. Troll-caught salmon are caught one at a time, cleaned by hand and packed in ice. This careful individual handling process results in top quality and superb flavor.

Due to the small size of the boats and the unpredictability of weather conditions, our troll-caught Coho has a limited availability, so a sale on troll-caught Coho salmon (from fisheries certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council, no less) really is a special occasion.

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Grilled seafood is so versatile. It’s the perfect addition to pasta (mmm…shrimp over lemony angel hair) and it’s a great way to add a bit of oomph to a colorful salad. And, one of the great things about grilling seafood is that it cooks quickly so you can prepare summer suppers in a flash! Read on for some tips and favorite recipes to help spark your creativity with seafood on the grill.

Tips for grilling fish:

• Oil fish well with a neutral-flavored oil such as canola to help keep it moist.
• Fish cooks quickly using the direct heat method. Remove it from the grill as soon as it’s done; it will continue to cook once it has been removed from the fire.
• Once you put fish on the grill, don’t touch it for at least three minutes. A crust needs to form on the outside, which will allow the fish to naturally pull away from the grates. Once the crust has formed, it can be flipped over without sticking or falling apart.
• Thin pieces of fish can be wrapped in cornhusks, banana leaves or grape leaves and then placed on the grill, or foil can be used for a similar effect.
• Placing fish on cedar planks when grilling imparts a subtle woodsy flavor (cedar is the most common type, but try different woods for slightly different flavors). Soak the plank in water for at least an hour prior to grilling to prevent it from catching on fire. Most fish fillets will cook on a cedar plank, without turning, in about 20 minutes.
• Fish is naturally tender and should not sit in an acid-based marinade (like lemon juice) for longer than 20 minutes, or it will start to “cook” the fish, turning it mushy.

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For just a few short months each summer, our fresh, harpoon-caught swordfish arrives from a Nova Scotia fishery certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council. Swordfish needs only a sprinkle of salt and a drizzle of olive oil for absolute deliciousness, but its rich flavor also stands up beautifully to strong flavors and heavy spicing. Here are some of our favorite recipes for fresh swordfish:

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Get it while it’s here! Thanks to improved management, swordfish populations have recovered in North Atlantic waters, and Nova Scotia’s harpoon fleet is the first swordfish fishery to be certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council. Harpooners bring us fresh swordfish for just a few weeks each summer, so now is the time to get cooking with this legendary fish. Learn more and find great cooking tips and recipes at Not Just Another Fish Story.

The Nova Scotia harpoon fleet uses a traditional, time-honored fishing method, relying on knowledge and techniques handed down from generation to generation. Most of these boats are captain-owned, and most operate as day boats — returning to harbor each day to unload their catch fresh rather than processing and freezing it on board.

Swordfish are a highly migratory species inhabiting tropical, temperate and even cold waters worldwide.  In the summer months we find North Atlantic swordfish in the deep waters off the coast of Nova Scotia. Skillful harpooners sight large, mature swordfish as they bask near the surface during the day, and target individual fish — one-by-one — with a harpoon attached to a line. Because fishermen actually see the swordfish they’re after, there is virtually no chance of accidentally catching small immature swordfish or other marine life (known as “non-targeted catch” or “bycatch”). And the slow, one-by-one approach helps prevent fishermen from catching too many fish and exceeding their legal quotas. It’s an age-old fishing technique with very low impact on ocean habitat. Following rigorous review and auditing, the Nova Scotia harpoon fishery has become the first swordfish fishery ever to be certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).

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Get your fill of wild-caught sea scallops from Marine Stewardship Council-certified sustainable fisheries today, Friday, June 10^th, during our one-day sale. Only $9.99 per pound! (That’s while supplies last…no rain checks.) Our seafood expert says these scallops are incredibly flavorful — “second to none!” They are individually frozen at sea within hours of being harvested, which is really unique.

$x.xx =amount of savings will vary

Need some ideas on how to cook these delicate morsels? Here are a few of our favorites:

Serve seared or grilled over a bed of leafy greens tossed with light vinaigrette.

Let us know what you cook with your scallops!

Melt-in-my-mouth-marvelous! Like nothing else! That’s how I remember my first bite of that mildly sweet (okay, seductive) scallop a friend gave me at a fancy restaurant in San Francisco. It was the kind of bite that makes you want to take another and another. Only it wasn’t mine. I was having the chicken. I soon vowed to never again have chicken in a restaurant that served fresh scallops. Many times since, those tender, succulent little morsels have made their way onto my plate as appetizers, salads and main dishes.

$x.xx =amount of savings will vary

And now you too can get your fill of wild-caught sea scallops from Marine Stewardship Council-certified sustainable fisheries this Friday, June 10^th, during our one-day sale for $9.99 per pound. You better try to beat me there, though, ‘cause they are only available at that price while supplies last! Our seafood expert tells me that these scallops are incredibly flavorful — “second to none!” They are individually frozen at sea within hours of being harvested, which is really unique.

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Jennifer Lo, Social Media and Marketing Specialist for our Northern California Region, loves sharing her passion for food, travel and photography.

We’re so excited to be participating at this year’s Cooking for Solutions Sustainable Foods Celebration at the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Saturday and Sunday, May 21-22! It’s an exciting event to celebrate food and wine and to discover how our food choices affect the health of the soil, water and ocean wildlife. (Read on for a chance to win a pair of tickets to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.)

Being a new Bay Area resident, I can’t wait to attend this year’s celebration! One of my favorite childhood memories is of going to the local aquarium and running my hands through the tide pools to touch the starfish. I can’t think of any better way to spend the weekend than to explore the Monterey Bay Aquarium while watching celebrity chef cooking demonstrations and tasting good food.

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Last September, we unveiled our color-coded, science-based sustainability ratings for wild-caught seafood created by our partners, Blue Ocean Institute and Monterey Bay Aquarium. At the time, we said that we would seek out ways to source swordfish and tuna more sustainably as part of a larger initiative to move toward fully sustainable seafood departments — and we have!

Whole Foods Market’s skilled seafood buyers source tuna and swordfish from green- and yellow-rated fisheries such as those using handlines (a fishing method that uses a single baited line to catch one fish at a time), which have low to no bycatch.

One of the new sources of green- and yellow-rated tuna comes from the Maldives in the Indian Ocean where fishermen catch tuna traditionally using a low-impact pole and line. Elsewhere, most tuna is caught with nets or longlines, which can capture not only the targeted catch, but also juvenile tuna and large amounts of bycatch, including threatened or endangered species such as sea turtles, sharks and seabirds, earning some of these fisheries a red-rating.

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