EP88: From Sea to Table The Story of Sena Sea with Sena Wheeler

In this compelling episode of Voice4Chefs, host Michael is joined by new co-host Chef Steven, a seasoned culinary professional with experience in five-star hotels and Michelin-starred kitchens. Together, they welcome Sena Wheeler, a fifth-generation fisherman and co-founder of Sena Sea, to explore the story behind one of the most trusted names in wild Alaska seafood.

🌊 Discover the Journey of Sena Sea
Sena shares how her family’s deep-rooted fishing heritage and passion for sustainable practices led to the creation of Sena Sea, a direct-to-consumer company delivering premium wild-caught Alaska seafood. From the icy waters of the Pacific to your dinner plate, learn about the rigorous quality control, transparent sourcing, and deep family values that drive the company’s mission.

🍽️ What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

·       How Sena Sea ensures sustainability and traceability from ocean to table

·       The challenges and rewards of running a family fishing business

·       Why wild-caught seafood is essential for flavor and health

·       Behind-the-scenes stories of catching, processing, and distributing premium fish

·       What chefs and home cooks should know about sourcing high-quality seafood

This episode is a must-listen for seafood lovers, chefs, culinary students, and anyone passionate about responsible food sourcing.

👉 Visit www.senasea.com to explore their full product line and learn more.

00:00 Introduction and New Co-Host Announcement

00:20 Meet Chef Steven: Culinary Journey

01:55 Introducing Special Guest: Sena Wheeler

02:47 Sena Sea: The Origin Story

05:03 Generational Fishing Legacy

06:17 Building a Personal Brand

08:30 Customer Connections and Feedback

13:05 Sustainability in Fishing

17:26 Handling Fish on Small Boats

19:50 Innovative Packaging for Sustainability

20:56 Protecting the Fishing Industry and Environment

23:22 Family-Based Seafood Business

24:37 Customer Favorites and Unique Seafood Products

28:21 The Benefits of Omega-3 in Fish

32:08 How to Support Sena Seafoods

33:28 Final Thoughts on Food and Community

Contact Sena:

Email: info@senasea.com 

FB: www.facebook.com/senaseafoods 

Web: https://senasea.com

IG: @senasea_seafoods

Season2

Welcome Chef Steven Leung as our new cohost.

IG: themindfulwok

Transcript

Host Michael Dugan: 0:52

I'm really excited today because we've already kicked off season four, but we have a special surprise for you. We have a brand new co-host, chef Steven is part of our team now, and I'm really excited to introduce you to him, but I thought it'd be better for him to introduce himself. So Chef Steven, take it away.

Cohost Chef Steven: 1:15

Of course. Thanks so much, Michael. I'm so excited to be here. Listen to Michael's. A few podcasts, and then I was super inspired by the conversations. A little bit about myself is that I was raised in the Bay Area in California and then my, my, my career actually started in Las Vegas from culinary school to five star hotels. Buffet and small restaurants. You can name it big and small, quick service, fine dining. And so I worked the career ladder up and very excited to highlight my career two star Michellin Restaurant at Caesars Palace is named Guy Savoy, so a world renowned chef. And then through my career I learned different aspects of management and different type of recipes and different type of equipment because there's a different. Volume for different operations. Recently I left a job at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas as the executive sous chef. And then now I'm doing a lot of recipe consulting, a lot of community food related events. Mostly, you know, networking as well from business owners to supply owners like today's guests. So I'm very excited to be here again.

Host Michael Dugan: 2:45

Fantastic, Steven. Thank you. So we're gonna kick it off. I'm very excited too because I love and obsess about seafood. So we have a very special guest here today. Sena Wheeler is a fifth generation fishermen and co-founder of Sena Sea, A company delivering wild Alaska seafood directly to your door. With a master's degree in nutrition and food science, she has passion about sustainability, healthy eating, and the brain boosting benefits of wild fish. That's amazing.

Cohost Chef Steven: 3:19

Yeah.

Host Michael Dugan: 3:20

Sena and her husband run their family business while splitting time between Alaska and cheering on their kids at school Sports. Always with fresh fish on the table. Sena, welcome to the show.

Owner Sena Wheeler: 3:34

Thanks so much for having me. This is fun.

