Why do the Irish know so little about fish?
As the fishing industry in Ireland has had a small bit of light shining on it in the media recently I think it’s a great time to highlight some points about an industry that is so close to my heart.
Living and growing up in Ireland’s largest fishing port, Killybegs, and having direct contact with the fishing industry on many levels for all of my life has really given me the knowledge and confidence to speak about this.
My Dad is like a very good, broken record when it comes to the ups and downs of the industry. I work with my parents in our most recent seafood venture, Shines Seafoods and we are still learning every day.
Shines Seafoods was set up in early 2015 by my parents, John & Marianne and soon after this I joined the team and haven’t looked back since. The first product that was launched was Irish Albacore Tuna. This amazing fish is caught in Irish waters every year by Irish fishermen and women on the Irish quota and until Shines Seafoods started taking it back to the Irish Market it was all exported.
‘’When we started to promote our Irish Tuna it was very difficult. Nobody believed that there was such a thing. It would have been easier to sell the idea of a unicorn than Irish Tuna.’’
One, two, skip a few — here we are in 2022 with 15 WILD Irish Seafood products on the shelf in every retailer nationwide. It wasn’t as simple as waving a magic wand though. We have been met with many challenges along the way. The fact that Irish people don’t actually eat much fish is still our most challenging feat to date.
The Catholic Church have a lot to answer to when it comes to one of the reasons why people are afraid to eat fish. Back in the day, as a marketing tactic, it was considered a sin to not eat fish on a Friday. Fish was not handled well, not refrigerated and usually full of bones. This is enough to put anyone off eating fish!
Today in the supermarkets, we have an amazing selection of quality, Wild Irish seafood. However that fear is still lurking. Many of our customers still don’t believe us that Irish fishing boats catch the best tuna in the world and its right here on our door step.
As the years went by we had better news for the Irish consumer. Irish Sardines! Another little hidden gem in the big blue! If you purchase our Shines Wild Irish Sardines in stores, you can enter the batch code on our website and this will tell you who caught your sardines.
The big S, is a topic we are met with almost every day. Sustainability. In short, Yes! Shines Seafoods are a sustainable company. The stocks of Irish Albacore Tuna are extremely well managed and have seen increases in the quotas year on year for the last 5 years.
Even though our production is outsourced, all of our seafood products have the lowest carbon footprint out of any other canned tuna or sardines available on the Irish market.
Sustainability is at the very core of our business. All our packaging is fully recyclable, (the jars are great for upcycling too) all our labels are designed in Ireland, all our uniforms are made in Killybegs, some of labels are printed in Dublin, our full IT and social media team are Irish companies, all our packaging for online orders are plastic free & Irish and all of our gift packaging & Merchandise is designed and produced in Ireland. Last but certainly not least, we support Irish Fishing Communities all over Ireland.
We are Ireland’s only plastic-neutral seafood company as we offset all plastic we produce as part of the RIO — Ocean Integrity programme. This is done by paying to have plastic removed from the oceans in Indonesia.
Want to know more about Shines Wild Irish Tuna and seafood? Head over to www.shinesseafoods.ie
Written by Ciara Shine for Conscious Kitchens
