We used to have to beg our local fishmonger to carry species like scup, tautog, monkfish and Rhode Island-raised oysters, but now there’s no question that what’s for dinner came from area waters.

Stu Meltzer is serious about fish. The bearded fishmonger talks about it in a way a proud father talks about his children. He opens the door of an outdoor cooler that is located directly in back of Fearless Fish Market, and begins to explain how totes of fish are stacked with ice and labeled by species and the name of the fisherman who caught them. “Everything is labeled by harvest date and the size,” he says. “When we ship it out, we know which fish were harvested on which day.”

He points to a nearly pure white fluke resting on ice and explains how this radiant fish was bled out as part of the Japanese ikejime method of harvesting fish.