Host Michael Dugan: 3:36

I am so excited, and I know Chef Steven is too. We've talked behind the scenes for a while about this, and can you take us back to the beginning? How did Sena Sea come to life and what sparked your mission to bring Wild Alaska seafood straight to customers?

Owner Sena Wheeler: 3:56

When you hear sort of, I, I do have a master's in food science. And I studied fish. In particular and quality aspects and handling onboard handling techniques. And my husband is, has been a commercial fisherman for 25 years. So it sounds like we had a great plan, but it was much more. Organic than that. I think sometimes you just don't realize where everything is leading. So I had been working for a national food company and then ended up staying home with our three kids and we were on a long road trip. That's when sort of the magic happen. Wow. You're talking, we're on a a six hour, nine hour road trip actually. Okay. And my husband was on the. He had just started doing fishing for Copper River Salmon. So we've always long lined for black cot and halibut. Wow. But he's doing this, really this Copper River salmon, which is amazing. And he is, was on the the marketing board. The marketing association. So he's talking to me and, I kind of start going you should do this and you should do that. You guys should market it like grass fed beef and you should do this and you should be talking about that. And he just finally looks over at me and goes. You should.

Host Michael Dugan: 5:09

Yeah.

Owner Sena Wheeler: 5:10

I was like, what? No, you should. And he is no, you should sell my fish.

Host Michael Dugan: 5:15

I love it. Oh, I love it.'cause he's already

Owner Sena Wheeler: 5:17

doing, I'd already been I'm also kind of going, you should handle it like this and you should do this on board. And he was like. I'm catching the very best fish on the planet and doing all of the premium handling techniques. I mean, we have the best fish. We know that. Nobody else knows that you should sell it. And so by the time we got to Thanksgiving, we told everybody we're starting business and it's called Sena Sea. Oh my gosh. And then the crazy thing is we did, yeah. You know, that's the hard part, but we just went for it.

Host Michael Dugan: 5:53

Wow. I mean, it's an incredible story, right? And fifth generation. So how does fifth generation come into play? Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Owner Sena Wheeler: 6:03

So my my dad was a fisherman. I grew up in the lifestyle. We grew up in the Seattle area and all my uncles fished my grandfather fished. So my, my grandfather. Immigrated from Norway and along with a lot of his brothers and even each one came over, they'd get a boat. So they kind of fished in a big group of each guy, each brother having a boat. So for me it's very very much a part of our upbringing with my grandpa fishing and my uncles fishing and my dad. And so that's, we used to call ourselves third generation'cause those are the generations I'm thinking of right now.

Host Michael Dugan: 6:39

Right. His

Owner Sena Wheeler: 6:39

grandfather immigrated from Norway where he learned to fish from his father and so on. And so I have this great, when I started looking into the history, I have this great obituary from his father talking about learning commercial fishing and being a leader in the industry and learning from his father. So I was like, oh, I need to tax him on. My parents said, you know, it's probably more like 300 generations. Yeah.

Host Michael Dugan: 7:05

Yeah. Wow. That's amazing. So you're very passionate about this from meeting you from, everything I see online. I've listened to a couple podcasts where you tell your story and to me, connection is clearly at the heart of your brand. Absolutely. The ocean, the family food. But how do you bring that story to life for your customers?

Owner Sena Wheeler: 7:34

I think that's been kind of the fun part of just starting the business because I didn't know, I didn't know what it would take. I didn't know how much of ourselves we would be able to put into it. And it's, I, it's the age we live in, right? With the internet and and we have the email list and all the things. And when we started you know, if I'd done it. 50 years ago I would have a little fish shop or something. But this is the age of the internet and it's amazing For sure. It's just cool to kind of ride the wave on. Connection and how you can do things. I, never considered myself a writer before owning a business. You know, I wouldn't even write in birthday cards. I didn't really like to, but you have to write. I mean, if you own a small business, you're, you know, we write emails, we're writing project product descriptions and things like that, so I have. Really leaned into, for me it's the email list is where we, really connect. I write emails and that's a place where I'm have grown comfortable. Okay. Speaking, being authentic and talking about what's going on. And it's been fun. It's even a little surprising for me sometimes to see what comes out and we have a lot of customers who have been along the journey and you know, they've kind of gotten to know our family and kind of what we're about, which has been really cool.

