2024-Feb-02
Using All the Fish: a Campaign to Reduce Waste
Rethinking the Commercial Fishing Industry
Purdy’s Fishing Boat 5332 by Casey Lessard (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The Great Lakes’ seven-billion-dollar commercial fishery provides a healthy diet of freshwater fish to international markets. Maintaining and growing this valuable resource is vital to local communities where fish are caught and processed. One factor preventing these fisheries from reaching their full economic potential is not taking advantage of the potential profits that can be generated from the significant amount of fish waste that is left over after cleaning and filleting.
Starting in 2023, the Council of Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers (GSGP) – an intergovernmental organization led by Ontario and Quebec and the eight US Great Lakes states – introduced the 100% Great Lakes Fish Campaign. The Campaign’s origin comes from Reykjavik-based Iceland Ocean Cluster’s example of using 80% to 100% of their entire Ocean Cod catch for various products.
The GSGP’s Campaign, asking fish operators to reduce fish waste, estimated to exceed half the weight of their catch, has been signed by twenty bi-national Great Lakes operators, who have promised to eliminate 100% of their fish waste by 2025. Support for finding ways to achieve this goal is being led by a GSGP project team, partnering with native and non-native fishery operators, processors, research institutions and, locally, the Ontario Commercial Fisheries Association and Georgian Bay and Lake Huron fish companies.
Source: GSGP and Icelandic Ocean Cluster
While fish waste is often diverted to agricultural fertilizer and feed for aquaculturally raised fish, the GSGP project team, with assistance from Iceland’s Ocean Cluster, are looking at a variety of other products, shown in the above graphic, from parts of the fish that are normally wasted. These include using tanned and processed Lake Whitefish skin for purses, wallets, boots, and bags and treating burn victims with skin grafts. Cosmetics, creams, and health supplements are also being developed as well as extending the research to include Lake Trout, Yellow Perch, Walleye, White Suckers and Burbot.
The objective of the 100% Great Lakes Fish Campaign is to have the commercial fishing industry and coastal communities work together with international partners to bring new, higher value, products to domestic and international markets. According to the GSGP, converting parts of landed fish left over after filleting will eventually add income to the fishery operators’ bottom-line, support local business opportunities, add jobs, reduce the impact on local landfills, and help sustain the Great Lakes commercial fishing industry. 20 companies have signed on so far.
Read more about the program here and more about the companies joining the program here.