It all started in Sicily, where the Scola family originated from, both on the docks lumping boats and on the boats as fisherman. When Peter Scola came overseas to America and continued lumping boats on the old Boston Fish Pier, his son - Paul P. Scola - soon followed his footsteps and got a working permit at age 15 to carry on the Italian family tradition.

 

Paul eventually partnered up with Roland Harrington and in 1972 founded the widely respected R&P Seafood/Shellfish right on the old Boston Fish Pier. R&P primarily specialized in groundfish, sourcing haddock and cod from Nova Scotia, Maine, and Chatham. It wasn't long before brothers Michael, Paul, and Steven Scola took the reins of R&P. Then, in 1999, they started adding divisions in pursuit to eventually become "America's One-Stop-Shop for Seafood" (BST). This goal led to us moving out of our old building in 2001, and into a brand new state-of-the-art facility down the road on Seafood Way, doubling our size in space. 

 

In 2003, Michael Scola and (retired) Tim Malley founded Boston Sword & Tuna. At this point, we began putting together our team of well-rounded seafood professionals who brought what was needed to the table in order for us to not only survive in this industry, but thrive. Mike Machado, for instance, one of our lead buyers, spent a decade fishing the Grand Banks before dropping anchor with BST. Likewise, Bobby Blaikie – our GM – grew up on the Boston Fish Pier. We even have a former five-star chef on our diverse team, Peter Safner.

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As the years passed, we continued to grow, continued to extend our product line, and then in 2007 officially merged R&P and BST under Boston Sword & Tuna. Our continued success ultimately led to Larry Dore joining us as a partner in 2012. Larry is well respected in the  seafood industry, and his knowledge of the fillet business made our 2012 expansion feel natural. In addition, we hired Chris Marchese in 2011 to run our newly rolled out salmon division, which took off and eventually led to Chris overseeing all daily operations. With this in place we then purchased more space, adding ten more doors for shipping, and again doubled the size of our facility. This allowed us to expand our operations, adding a full range of fillets to our product line, as well as prepared foods.

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Fast forward to present day and Boston Sword & Tuna has moved into it’s very own, free standing 50,000 sq/ft state-of-the-art facility that has allowed us to continue our growth, expand our offerings and obtain our SQF Certification, the highest standard of food safety and operational management in the industry. Our value added program also plays a large role in this expansion as retail demand continues to adapt in the way people wish to purchase seafood!

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We pride ourselves on being "America's One-Stop-Shop for Seafood" that we originally set out to be in 2003. Knowing which boats to buy from, which boats to not buy from, and establishing long-lasting relationships enables us to consistently source the best quality products on the market both locally and around the world. This is why Boston Sword & Tuna has quickly grown to become one of the largest and most reliable seafood distributors in the United States, and will expand on our success for years to come as the younger generation prepares to step in and take over! 

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Boston Sword & Tuna is proud to be involved with a number of organizations including:

 

Mass Seafood Collaborative                                             American Scallop Association            

 

Save the Harbor                                                     Marine Stewardship Council

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