Buena Vista Seafood
forward looking seafood
With decades of global seafood sourcing and sales experience, Buena Vista Seafood is leading the charge by bringing trusted, delicious seafood to chefs and diners across North America. But this doesn’t mean that Buena Vista Seafood is going about it as a “business as usual” company. At Buena Vista, the entire team is dedicated to making a difference through positive actions and follow-through. By giving back 5% of the profits to notable organizations that are helping our oceans and waterways, Buena Vista Seafood is setting the bar at a new height for seafood suppliers.
Besides the Buena Vista Seafood give-back program, the company only sources seafood that has been properly vetted and meets the highest of current sustainability standards. Located in San Francisco, California, Buena Vista Seafood is proud to represent serious, responsible fishermen and fish farmers from around the globe.
“The sea, the great unifier, is man’s only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: we are all in the same boat.”
Our Team
Dale Sims, Founding Partner
‘If you don’t like the news go out and make some of your own.’ This brief yet impactful statement sums up Dale’s drive and dedication to supplying the North American market with the best seafood fishermen and farmers have to offer. Dale is a strong supporter of right action and accountability which is why he tirelessly vets seafood sources and the people behind each product Buena Vista Seafood represents.
The driving force behind Buena Vista Seafood, Dale is a recognized seafood veteran who has worked in all aspects of the industry. With almost four decades in the seafood trade, Dale is known across the industry as an innovator, he has been reliably designing and supplying retail and foodservice seafood product lines, sourcing and executing large-scale seafood import and distribution programs as well as identifying special boutique fisheries for years.
Dale [at] BuenaVistaSeafood.com
Polly Legendre, Operations & Business Development
Polly is first and foremost a chef. As the first American to graduate from the Ecole Superieure de Cuisine Française, she spent close to a decade cooking in some of the most famous restaurants in Paris. Once returned to her native California, Polly turned her attention towards seafood and the fishing industry. Becoming a founding partner of Polished Brands, a San Francisco Bay Area strategy and marketing firm focused on food and beverage with a particular interest in seafood led her to work with all types of seafood companies around the globe.
Polly has been a regular presenter at international seafood expos, events and has hosted global webinars focused on millennial engagement in the seafood category. She is proud to represent the seafood industry and to promote environmentally and socially sound practices to retail and foodservice alike.
Polly [at] BuenaVistaSeafood.com
Joe Koran, Sales & Education
Joe started out in the fish business back in 1985 when he took a job in a local fish market while he was going to grad school to be a teacher. In his first 3 days of part time work he clocked more than 40 hours and nearly 38 years later his excitement and passion for the seafood industry grows more every day.
Joe has been blessed to have worked with and for some of the best companies and people in the foodservice industry. His experience ranges from local seafood distribution to Broadline distribution on the local regional and national levels with Rykoff-Sexton whic
h later became US Foodservice (US Foods). Joe worked with Sodexo to create a sustainable seafood program and worked with Compass Group (Foodbuy) on the domestic and international level. Being a teacher at heart, the Joey Da Fish’s School of Fish has been a training program utilized by many over the years. As a student of the food industry, Joe strives to learn something within the industry every day to share with others.
JoeyDaFish (at) BuenaVistaSeafood.com
Justin Van De Pitte, Sales & Business Development
Justin has a solid grass-roots background in the seafood industry. He started out as a teen bussing tables and shucking oysters at a local San Diego fish house. Then, in his 20’s, Justin co-founded a sushi catering business where he developed a passion for ethical seafood sourcing and took a deep dive into the complex world of perishables logistics.
This path of ethical sourcing eventually led him to Dale Sims in 2016. Dale became Justin’s mentor, sharing his extensive knowledge of seafood & logistics and they have continued working together ever since. With two decades of foodservice experience, Justin joins the Buena Vista team in a sales and business development role, helping customers from coast-to-coast streamline logistics and bring the freshest, highest quality and most delicious seafood to their local marketplace.
Justin [at] BuenaVistaSeafood.com
John Sweeney, Distribution Coordinator
John’s first job as a teenager was working in a fish market on San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. He then traveled the country as an entrepreneur and over the years has worked for the fishing industry from the ground up - unloading fish and crab boats, shlepping fishing equipment and crab pots and doing whatever needed to be done to get fresh seafood to our plates. John is excited to join Buena Vista Seafood as Distribution Coordinator since it keeps him close to the fishing piers and to the work that he loves. In his spare time, he volunteers with Wild Oysters to refurbish crab pots as part of their Recycled Reefs Initiative.
John [at] BuenaVistaSeafood.com
Linda Hunter, Operations
Linda is the founder and director of the San Francisco-based Wild Oyster Project. With thirty years of experience working to protect the environment, Linda is an instrumental guide as Buena Vista Seafood sets out creating a solid path sourcing regenerative, responsible and delicious seafood. Linda began her environmental career at Greenpeace where she managed the finances of the West Coast office, has served as Executive Director of the Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association and most recently as Executive Director of The Watershed Project. Now at the helm of the Wild Oyster Project, her work is focused on restoring native oysters to San Francisco Bay through community engagement and thoughtful urban planning.
Linda grew up on the ocean and has always been an oyster aficionado. She thinks of our native oysters as the working class stiffs with a huge role to play to make our Bay cleaner and more resilient to rising tides caused by climate change.
Linda [at] BuenaVistaSeafood.com
Why Buena Vista Seafood matters…
Oceans cover more than 70% of the earth.
Oceans do not have a limitless supply of fish.
We have an opportunity to support responsible and hard working fishermen, farmers and our coastal communities.
Consumers want to know where their food comes from and we have an opportunity to make that connection.
Consumers and chefs want more connection to their food sources.
Knowing where our seafood comes from helps protect workers.
Traceability and responsible sourcing brings needed sunlight to the seafood supply chain.
This all matters because business-as-usual is not forward thinking.
A little fun from 1937.