Cohost Chef Steven: 9:53

Oh my gosh. I love that it's such a personal story.

Owner Sena Wheeler: 9:58

And it's fun to be able to make it personal. I, would, you know, to kind of have that permission to go there. And I think because our customers have been involved for a long time and it started really small and we kind of knew everybody that it made it okay. It would be hard to go personal, you know, if we hadn't started that way. Okay.

Cohost Chef Steven: 10:17

Yeah. Has any customer ever give any feedback, like kind of reminded you why you started this whole business?

Owner Sena Wheeler: 10:28

We get some really amazing reviews and emails and stuff, and it does make a big difference. I mean, when somebody just. When they get their box and just say, oh my gosh, it, it arrived perfectly. I cooked it up tonight. You know, I loved it so much. Yeah. That, yeah, that connection. Yeah. It really makes you feel like, oh, that's exactly, that's why I'm doing this. But we get some reviews that talk about, it'll talk about the first time they ever had Copper River salmon or a certain type of fish, and that experience, they can recall vividly. Or I visited friends in Alaska and I had this fish and it was the best I've ever had. And your fish brings back that experience. So when people. Share their memories of those, really special moments. That makes me feel like, yeah, that's why we're doing this. That's awesome.

Host Michael Dugan: 11:22

It's so cool. I mean, I know how passionate Chef Steven is about it because we've had conversations and I, interviewed him on Clubhouse a couple years ago and it was amazing. And to listen to him. It's very similar, like I have that same passion. I came from the restaurant business and so my passion for hospitality goes above and beyond what anybody can imagine. I work in technology now and I believe in that and I sense it from you and I sense it from Steven and it's really powerful, you know, when you have that. And then people resonate with it, right? So you get this review and you're connected to that customer.

Cohost Chef Steven: 12:05

That's the added value to to any kind of business.

Owner Sena Wheeler: 12:11

Yeah. And you know, for us, a lot of fishermen, they don't get that connection. If they're selling to a processing facility or whatever it, they just don't get that final connection to the customer. Oh yeah. And so it's really special. That's

Host Michael Dugan: 12:25

That's very true. Yeah. So how has social media played a role in building your community and sharing your journey?

Owner Sena Wheeler: 12:36

I think it's, social media is a really fun place to share that glimpse. And it's been fun for our business because it's such a family business. It's such a part of. It's really our lifestyle. It's who we are. Anyways, if you just look in my phone, there's going to be all these fishing photos and with the family on the boat. I love it. And there's gonna be pictures of fish. And so it really is this kind of glimpse into our life anyways, which we were living anyways. We were already doing this for 20 years. And it, the interesting part has been learning that, oh, people are interested. They care. Yeah. That's, kind of the surprise sometimes is this is our normal, but people are like, oh my gosh. Wow. That's really cool.

Host Michael Dugan: 13:25

You know, I have this idea in my head and it's, off, off key, but a lot of people start podcasts to tell their story, right? And they want to, sell their book. They, instead of doing a book, they do a podcast. But since you've been on a lot of podcasts and you're telling your story, I think you should write a book, not a cookbook. I'm talking about the journey. I've seen it. Seafoods. You know, I've

Owner Sena Wheeler: 13:49

just been starting to think about that.

Host Michael Dugan: 13:51

It would be amazing. Just

Owner Sena Wheeler: 13:51

the idea, I mean, it's a little bit daunting. But just like we're saying that the idea that people are interested. That people would wanna sit down and, read a book about it. And what would that entail? Because when it's so much your everyday life but okay. I'm hearing you and I listen because I think it's really

Host Michael Dugan: 14:14

interesting. I might, I listen. Yeah. You never know. I listen to three or four of your podcast and I try not to ask the same questions, but I really feel it. I mean, I feel like you live and breathe it. It's around your family. It's part of your culture, and you're sharing this with so many people around the country and it, just makes sense to me or start a podcast.

Owner Sena Wheeler: 14:40

I love it.

Host Michael Dugan: 14:41

It's just start our podcast.

Cohost Chef Steven: 14:43

I agree with the book. Yeah. You never know. It would turn into a movie or, there you go. Possibly. Yeah.

Owner Sena Wheeler: 14:49

Ah, there you go. Yeah. Okay. I love it. Thank you.

