The Next Chapter: Wild Things Seafood

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - There was a familiar face behind the Wild Things Seafood booth at Manson’s Friday Market last week. In addition to being our former Regional Director, Noba Anderson’s family has a connection to Cortes Island that stretches back to 1978. So Cortes Currents asked Noba about the new business she is undertaking with Peter Schmidt.

“It's Peter's passion, there's no doubt about that. Peter owned his first fishing boat when he was a teenager off Saturna Island and has been fishing on and off with his own boat in younger years, and then on other people's boats more recently. So last year he was out on a tuna boat and took his payment in fish rather than money and had it processed. You can't just sell tuna, so then he bought some other things and went on the road last winter,” she explained.  

“Then I started  getting a few things from his supplier and went to Denman and Hornby islands last winter, just once a month kind of thing.  We teamed up more considerably this spring and summer season.”

Cortes Currents: How did you come up with a name for your enterprise?

Noba Anderson: “Wild Things Seafood? -  Peter came up with it. It speaks to the fact we only carry wild products, only BC products and that great old book ‘Where The Wild Things Are,’ just a little bit of play.”  

“We set up in the Comox Valley for May and June, but we either didn't do enough marketing or whatever. It didn't really pan out as fast as we needed it to.”

“So we pivoted and we've been  selling on six Gulf Islands every week all summer. Hornby,  Denman, Gabriola, Salt Spring, Pender and Maine, and then the odd little place in between and then having one day to  recharge and regroup and restock. So we direct source as cash flow and storage allows.”

Cortes Currents: So you sleep on the road?

Noba Anderson: “When we're on the road, we sleep in the fish truck.  We carry four big freezers full of product, generators, and rope to the front bumper. It’s a traveling fun show a la Pete for sure.”