Traditional Fisheries Shark Tank Update

Traditional Fisheries Shark Tank Pitch

Gary Groomes and Dave Johnson highlight the emerging problem of Lionfish spreading throughout the Atlantic Ocean as an invasive species. People praised Lionfish for its beauty, but it eats other valuable fish, such as lobster eggs, and has no natural predators due to its venomous spines. Gary and Dave created Traditional Fisheries to introduce Lionfish into the American fish market for human consumption.

Lori thinks Lionfish taste like flounder. The problem with that is I don't know what flounder tastes like, but the sharks in general like the taste. Others aren't serving Lionfish because the process to turn them from sea creatures to the dinner plate is difficult and Americans are unfamiliar with the fish.

Lionfish don't bite a hook so Gary and Dave work with Mexican spearfisherman to catch Lionfish. In the last year Traditional Fisheries has done $12k in revenue.

The sharks are weary of the significance of the problem Lionfish are causing to the sea and know it's going to take a lot of time and money to familiarize Americans with Lionfish. All the sharks go out.

Traditional Fisheries After Shark Tank

Several blogs reported that Gary Groomes and Dave Johnson closed Traditional Fisheries a few months after airing on Shark Tank. In 2022 they have a generic website, traditionalfisheries.org

According to fisheries.noaa.gov

According to a 2021 article by scubadiving.com

Dave Johnson was a serial entrepreneur from Minnesota and met his wife on a visit to Mexico’s Riviera Maya in the 1980s in search of big game fish. He moved there and heard reports from his wife's family that the Lionfish was hurting the local wildlife, which inspired Dave to start Traditional Fisheries.

According to Gary's LinkedIn