Host Michael Dugan: 14:52

So what does, let's move on to, what does sustainable fish mean to you personally, and how do you ensure that these values are reflected in your business?

Owner Sena Wheeler: 15:03

I love that one. Especially because I think that sometimes. The relationship between the, fishermen and the fish is, can be misconstrued, especially for commercial fishing. When you're talking about an industry like taking the wild Alaska salmon, which is cotton, Alaska it's, small boats or 32 foot limits. So you're talking 1, 1 1 to two or three guys, and these are small family boats, and that's how these operations all are. So we aren't unique. In the salmon industry. But I think that just for people to realize that fishing is usually, it is caught by these fishing families and we've, a lot of fishing families have been fishing for generations and they want to continue fishing for generations. They want abundant fish, they want to live the lifestyle. Of fishing and living off of the earth and things like that, just like a rancher or you know, a farmer or industries like that where you can see what you're doing. We just have this invisible ocean, but so many fishermen are on board with sustain sustainability and what does that mean? And our industry is actually very highly regulated. I think that people just don't always realize how highly regulated it is and how, That's a great thing. Everybody's on board for Copper River Salmon Each, each fish is, it's almost. Regulated slightly different depending on the fish and how it's caught. Oh, okay. The long lining fish is, regulated differently. It's federally regulated 'cause you catch it in federal waters. The salmon is regulated by the state of Alaska and the state of Alaska has known for a long time. That seafood and maintaining that seafood is, their livelihood. Okay? So they have had sustainability into their, in their state constitution for a long time, and they don't allow things like fish farming, which is great because fish farming can pollute the rivers and actually affect the wild stock. So things like that allow the wild stock, you know, up in Alaska, these rivers are truly wild, but the regulations also. The way we fish, we have very tight openings and it's the fish are monitored, the return, so the fish crossing going up river to spawn, they're actually being counted with fish counters and the data's being looked at daily. And if targets are being hit for how many fish are returning, then openings are opened. And if there's targets aren't being hit, then it doesn't open. Oh, and so it's first the, we have the escapement for next year or in four years, and then fishing on the extra.

Host Michael Dugan: 18:00

Yeah. So you're not just going and taking it all and then hoping that it's gonna replenish itself? No. Okay. That's fantastic. Do you have any questions around sustainability? Chef Steven? I know you're really passionate about.

Cohost Chef Steven: 18:14

Yeah I, think sustainability is mentioned a lot in different, you know, aspects other than seafood. I think I have a question about quality. Because you mentioned that customer feedback they, were very nice of describing they had the fish in Alaska and yours was better, or almost up to the same part. How, do you keep the quality you know, same question. Oh, yeah. Right, right, right. Good one. How do you make sure it arrive that, that freshness from the ocean to, the doorsteps? Right.

Owner Sena Wheeler: 18:54

Absolutely the quality starts. The second that fish comes out of the water. So when that fish is caught. So the quality really starts with the fishermen and having a quality minded fishermen and boat. So the setup, but the moment that fish comes out of the water, it need to be, it needs to be handled really carefully. So you can't have that fish flopping on the dock, on the deck safe, for example, if it's. If it's flopping, it's bruising and it's building up lactic acid and heat and it's all about the time and temperature, so you need to get that fish chilled, handled carefully and chilled as fast as possible. So that's the beauty of these small boats. And when you, copper River, which is where we fish, so fish actually come in pretty slow, and so you're able to. Bleed. We have a high pressure bleed box, so you're using pressure, water pressure to actually push the blood out very quickly, but it's also chilling that fish really quickly. So it's just amazing. How quickly can you get each individual fish chilled and then they're laid on ice, and ice scooped on top. So the perfect temperature for the fish is actually. Melting ice. You want just a little bit of ice on top. So it's that melting ice is it, is that 32 degrees of the perfect temperature where you're not exactly freezing it yet, but you're as cold as you can be. Yeah. Amazing. And you know, seeing these fishermen lay every fish down, you know, shove a little sprinkle of ice, you know, repeat. Very carefully. Even things like, my husband is fishermen and he has the processing facility, so having control over every step and he still does both. So he's fishing and they did things like, and they of course give a better price to the fishermen if it's handled better and chilled and, the, better systems. But he even started giving them a bonus if, their bag is small. So they, they. pile the fish in the brailer bags they're, even telling the fishermen, listen, don't overfill the bag because the fish on the bottom, it gets too heavy. Yeah. So the really detailed instructions on you know, how we handle our fish and the fishermen, they love it because they take a lot of pride in the quality of their fish that they're delivering. Yeah. Yeah. So that's just on board. Now take that all the way through. You know, you got the processing facility and every step it takes, and it's all time, temperature, every way, everywhere through,

