A Deep Dive into Oceans 180 with Jardar Nygaard, Fresh Seafood at Greenwich Farmers Market

Many Greenwich residents know Jardar Nygaard, who started and later sold Fjord Fisheries to its current owners in 2012. You may even remember the original location at 59 East Putnam Ave or its second location, in the old red house decorated with vintage boat buoys on River Road.

Others know Nygaard from Greenwich High School class of 1989.

These days Nygaard and his wife Michele live in Fairfield, where he operates a business called Nordic Fish.

 

“I’ve been in the fish business my entire life,” he said. “Here in Greenwich you have three great fish markets – Greenwich Fish, Bon Ton and Lobster Bin – so we had to do something different here.”

Nygaard talked fish and shellfish on Saturday at the Greenwich Farmers Market where his newest business venture Oceans 180 has a presence with their fresh, sustainable seafood from local producers.

“I know the Greenwich people and they appreciate a superior product,” he said, adding that Greenwich is the third of three farmers markets Oceans 180 participates in. The others are in Westport and Fairfield.

“We noticed that in our Fairfield market customers draw from a large geographic area. People come from Newtown, New Fairfield, Danbury and up to Stratford, whereas people from Greenwich stay local,” he said, agreeing with the suggestion that might reflect concerns about getting stuck in traffic.

“Westport’s farmers market is different – people spend the day there and have lunch. The Fairfield market is not just big, but it’s packed with people,” he said.

Greenwich’s farmers market in Horseneck lot is also more strict on participation. There are no knife sharpeners or crafts people. In fact, market master Judy Waldeyer said she turned away over 200 vendor applications this year.

“It’s nice to be back in Greenwich,” he said. “The farmers markets are a different type of customer than you find in a retail store, they’re here for a different reason. They’re here to buy something for a specific purpose and they’re more like, ‘Let’s see what’s available.'”

“I don’t think that a farmers market should be just for merchants; it should be for producers,” he said. “At Oceans 180, we only buy direct from a boat or through a facilitator. We cap our margins, and everything above the margin cap goes back to the producer so they are incentivized.”

Oceans 180 bridges the gap between local seafood producers and farmers’ markets. By connecting these two worlds, we ensure you get the freshest seafood directly from the source and producers participate in the financial upside of selling direct to the public. – Oceans 180 mission

Oceans 180 only joined the seasonal Greenwich Farmers Market this year.

“Once we get above margin cap, then the bonuses will go back to the boats. We’re hoping for more volume – the volume will come.”

What does ‘direct from the boat’ look like?

Nygaard said the Black Seabass on sale Saturday in Greenwich was trap-caught from Niantic, that day.

“We buy them right from the boat in Niantic when he comes in. We also get Fluke from him.”

Holding up a whole Black Sea Bass from Niantic, Nygaard said, “Look at all the color and all the iridescence. Within about a day that color will fade and it will be all black – you won’t see that an iridescence.”

“Steelhead Salmon we buy from Hudson Valley Fish Farm. We pay a really high premium for that fish. It’s closed circuit aquaculture, which I typically don’t like but, when you look at the fish, the color is bright and the fins are whole. A lot of times fish that are in a stressed environment will start biting each other; they’ll nip at the tail of the other fish. When you see the tail is in tact, it means they’re being raised in a really good environment.”

Nygaard said the fish is all natural –  no antibiotics, no hormones, all natural beta carotene for color, so no synthetic beta-carotenes.

“It would be organic if there wasn’t wild fish in the feed,” he said, adding that that by definition, in the US nothing ocean-raised can be labeled organic because it’s impossible to control all the inputs.

“At Ocean’s 180, we try to buy everything within 180 miles. You can’t always do that. This weekend we have Swordfish and Tuna from Nova Scotia. That’s trucked into Boston and comes through one of our suppliers in Boston – so that we can’t bonus back, but we know the boat, it’s the Ivy Rose from Ivy Fisheries a big producer in Canada, but everywhere we can, we try to buy as direct as possible, right from the boat.”

On Saturday, Nygaard’s selection of fresh fish and shellfish included Little Neck Clams from the Great South Bay in Long Island and Oysters from Duxbury, MA.

Nygaard said they also purchase oysters from Norm Bloom & Son that are harvested from the renowned oyster beds off the coast of Norwalk and Westport – specifically from Copps Island.

Nygaard said Norm Bloom is often his go-to for ice, because even though he makes 2,000 lbs of ice a day, and it’s often not enough.

“Two or three times a week I go pick up 1,000 lbs of ice from him. He’s really supportive,” Nygaard said.

There was also lobster meat from Massachusetts for sale.

“It’s a little early for Maine lobsters – in about three weeks we start buying from our Maine supplier when the new shells are hard enough to sell,” he said.

Also on offer were Scallops from the Donna Marie in Cape Cod, Swordfish and Tuna from Ivy Rose in Nova Scotia, and Halibut from Gloucester.

 

“We have a limited selection. It’s not about all-things-for-all-people or competing with local merchants who sell a broad array of products,” Nygaard said.

And, when you buy fish from Oceans 180, it won’t come wrapped in paper inside a plastic bag.

“We try to use as little resources as possible,” he explained, showing the special bags Oceans 180 are placed inside. “This is all made out of ocean-bound plastic taken out of midstream and then recycled.”

“This is the right way to recycle the plastic. This gives the plastic a second or third use,” he said.

Nygaard said when he previously lived in Greenwich for over 40 years, he ran an oyster farming business in Stamford and Greenwich for a decade.

He explained that commercial oyster farming involves moving oysters twice, sometimes three times for a high-quality product.

“Good oysters are moved a couple of times before they’re sold. It’s rare that an oyster grows the right shape and the right meat content in the same place that it sets,” he said.

“You want to take them when they’re small and move them into deeper water and spread them out so they can grow that round shape. When they start to grow together, they start to grow upward.”

Nygaard said Greenwich hasn’t typically been a rich oyster area.

“But it’s always good for clams,” he said.

He said in the Town jurisdiction there is a deeded bottom of Greenwich waters mapped out long ago.

“They call it a franchise, but the oyster records are with the land records at town hall,” he said, adding that the people originally claiming oyster grounds had familiar names including Lockwood, Palmer and Mead.

“It’s interesting. The records may refer to a chimney to the west lining up with some bushes. That’s how it was described. It would be impossible to say exactly that’s where it is today, but we got it pretty close.”

Nygaard’s oyster beds came down from his ancestors, the Mayhews. He transferred them to his company’s name in 2014.

Find Oceans 180 at the Saturday Greenwich Farmers Market in Horseneck Lot by exit 3 of I95. The hours are 9:30am to 1:00pm until November 22, 2025. No dogs allowed.