Buy Seafood
Virginia Seafood
Virginia has a thriving seafood industry. Seafood is harvested in both the Chesapeake Bay and the coastal waters and brought to a number of Virginia ports.
Newport News Seafood Industrial Park is among the top ports in the Virginia. Described as one of the busiest small ports on the USA east coast, the area does an astonishing amount of business. Most of the boats fish under limited entry scallop permits or harvest finfish, primarily summer flounder. Several seafood packers and three ice houses support the fishing community there. Among them are Chesapeake Bay Packing, Inc., Old Point Packing Inc., Casey's Seafood Inc. B&C Seafood Inc. and Peabody LLC.
According to sources, the port was 7th in the nation in total value of seafood for 2005, mostly due to the catches of scallops. The USA east coast scallop fishery shares the lead with the Northeast lobster fishery for the region's most seafood valuable resource.
Virginia has a variety of local seafood available including flounder, rockfish, sea bass, gray trout, drumfish, spot, croaker, sharks, rays, eels, crabs, oysters, clams, scallops, whelk and mussels.
Virginia Fish
Summer Flounder
Flounder are the most popular Virginia fish among seafood lovers. They are typically 2-8 lbs with mild tasting white flesh. Flounder are served in a variety of ways, the most common being filleted and fried or broiled. Virginia flounder are sometimes stuffed with local crab meat and then baked.
Striped Bass or "Rockfish"
Striped Bass, known in Virginia as rockfish are a heavy bodied saltwater fish. They have a disctintive flavor and firm flaky meat. Rockfish are available wild caught or farm raised. They are delicious fried, grilled or broiled. Rockfish are commonly a few lbs although 50 lb fish are sometimes caught.
Bluefin Tuna
For the most part bluefin tuna are a sport fish in Virginia. They are plentiful from June thru late summer and Virginia charter boats are ready to provide excellent fishing from ports such as Chincoteague Island and Wachapreague
Yellowfin Tuna
Virginia has excellent catches of yellowfin tuna from late spring thru late fall. In addition to catching fresh tuna on a charter boat or private boat, seafood lovers will find fresh yellowfin tuna in local restaurants and seafood markets in season.
Gray Trout
Virginia is home to gray trout or weakfish. These fish historically have wild population fluctuations. Virginia anglers and seafood lovers enjoyed enormous numbers of fish thru the 1970's and 80's. The fishes numbers fell drastically after and these fish are less common today.
Gray trout and their close cousins the speckled trout are both attractive fish with silvery sides. The fillets are soft and flavorful. These fish can be as small as 12 inches but can also reach weights of 10 lbs or more.
Virginia Shellfish
Oysters
Virginia is fortunate to have a rich history of oyster harvesting. The Chesapeake Bay once held enormous amounts of oysters and some oyster harvesting still occurs there. The James river and other Virginia areas yield high quality oysters.
The seaside areas of Virginia also produce some of the highest quality oysters on the USA east coast. Chincoteague Island is known for it's excellent salty oysters and other seafood.
Clams
Virginia seafood harvesters bring several types of clams to port. Among these are hard clams, quahog clams and surf clams.
Crabs
Virginia waters are well known for blue crabs.
Virginia Seafood Dishes
The following are some of the seafood delicacies that you might find during your fishing adventure to Virginia.
Virginia is known for its blue crabs. The crabs are eaten steamed in the shell or served as crabcakes and other dishes. Soft shelled blue crabs are fried or broiled and are a local delicacy when available.
Clams are eaten raw, steamed or in dishes such as chowders. Clam chowder is a rich soup using clams, vegetables and either a tomato based or dairy based broth. Another favorite Virginia clam dish is clam fritters.
American lobsters are caught off the coast of Virginia and are sometimes sold locally. Restaurants serve fresh Virginia lobsters prepared in a number of ways.
Mahi-mahi or dolphinfish is a brightly colored pelagic fish found in the open ocean of the Virginia coast. Mahi mahi is a white fish with a distinctive flavor. The meat is high in Omega 3 oil. Fresh caught mahi mahi is often served grilled or broiled in Virginia restaurants.
Oysters are served raw or steamed in the shell. Virginia oysters are widely recognized as being among the best oysters on the USA east coast.
More on Virginia Seafood
Newport News Commercial Fishing Industrial Park