(car door shutting)
- [Amber] Beautiful.
Six.
- [Narrator] Wherever the freshest catch lands
in the Newport Marina.
- Okay, I'm gonna switch buckets.
- [Narrator] That's where you'll find Amber Morris.
- Look at it.
Pristine, it's beautiful.
It's not soft, it's fresh,
the blood's out.
The rabbi would bless it.
- [Narrator] She always knows when fishermen
like Larry Davis are coming
in with fresh salmon and halibut
and she's at the dock to buy it right off his boat,
The Two Sisters.
- When you go down on the boat
and the fish is being taken out of the ice hold
it's a splintering, glistening, and it's beautiful
and it's fresh and it's an honor to buy the fish
and then serve it.
It's so fresh the ocean hasn't missed it.
- Hey Amber, you don't want to bend any lower,
and bend that fish and market 'em
you're best person in the harbor.
- [Larry] Ah, she's a movie star.
- Good morning, Amber.
- [Amber] Good morning, Rocky.
- [Narrator] She's a fishmonger,
buying and selling sea food day in, day out.
And writing checks on the back of her pick up truck.
- Well this is a fish ticket, 236 pounds minus
the garbage cans and 21 fish.
Oh, and the halibut, 50 pounds.
- We call her our fish goddess
and without Amber I don't know how
we could maintain buying from as many boats as we do.
We buy from 50 or 60 different boats a year
and what she does is kind of magic.
- [Narrator] The fish she buys all end up here,
at Local Ocean Seafoods where it's also her job
to sell them in the fish market.
Most of the seafood that lands on Newport's docks
is delivered in bulk and disappears
into a processing plant.
But Amber works on a smaller scale.
- This is what Larry Davis got,
this beautiful fish from The Two Sisters.
- [Narrator] One fisherman and one customer at a time.
Her way of doing things may not be the fastest
or the most conventional.
- Not everybody uses a big knife like this.
I do.
- And she's got this giant knife.
I mean, the knife is like a sword.
- You don't touch Amber's knife, it's true.
Everybody knows who's knife is Amber's
and it's just Amber's.
- You know, it's very firm.
- Hey, Amber.
- Hey, Ed, here you go.
Thank you.
- How are you?
- Good, what would you like today?
We have fresh salmon.
- I need three pounds.
- Of salmon?
- Don't cut too much.
- I'll leave that.
- Yeah, yeah good.
- Want to see a picture of the fisherman
that caught your fish?
There he is.
Larry Davis from The Two Sisters.
- Nice.
- What else?
- Two big crab.
- So I'm gonna have to go find some.
- So we'll see what's goin' on here. (laughs)
See, she's weighing them by hand,
she knows what's going on.
She takes me seriously when I said big,
you know, she's like, "Okay, I'm gonna go find big."
- [Narrator] She spends time with each customer
no matter how long the line gets.
- [Amber] People have to wait in line, right?
And each person wants and gets individual attention.
- [Narrator] She says it's like a Jewish deli.
- [Samantha] So when certain things come in,
you get a phone call, you get a text.
She knows what part of the salmon I want,
like if I'm gonna buy a piece of smoked fish.
- [Narrator] With each filet she sells
and every scoop of ice she bags up,
she always seems to add a little something extra.
- So happy to see you.
- Yes, it's good to be back.
We were one of the first people
to come here when the place opened.
- June 26th, 14 years ago.
- Yeah, we're one of the old schools.
- [Narrator] Sometimes, it's a selfie.
- Can I take a picture of you with my camera?
- Of course.
- [Amber] Cause I've been doing that.
- Ready?
All right, there it is.
- Thank you.
Second.
- [Narrator] It may take a little longer,
but her customers, some of whom are local chefs,
say it's always worth the wait.
- Sometimes the boats will be late
and she's like, "I'm coming."
She'll call me, she'll be like, "I'm coming,
"don't you worry."
And I'm just like, "Amber, dinner is in like 20 minutes."
And she'll drive up here, she parks right there,
and she'll come in with this, the fish isn't even cut,
and the fish in one hand, the knife in other,
she'll walk right past a full dining room of people
and they're like, "What is going on?"
And she'll go in the back of our entrance,
(imitates cutting sound) here you go.
And she said, "I told you I'd be there."
(laughs) She's amazing.
I mean, amazing.
- [Narrator] If Amber had her way,
this story wouldn't be about her.
It would be about the fisherman.
- You know, we honor the fisherman.
The name of the boat is on the fish
and they take pride in their boat.
- People actually ask me that all the time.
Why don't more places do this?
And the answer is it's really hard.
- [Narrator] But Amber doesn't mind doing things
the hard way.
- Dave should be here.
Dave!
- [Dave] Yeah, Amber!
- Hey, hi.
- [Dave] Hello.
How are you today?
- It's fun, I love dealing.
So I don't consider it hard.
- This is how we do it one at a time.
They do like to fight.
Eh, you gotta know how to deal with fishermen.
Fishermen are so unique, they're so different each one,
they're good mad moods you never know how they're feeling.
Amber is just so lowkey, nice to everybody,
you kind of want to make her happy
and you want to bring your product to somewhere local.
You know, most of our product goes on a truck
and we never see it again.
That's a good crab right there,
that's a really nice summertime crab, hard as a rock.
- You know, I'm hands on.
These are nice crab, Dave.
- Yeah, there's some good ones in there.
- Yeah, look at that.
- [Amber] People come from all over Oregon
and they come to buy the fish
so I want to be there to be on top of everything everyday.
- One nineteen.
So come to the office.
- And last but not least the signature.
Alrighty, thank you.
- All right, thank you.
- Until next time.