What to Order, What to Eat

Whether you order seafood off a restaurant menu or shop at a fish market and grill it yourself, here are some of your best choices.

Albacore tuna. The albacore tend to show up in mid-June, sticking around until early October. “We have a really good grade of albacore tuna off Oregon,” says Jim Iverson, owner of Lighthouse Deli & Fish Co. of South Beach.

Dungeness crab. Available December through mid-August.

Halibut. Sporadic, quota-dependent seasonal openings off the Oregon coast give local fishermen a shot at halibut on and off throughout the summer, though most of the fish hails from Alaska. “Salmon and halibut are probably neck and neck at our market,” Cindy Beckman of Ecola Seafoods in Cannon Beach, Oregon, says of her company’s fish sales. Her husband, Jay, catches most of what they sell.

Oregon pink bay shrimp. These small, flavorful shrimp are available from April through October.

Oysters and clams. Oysters are widely raised in Oregon bays and available year-round. Most steamer clams come from the bays and coasts off Oregon and Washington.

Wild Chinook salmon. It’s troll-caught right off the coast and available mid-March through mid-December.