With local halibut season in full swing, and B.C. spot prawns hitting stores sometime this week, it’s an exciting time to enjoy seafood.

But realistically, not all of us can afford the steep prices. For example, at the Daily Catch Seafood Company (various locations), which sells exclusively Ocean Wise products, wild halibut fillets are going for $29.99 per pound. Co-owner Dylan McCulloch estimates live spot prawns, with heads on, going for roughly $19 per pound.

What’s a sustainability-minded person on a budget to do?

At his 1418 Commercial Drive location, McCulloch offers some tips on how to stretch your seafood dollar. (Note: all seafood prices quoted below may vary according to seasonal availability.)

Instead of the pricey fillet, he suggests buying a whole halibut ($15.99 per pound), with a 30-pound fish yielding roughly 60 servings. (Pool your resources with friends if you don’t need that much.) Staff will fillet the fish for you, vacuum-pack it, and provide a Japanese- or Italian-style marinade for free. Don’t forget to make stock with the leftover bones.

McCulloch hauls out a seven- to eight-pound bag of halibut bones that he sells for $5. Not only is it great for stock, but if you scrape the bones, you can get about a pound of meat for making, say, halibut tacos or burgers. House-made halibut cakes ($7.99 each) are available for the less industrious.

McCulloch recommends lingcod (fillet $18.99 per pound, whole $8.99 per pound) or Pacific grey cod (fillet $15.99 per pound) if you’re looking for cheaper local, sustainable white fish. Other more inexpensive local fish include sockeye for $10.99 per pound, pink salmon starting in July for $10 each (four to five pounds), and sardines for $3 per pound.

McCulloch says he doesn’t actually make any profit on spot prawns but loves to see people get so excited over them. The short season, coupled with high demand and limited supply for locals, jacks up the price. He says buying them with their heads on is cheaper (compared to $35 to $40 per pound for tails only), and suggests using the heads, along with the shells, for stock. (Spot prawn bisque would be lovely.) You can also purchase just the heads for $5 per pound if you want to enjoy the flavour of spot prawns without the huge expense.

As an alternative, local side stripe shrimp are considerably cheaper at $18 to $20 per pound, heads off, and actually even sweeter. Mussels and clams ($6.99 per pound) are other reasonably priced seafood options.

Once you’ve brought your seafood home from the market, John McManus, executive chef at the Vancouver Fish Company Restaurant + Bar (1517 Anderson Street on Granville Island), recommends cooking it as simply as possible so you get to really taste its natural flavours.

“That way, you’re getting the most bang for your buck,” he says during a phone chat. With spot prawns, he likes to buy them live, remove the head, peel them, and eat them raw, with just a bit of lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, and sea salt. If you’d rather cook them, you can marinate them in garlic, lemon, parsley, and olive oil, and then grill or pan-sear them.

As for halibut or lingcod, McManus butter-poaches the fish to keep it moist, or pan-sears it in butter, and seasons it with a squeeze of lemon. He also likes making ceviche, mixing strips of raw fish with lime juice, coconut milk, diced avocado, diced red bell peppers, torn mint leaves, olive oil, and minced chili pepper, with dried, unsweetened coconut as a garnish. This ceviche works well for using up leftover fish scraps.

During a phone interview, Dana Hauser, executive chef at the Fairmont Waterfront (900 Canada Place Way), provides some ideas for dishes that require just a small number of spot prawns for flavour enhancement. For instance, you could add chopped, butter-poached spot prawns to your mac ’n’ cheese, mashed potatoes, or potato gratin. Serve the spot-prawn potatoes as a side dish with steak for a cheaper version of surf and turf. Hauser also likes cooking with reasonably priced mussels and clams, steaming the mussels in beer and clams with white wine, kale, and thick-cut bacon.

Hauser says that since serving halibut as a main course can get expensive, you can buy a halibut fillet or two, butter-poach the fish, and then offer bite-size portions in small dishes or Chinese spoons, along with a sunchoke or pea purée, and perhaps sautéed morel mushrooms. She adds that raw fish scraps are great for making gravlax or candied halibut.

While Hauser and McCulloch understand that watching your budget is important, they also believe buying sustainable seafood is worth the price. As McCulloch notes, you’re getting a higher-quality product due to more careful fishing and handling practices. You won’t waste money as long as you treat the product with the respect and appreciation that it deserves.