The Port of San Francisco’s plan to allow the San Francisco fleet to begin selling fish to the public has been put on hold due to an insurance issue. Joe Pennisi and his crew on the Pioneer were all set to go fishing Friday and Saturday just south of the Farallon Islands and sell to customers at Fisherman’s Wharf Sunday before they heard the news.

Many other California harbors allow direct fish sales, but San Francisco hasn’t since 2000. That changed on Sept. 12, when the Port decided to revive the policy, thanks in great part to a campaign from Pennisi and others at the Wharf looking for ways to augment their income. The Port is allowing a one-year pilot program for retail sales at a limited part of the harbor and only to San Francisco fishermen, with Port officials comparing it to a farmers’ market for fish.

For now, the plan will be on hold for a week or two until the Port can determine if it’s required to obtain supplemental insurance coverage to enhance public safety, said Renee Dunn Martin, communications director at the Port.

“We hope we get a lot of people coming down,” said Pennisi, a third-generation San Francisco and Monterey fisherman. “Anyone that really knows fish knows that the first couple days after the fish comes out of the water it has a really, really good flavor and texture.”

Some seafood purveyors at the wharf have expressed concern about the program because the fishermen, who will be allowed to sell only whole, gutted fish, will face fewer regulations than wholesalers — whose health requirements are higher because they process and store filleted fish, which are more vulnerable to contamination.

“On my wall I have probably 10 to 15 licenses,” said Dan Strazzullo, co-founder and principal of All Shores Seafood Brokerage on Pier 45 and Peninsula Seafood Market in San Bruno. “I’ve got licenses that doctors don’t have.”

Strazzullo is also a third-generation seafood seller who co-founded his company in 1975 — and whose father ran a crab stand at the wharf for decades before that — said his facility is inspected and regulated by city, state, county and federal agencies.

The Port won’t be in charge of regulating the boat sales, which will fall under the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and San Francisco’s departments of public health and environment, said Michael Nerney, maritime marketing manager at the Port.

Other details are still being hammered out. Pennisi will be the only one to sell from the wharf at first and will probably be the most consistent seller because he already has a license to sell his ground fish — the category that includes rockfish and sand dabs — while most other locals are fishing salmon, whose season may end before they have time to finalize the paperwork for direct sales.

“Everybody’s depending on us to get this going,” said Pennisi, who will announce the days that he, and eventually other fishers, plan to sell at the wharf at pioneerseafoods.com/calendar.

Pennisi plans to catch sand dabs and sablefish (also known as black cod), long-nose skates, Petrale sole, English sole and all manner of rockfish in his light-touch trawler, as it’s called by the Monterey Fisheries Trust.

“There’s about 60 types of rockfish — I’m going to try to get chilipepper rockfish and bocaccios and green spots and green stripes,” said Pennisi, who added that the different types of fish he is targeting are at around 350 to 600 feet deep this time of year.

He will sell the whole gutted fish (filleting the fish is not allowed at the boat) for $2 to $5 per pound, depending on the type of fish and the size; sablefish could cost up to $7 per pound. Pennisi said he’s able to sell at those prices because he is used to earning an average of only 40 cents a pound at wholesale.

That’s a major reason he would prefer selling more of his fish to the public and less to wholesalers, especially as the cost of regulation on the ground fish fishery is so high.

“In our industry, it’s really hard to compete with all these foreign imports,” he said. “Building a relationship with the public would be more stable for us.”

Strazzullo said that the federal quotas on trawled fish are what make it difficult, not low prices. But he welcomes having more visibility and accessibility to the vibrant seafood trade at the wharf, which is mostly tucked away on Pier 45, out of sight of the tourist area.

“Isn’t it a shame that all of this is going on and it’s hidden? I don’t think drugs are as hidden,” he said. “Fisherman’s Wharf shouldn’t be called Fisherman’s Wharf, it should be called T-shirt Wharf.”

Tara Duggan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tduggan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @taraduggan