Host Michael Dugan: 21:29

but also your packaging for sustainability and, Yeah, thinking about the environment, I was really impressed with that. Can you tell us a little bit about what goes into your packaging? I know you, you're very passionate about that.

Owner Sena Wheeler: 21:44

Yes. We ship to people's door and so we wanna be really thoughtful about that. Just in it in itself, you know, we're getting it to your door and packaging and it is very common when we started for, everyone to use styrofoam when it's coming to fish. Because you wanna keep it cool, it's all, you know, you've gotta keep that temperature down. But we took our time and really looked at alternatives and we use a sustainable, foam. It's actually a corn starch base. My kids used to come. Yeah, I found that

Host Michael Dugan: 22:18

very interesting.

Owner Sena Wheeler: 22:20

I told my kids, it's edible kids way back. It's edible. Yes. And we did a lot of testing and so they would just think it was so hilarious. They'd walk into the warehouse and grab our foam and just take a bite out of it and I'm, Hey, I need that for shipping. You can't just bite the.

Host Michael Dugan: 22:39

That's awesome. That is awesome. I love that. Oh my gosh. But you know, there's so much that goes into it and most of us, like I wasn't aware of all the steps and all the care and all these things, especially to protect the fishery, right? Yeah. I interviewed Tom Douglas and he started talking about that, and I love Tom. Oh my gosh, he's one of my idols. And he got so passionate about copper, salmon and all the things that are going on there. And so when you started talking about it and I started reading about it, I just, I got, really excited. I love Copper River too.

Owner Sena Wheeler: 23:17

He's amazing And and he gets it.

Host Michael Dugan: 23:21

Oh yeah.

Owner Sena Wheeler: 23:21

Protect the salmon. Protect the industry that protects the salmon. Because if we don't have this fishing industry, you know, that cares so much about the return of these fish, what will happen to these rivers? Who's gonna keep the deforestation and the mining away? It's these fishermen and fishing communities and the industry of fishing that's advocating for these clean rivers. The pebble mine. I know he's a big advocate or you know, I was

Host Michael Dugan: 23:50

gonna say, yeah, that's it right there. Yeah. Keeping the

Owner Sena Wheeler: 23:52

pebble mine away and things like that. I mean, not putting a mine at the head of our biggest wild salmon run on the planet. That stuff is, it matters and, it's working. You know, they're not putting in pedal pebble mind. So it's great to see people like him really care, be passionate and put their, throw their weight into it.

Host Michael Dugan: 24:16

Yeah, he just was on fire. You know, as soon as I mentioned it, I'm like, I couldn't stop him. And it was great because I'm very passionate about it too. What you have to understand is I've been to Alaska on my 40th. I went and flew and stayed for nine days on Alagnak River, and we floated it. Cool. Oh wow. And it's all about conservation. It's all about preserving. I wanted to see a bear in my life. On my bucket list was to see a grizzly in the wild 14. That trip. Wow. Wow. 14. Including watching a mother with its cubs swimming across the river going up on a hill. Oh, wow. And it was just priceless. But it's all about that whole cycle, not just the salmon, but it's everything involved in the cycle. Sure. And it's very powerful, and it's all about conservation, so I'm really passionate about that. What do you find most meaningful about running a family-based seafood business?

Owner Sena Wheeler: 25:13

We talked about that customer connection, but I think that the way we're running this, it's fun for our kids to see every step. So in the summer we'll go up to Alaska and we live on the boat and we fish on the boat with my husband. And you know, they know everybody on the boat has a job and they have jobs on the boat. And then often we'll come home, we don't do as many farmer's markets anymore, but we were doing quite a few pre COVID. So then they'd come home and they would be coming around to farmer's markets with me. And. Selling the fish, talking to the customers, and to be able to sit there and tell people, yeah, I, you know, I helped catch this fish and this is how, we catch it and this is how we do, and we help cut it. We're at, we, see every step. And so for them to see the work and energy that we put into it and the passion, I think is really cool.

