Sea Fare Pacific was born out of Mike Babcock’s passion to provide people with high-quality, sustainable pacific albacore tuna that truly tastes like mom’s home-canned tuna. As a native Oregonian, and founder and owner of Oregon Seafoods, LLC, Mike began Sea Fare Pacific in early 2011 after extensive research to define the brand and products that ultimately created our fabulous line of gourmet albacore tuna that are packed in their own natural juices with no preservatives or fillers.
As an avid sport fisherman, Mike conceived the idea of selling pacific albacore tuna products that tastes liked mom’s home-canned tuna after learning just how undervalued tuna was while spending time with fishermen who were looking for opportunity. Mike was also familiar with the unmatched taste of home canned tuna, since he and his family and friends often canned their own tuna. And if you’ve canned your own tuna, you know that most of the popular commercial brands that you can buy at the grocery store don’t come anywhere near the quality and flaky, sumptuous, full flavor of home-canned tuna. That’s when Mike realized that if he could take the tuna and process it like home-canned tuna, he could create a product that everybody would want. At the same time, he could add value to tuna, and help the fisherman.
Fully committed in his new endeavor to support certified sustainable Northwest Fishing families, Mike then met with fishing veterans, Rick Goche , F/V Peso II, and Mark and Cynthia Schneider, F/V Sea Princess, who urged Mike to use an earth-friendly pouch for his tuna instead of a can because they felt it would provide a better product after doing some initial testing at the Oregon State University Seafood Research Laboratory in Astoria, Oregon.
After much research of his own, Mike followed their advice and invested in Toyo Jidoki pouch machines. He then started working with Mark Whitham at the OSU Seafood Research Lab to develop recipe’s and the Seafood Processors Association to develop cook times.
Mike has also invested and participated in numerous labs and food groups including the consumer sensory tests at the Food Innovation Center in Portland, Oregon where staff did an excellent job setting up a test to get feedback on some of the recipes and packaging materials. With that invaluable information, Mike has been able to refine Sea Fare Pacific’s gourmet flavored offerings, and move ahead with the brand and package development. The result of all of this hard work and dedication to create a superior pacific albacore tuna product is what you see here on the web site.
But starting businesses where there was none to begin with is nothing new to Mike. He has a long, solid track record of being able to develop a venture from the ground up. His last major start up with no prior experience was in wood products in 1993. That business, Northwest Fir Products (eventually Goshen Forest Products), has grown and evolved to become a successful company that has stood the test of time 18 years later.
After growing up on a farm in Brownsville, Oregon, Mike had also been drawn to possible opportunities in the food industry for quite some time. But he says his seafood business emerged almost by an accident after becoming a partner in a retail fish shop in Coos Bay, Oregon. Looking for ways to help the fish shop, Mike says he founded Oregon Seafoods, LLC after deciding that a processing facility could help the business. Fully invested in a million dollar seafood plant in Coos Bay, Mike sold his remaining shares of the saw mill to dedicate all of his efforts to the growth and success of Sea Fare Pacific.
Word is spreading quickly about how Sea Fare Pacific’s fresh, albacore tuna products in a pouch are superior on every level. Success that Mike Babcock proudly embraces as he knows it will have far reaching effects for many American families. “Sea Fare Pacific is going to have a big impact for fishermen and fishing communities as we grow. It just doesn’t make sense to send our premium pacific caught fish to another country for processing when we need to support family’s here in the US,” Mike declared. “We are in the process of putting together the team of people that will help in launching this brand and ultimately insuring its success from the guy in the fillet room to the person delivering the finished package. There are many key people along the way. As our people and business grows it will get to a point well beyond my capabilities. That will be an exciting time, as I become less, the right people will be in place to take this business where it will ultimately end up employing and feeding a lot of American families with healthy, fresh pacific albacore tuna.”