This Popular Seafood Restaurant Has Been Caught Lying To Its Customers About Where Its Fish Comes From

Sea Wave/Shutterstock

Nobody wants to eat fishy fish. Not just in the sense that people don’t like it when their seafood has an unpleasantly fishy taste (a result of decomposition, which can be neutralized with a soak in milk to make it taste less fishy), but in the sense that nobody wants to be lied to about where the fish comes from. That’s why it was so galling when the owners of Dudley Market, an upscale restaurant and fish market in Venice, California, admitted to lying to their customers abut the provenance of their wares.

Dudley Market was sold as a sustainable, traceable fish market, generally on the up-and-up. But in 2020 and 2021, then-managers Conner Mitchell and Taylor Grant used a commercial fishing vessel to catch and serve sport-caught fish for their restaurant, including their signature bluefin tuna. In California, it’s illegal to sell fish that was caught for sport, as commercial fishing requires fish to be brought to port and documented. The owners of Dudley Market put up a statement on their website admitting to their misdeeds. “We falsely advertised the Dudley Market as source of fully sustainable, transparent, and lawfully procured fish,” they said. “We now comply with California and federal law and have we have ceased all such false advertising.”

Why California’s fishing laws matter

Grant Faint/Getty Images

So why does it matter, exactly, that the fish sold at Dudley Market wasn’t sourced the way they said it was? If the fish is safe to eat, surely it’s all the same to the consumer, right? Well, no: the laws in place are intended to protect California’s marine ecosystem, both for the sake of preserving nature and for making sure fishing practices are sustainable. (It’s the same reason why you should avoid Atlantic cod on seafood menus, and why Alaskan pollock, a sustainable fish, is the most popular choice for fish sticks.)

The Los Angeles District Attorney, Nathan J. Hochman, had strong words for Dudley Market. “Commercial fishing laws exist to protect our oceans and preserve marine ecosystems,” he said. “These businesses lured the public into thinking they were caring for our precious resources, when in reality, their fish was unlawfully sourced. Sustainability was the bait, but fraud was the hook.” (You can tell attorneys love to make these little puns.)