About Sea Stephanie Fish

Our Story

Like all great ideas, Sea Stephanie Fish was born over a shot of tequila at Brophy's at the Santa Barbara Harbor in 2012. Two Santa Barbara sea urchin divers, Stephanie Mutz and Harry Liquornik, merged their individual uni businesses that had become too large to manage alone. Sea Stephanie Fish was the more recognized business name of the two, so that one stuck. Harry and Stephanie have grown their separate ways, but still support each other in each other’s individual professional endeavors.

Sea Stephanie Fish sea urchins are available to the public, sold at several weekly markets and on the menu at dozens of restaurants up and down the California coast. We are absolutely grateful for Sara Remick our head driver and Connor Streett our lucky charm of a deckhand.

Our Mission

Sea Stephanie Fish provides access to quality seafood harvested in a responsible way that builds relationships with our local community. We fish out of Santa Barbara and deliver weekly directly to consumers and restaurants all over Los Angeles, Orange County, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara. We frequent San Francisco several times per year due to popular demand for sea urchin.

Meet the Divers

Stephanie Mutz

Stephanie didn't start in the commercial fishing industry until her late 20's. She was supposed to be a college biology professor until her fishing problem got in the way.  She does still teach part time online, but her full time job is commercial fishing – predominantly sea urchin diving. 

Growing up as a beach bum in Newport Beach, she would always tell her dad that she never wanted a job where she had to wear pantyhose and sit at a desk. So far so good!  When Stephanie initially won her sea urchin permit in the lottery, she was only selling to the processor. At that time, most sea urchin divers were making a living harvesting 1000’s of pounds a day, and she could not come close to harvesting that amount due to the grueling physical demand of urchin diving.

Stephanie realized she had to increase the value of her catch and focus on quality over quantity. Harvesting less for more value also coincided with Stephanie’s environmental conservation values.