That’s no longer possible because of strict regulations that require restaurants to purchase seafood from licensed wholesalers, explained Durfee, who now manages George’s, his family’s Narragansett seafood restaurant. The system helps ensure that food is safe, but also makes it more difficult for restaurants to get fresh fish and for fishermen to earn a living.

But recently, an entrepreneurial group of three Point Judith fishermen have started to use modern technology and business acumen to market and sell their catch directly to restaurants in Rhode Island and the Boston area. It’s a modern version of what those fishermen were doing a generation or two ago at George’s.

“We can deliver fish that was in the water at noontime to a restaurant in Providence by three in the afternoon,” Christopher Brown said. “That’s unheard of.”

In January, after obtaining the proper licensing, Brown, Steve Arnold and Bob Westcott began selling and delivering fish under their own label, Wild Rhody. Selling direct requires more legwork than going through a wholesaler. But it also allows them to set their own prices and make more profit.

“We’re becoming businessmen, finally, as opposed to just hunters and gatherers,” Brown said.

Read the complete story from The Providence Journal