Host Michael Dugan: 26:07

Oh, that's awesome. What products? I don't want to call 'em products.'cause to me , seafood is everything. But what seafood do your customers rave about the most?

Owner Sena Wheeler: 26:24

Oh, I would say copper River Sockeye is, our backbone. Copper River, Sockeye I, wanna just put on the. Website. This is what you're coming for. I know that. Yeah. Here, you go. Because a lot of people that are coming to our site are coming for Copper River Sockeye. We have Copper River King, which is, you know, the most amazing salmon. But, we sell out and we don't always have it. And it's something really special. You know, if you can afford it and you ever see it available, definitely try the king. But we eat the king, you know, in June. But we're eating Copper River sockeye the rest of the year along with our customers because that's what's available. So that's our backbone. But then I think it's fun when people, we have a lot of different cuts and we do different things. You know, we scrape the backbone of every fish. We have chops where we're utilizing the white fish, we take the skin off and the bones off so you can, it's ready to use in recipes. So I think what's fun is when. People come for what they know and love or they've heard about and then end up trying something new.

Host Michael Dugan: 27:38

Sure. Yeah. Steven talk. Why don't you chime in about

Cohost Chef Steven: 27:44

your favorites? I, think I haven't tried, any of product line yet, but I, I think my favorite and, of all time. Is actually, you know, cod'cause it's so Black Cod. Yeah. So easy. Oh, the

Owner Sena Wheeler: 28:03

Black Cod. Yeah. Yeah,

Cohost Chef Steven: 28:05

the Black Cod 'cause it's so easy to cook and there's so many variation that you can do. And I checked out Sena's website with all the recipes Oh yeah. And blogs. I feel like from looking at all the recipes I have, the first thought was, oh, this is very interesting. We're trying to get people to eat more seafood or cod or whatever fish that's, available with these vast variety of, recipes from kebabs to stews and even patties. And, then and, also barbecues. So there's so many. I feel like there's so many styles to get more people. To understand it and, don't be intimidated to cook them.

Owner Sena Wheeler: 28:59

Oh yeah. I love to introduce people to Black Cod or also called Sable Fish. It's, you know, when we catch it, it's called Black Cod on our fish tickets. And when we sell it, we have to sell it as Sable fish for labeling. And so that's why you see, you hear it both ways. And as fishermen, we know it as black cod. And you know, it's interesting'cause I see it both ways in restaurants also, but it's just one of those things. I mean, it's one of those fish that's gonna have probably many names. Yeah. But that's a really fun one to introduce people to because they maybe haven't had it before. It's something that I often serve to guests because people try Black Co and they're like, what is this? So rich and buttery, unlike a lot of white fish that can be very, it's not regular

Host Michael Dugan: 29:45

cod, it's not regular cod. Yeah. It is very unique and it's so

Cohost Chef Steven: 29:51

forgiving when, you

Host Michael Dugan: 29:52

cook it, it's

Cohost Chef Steven: 29:53

doesn't dry out too much. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Owner Sena Wheeler: 29:55

When I have guests, I cook it and people think I'm an amazing chef, and I'm like, Ooh, you know, it's really just the Black Cod

Cohost Chef Steven: 30:03

The, product shined itself, but I'm, very interested to. After reading this background I'm very interested to learn what is quantifying omega threes in the fish and, what does that do in health benefits, because I'm very, I'm not professional in any way of nutritional knowledge but I'm very passionate about. Eating very nutritious. I think food heal the body, so I'm very interested to, to learn more about that part.

