Fish processors raising a stink at Point Loma
Sarah Saraspe of Five Star Fish Processing loads up fish brought in by one of her few remaining clients. She filed a lawsuit against Frank LoPreste and other captains, claiming their fish processing plant is running her out of business. — Ed Zieralski
POINT LOMA
— Back when Sarah and Andy Saraspe opened their Five Star Fish
Processing plant on May 15, 2003 in Point Loma at the urging of their
friends Tim Ekstrom and Randy Toussaint of the Royal Star sport boat,
they figured they had a business that couldn’t fail.
Andy’s
background as a commercial fisherman taught him how to care for fish
and present his catch of the day in the best possible way for sale at
the market. Ekstrom and Toussaint were the first sport captains to use
refrigerated saltwater, or RSW, in fish holds to keep fish ocean-fresh
on long-range trips. Saraspe was a perfect match for the Royal Star duo
because he already was using RSW in his totes that held his commercial
catch. Saraspe began processing sport-caught fish that came out of the
Royal Star’s RSW wells, even though it had been caught days prior,
looking more like it had just been gaffed from the sea and taken off a
sport angler’s hook.
Soon,
Frank LoPreste, owner-captain of the Royal Polaris, asked to be let in
on the process for his boats, the Royal Polaris and the Shogun. That
meant the Saraspes were set with three of the top long-range
sportfishing boats in the fleet delivering their tuna, wahoo and other
exotic fish to them after every long-range fishing trip.
But
seven years later, after a series of events that has left Sarah Saraspe
deeply hurt and betrayed, it all started tumbling down to a trickle of
fish business for the Saraspes at the dock in 2010. That’s when
LoPreste, Ekstrom and even the Saraspes’ one-time great friend,
Toussaint, along with partner Sean Sebring decided to open their own
sport-caught fish processing plant, Fisherman’s Processing, at Liberty
Station in April of 2010. Today they not only are making thousands of
dollars from each angler on their boat, but they also are making
hundreds of dollars from every angler by charging them to process their
sport-caught fish. They take the whole fish, process it and then sell it
back to their anglers in the form of fillets, smoked fish or in cans.
Instead of just getting a percentage from the processors like they did
in the past, LoPreste, Ekstrom and Toussaint have, in many instances,
eliminated the middle man, the Saraspes and Ghio.
It
all has led to a lengthy lawsuit filed by Sarah Saraspe that names,
LoPreste, Ekstrom, Toussaint and Sebring, with a long manifest of
allegations that include violations of civil rights, sex discrimination,
unlawful business practices, fraudulent business practices, defamation
and slander, breach of contract and more. Sarah Saraspe claims in her
lawsuit that Five Star lost 95 percent of its Royal Star clients, 60
percent of her Royal Polaris customers, 50 percent of her anglers from
the Shogun and 40 percent of the Excel fishermen who used Five Star. She
figures her business is down more than $100,000 this year alone.
Calls
placed by U-T San Diego to the defendants, LoPreste, Ekstrom and
Toussaint, and a lawyer representing LoPreste, were not returned.
“It’s really been an emotional
battle, these last two years,” Sarah Saraspe said. “It has hurt my
family. It hurts my soul. This business has been my life for 10 years.
These people here who I service are my family and to not be able to have
that connection with them down at Fisherman’s Landing anymore, it’s
tough for me.
“They went
into business. They cut me and Mario out and their goal is to make sure
fishermen won’t have any choice where to go. One processor. And they’ll
charge anything they want. It will be a complete monopoly because they
own the boats, the landings, the fish processing, the parking lot, the
fuel and part of the bait.
“With
the economy the way it is, why would the big guy who is making all the
money, cut out the little guy who is working so damn hard for such a
little amount. The answer is LoPreste wants to be powerful and control
everything. He just wants to win, win at any cost.”
Sarah
Saraspe’s attorney, Scott Toothacre, said he soon will file for
injunctive relief and damages for the money Sarah Saraspe has lost.
Sarah has been banned from taking fish from Fisherman’s Landing’s end of
the dock. Toothacre wants to change that immediately.
Ghio
said he has had his own discussions with LoPreste about how unfair it
is for the captains on three long-range boats to have control over so
many returning fishermen. Saraspe’s lawsuit claims LoPreste, because of
his stature and multiple holdings in the fishing industry, has used that
influence on anglers and other captains to steer them away from Saraspe
and Ghio and to use his Fisherman’s Processing.
“I
still have some loyal customers who still come by, but they shanghaied a
lot of my old customers,” said Ghio, who has been processing
sport-caught fish for nearly 20 years. “Frank tells me he didn’t put a
gun to these guys’ heads, but the whole thing over there is a racket.
All those years I took care of them over there, and this is how they
treat me.”
