Upscale California seafood joint admits to lying to customers

A high end southern California fish restaurant and market admitted it lied to customers about the seafood on the menu being being “traceable, sustainable and lawfully sourced.”The California Department of Fish and Wildlife said the managers of the upscale Dudley Fish Market in Venice and those who provided them fish repeatedly violated “state and federal commercial fishing laws in 2020 and 2021,” per the release.“Evidence obtained during the investigation revealed repeated violations of laws governing California’s commercial fishing and seafood industry,” the report read.Officials said the managers of Dudley Market at the time, Conner Mitchell and Taylor Grant, used a commercial fishing vessel to “catch fish for the restaurant.” The two operated the market through Dudley Street Oyster Bar and Shark Bite Fish Co.While Cody Martin, operated a commercial fishing vessel that “supplied fish to Dudley Market.”During the investigation, officials found numerous violations including that they had “unlawfully purchased and sold sport-caught fish such as rockfish, bluefin tuna and yellowtail.”It found that “commercial fishing activity” had been conducted without required licenses” and that violators also marketed “unlawfully sourced seafood as sustainable, traceable and lawfully procured.”State law makes it illegal to “sell sport-caught fish commercially.” If a fish is caught by a commercial vessel it must be “lawfully brought to port and documented on an electronic fish ticket before being removed from the vessel.”Owners have even admitted publicly to what they did, lying to customers about the seafood that was on the menu.“Pursuant to the terms of a recently entered Los Angeles Superior Court Order, we are required to provide you with notice that throughout the years 2020 and 2021, we violated California and federal laws applicable to commercial fishermen and fish businesses in California,” a statement on the company website r...