Owner Sena Wheeler: 30:39

Yeah. Quantifying omega threes, that makes it sound like you read my thesis. That was part of my master's degree was quantifying the omega threes of That's awesome. West coast alba cor tuna and quantifying is just counting, but it's just measuring how many, how much omega threes are in the fish. And what's really interesting is, I was doing that in the let's see, early two thousands. And at the time I was working for a seafood lab and I was getting my master's degree and the West Coast Albacore people that association of people that catch it had said they had came, come to my professor and said. The Copper River people are doing such an amazing job marketing Copper River Salmon because it has high omega threes. And that's what we want to do. And so the first step is we need to measure the omega threes in our West coast  Albacore tuna. And that's what I was doing. And I had no idea I would later be even, we had, we weren't even catching Copper River salmon at the time, so I had no idea I would be involved with Copper River Salmon. My whole, my family and my husband were catching. Halibut and Black Cod at the time. And so I got to work with this incredible  Albacore , which I don't sell because we don't catch it in Alaska, but. What a amazing fish to work with. So I was measuring the omega threes in a very laboratory way. Chemicals in a lab, you know, bunson burner kind of very very laboratory. But then, you know, and I'd use this funny drill bit to kind of.

Host Michael Dugan: 32:21

Oh wow. Get core samples out of the fish. I had these zones,

Owner Sena Wheeler: 32:25

oh my gosh. I was doing zones of the fish and I was getting core samples out of each zone. And these, fish came from boats that were right there in the harbor that had, you know, handled them in certain ways. So anyways, then I'm bringing these fish home. They have the core samples drilled out and then. My husband, Rich, is we have a smoker and he's like smoking these West coast Albacore my gosh. Belly flaps and things like that. I mean, it was really amazing because we ate so good and I have such an appreciation for that fish. It's an incredible fish.

Host Michael Dugan: 32:57

I love it. I love

Owner Sena Wheeler: 32:58

it. So that's a sidetrack. No,

Host Michael Dugan: 33:00

that's awesome. But the omega threes very amazing.

Owner Sena Wheeler: 33:03

Just to kind of dive back into your question is you know, on Fish, what's amazing is that. The fat is Omega-3 in the form of omega threes or fatty acids Is, healthy for you. And so on fish, you just get this real double duty where the fat makes it taste good. It gives you that mouth feel. The moistness and the flavor. So where the fat makes it taste good, but it's because it's omega threes. It's also. Healthy. So omega threes are healthy for our body. It's one of those things that we don't make ourselves. So we need to eat omega threes in our food source and. When it comes to fish, it's like we get to, you get to really celebrate that healthy fat because it tastes good and it's delicious. Yeah. Or tastes good, delicious and healthy. How about that? Yes.

Host Michael Dugan: 33:55

As we wrap up, for listeners who wanna support you, how can they find and order from Sena Seafoods?

Owner Sena Wheeler: 34:03

They should definitely come to our website at. Senasea.com. S-E-N-A-S-E -A.com. And then I like to tell people to jump on our email list. We have a VIP list. That's where you're gonna hear like. You know, when we have Copper River King available or something really special. But that's also where I really like to connect, like I mentioned, and where you're gonna just hear more about our family and what we're doing, the lifestyle and get lots of great recipes,

Host Michael Dugan: 34:33

incredible recipes. By the way, I saw on your blog. Something about halibut cheeks, and it brought back a memory where a friend had brought back halibut cheeks and gave me a bag of them. Oh, yeah. And I just went crazy. I couldn't believe how good and tender they were. But you wrote about it and it just hit me so hard. I have, I can't even tell you because every time they come into season here I go crazy.

Owner Sena Wheeler: 35:01

Oh yeah. That's something that, you know. Traditionally only fishermen knew about. Right, right. It's kind of would be a hidden secret, right? Yeah.

Host Michael Dugan: 35:11

So we got a minute and 20 seconds left. Is there a final message that you'd love to leave with our listeners around the world?

Owner Sena Wheeler: 35:23

Oh wow. No pressure. No pressure

Host Michael Dugan: 35:25

at all.

Owner Sena Wheeler: 35:26

I would just say, and I've been repeating this over and over when I just talked to my friends and everything, it's all about the food. Everything goes back to the food. Whether you're talking about community or just feeding your family or time around the table, or your health or your kids' health. Yeah, it's all about the food. So just being mindful of what you're eating, how you're eating taking the time to cook and prepare and eat with your family and friends is, it matters.

Host Michael Dugan: 36:01

Okay. Thank you so much Cina for being with us today, and thank you Chef Steven for becoming our co-host, and we'll say goodbye.

Owner Sena Wheeler: 36:12

Thank you.

Host Michael Dugan: 36:13

All right. Thank you all. Take care now. Take care.

Owner Sena Wheeler: 36:17

Thanks guys.