Gulf of Maine Conservas creating boutique canned fish brand using US-caught products

Rye, New Hampshire, U.S.A-based tinned seafood brand Gulf of Maine Conservas is a one-man band operated by Keper Connell, created out of a passion for quality value-added products.

A fisherman for the past 20 years, Connell told SeafoodSource he’s always been interested in finding, or creating, different markets in the industry. His newest project, Gulf of Maine Conservas, offers wild-caught tinned bluefin tuna, mackerel, and eel to customers nationwide.

“I’m always hustling some other angle, as opposed to just going out and catching stuff and settling for the price,” he said.

Connell said the company got its start when he and his wife took a trip to Barcelona in 2016 and saw the varieties of tinned food on offer.

“I had that epiphany moment, of ‘wouldn’t it be great to figure out a way to can the fish that I catch?’” he said.

Connell ruminated on the idea for a few years, and then when he was getting bad prices for bluefin tuna on the retail end decided to use his skillset to start making that canned idea a reality. Starting small, with “a pressure cooker from Tractor Supply” and some mason jars, he began experimenting with how to create a good product.

Producing a product fit for sale at scale was another matter. Connell said he hit “roadblock after roadblock” when starting the company, largely related to finding a place that could tin his fish safely.

“Whether it was FDA or USDA requirements, or HACCP plans, basically it was ‘is there anywhere on the East Coast where I can tin my fish legally?’” he said.

Eventually a friend referred him to the line-caught albacore tuna fishery in the Pacific Northwest, which gave him an opportunity to send out fish and do a test run on product.

“I sent some stuff out there, I chopped up a fish and sent out five boxes of fresh tuna loin overnight – a thousands dollars worth of shipping. Two out of the five boxes showed up and it was just a mess,” Connell said. “But I got some product back and I was on to something.”

Since that time Connell has moved …

Photo courtesy of Gulf of Maine Conservas