13 seafood processing companies attended the workshop in Clonakilty on 31 March.
Photo: BIM
Thirteen seafood processing companies gathered in Clonakilty, Ireland this month for a two-day workshop hosted by the Irish seafood development agency Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), focused on unlocking the potential of underutilised fish species such as spurdog, megrim, and ray.
With growing pressures on traditional fish stocks, the workshop aimed to explore alternative species that could provide sustainable opportunities for the Irish seafood industry. The event featured hands-on demonstrations, expert insights, and culinary showcases that highlighted both the challenges and the market potential of these lesser-used species.
“There are indications that there are export markets for these underutilised species,” said Vincent Ryan, Domestic Market Development Executive at BIM, in a news announcement. “Through these workshops, BIM is helping to build the capability to handle species that require a specific manual processing skillset within the Irish sector.”
Participants were offered live demonstrations, including expert handling advice on spurdog from Barry Tingle of Duncannon Fish Company, and a presentation by Graham Johnson of the Irish Marine Institute on quota opportunities for the featured species.
The event also highlighted innovation in seafood product development, with chefs from BIM’s Taste the Atlantic initiative - Jaden Mascarenhas (Kai, Galway), Ian Harford (Aniar, Galway), and JB Dubois (Mount Congrieve House and Gardens, Waterford) - serving up creative dishes using spurdog, ray, and megrim, aiming to showcase their versatility for the domestic foodservice market.
Ryan also noted "promising" ongoing work with a Belgian food processing manufacturer to simplify the traditionally difficult process of skinning spurdog. “We’re hopeful this will simplify processing and make what is currently a difficult manual process a lot easier,” he said.
“After today’s workshop we have a better understanding of what can be done with these underutilised species and moving forward, it’s a matter of confidence," said workshop participant Damien O’Meara from Kish Fish. "Labour has also always been a challenge with these species from a filleting point of view, but some of the machines we saw today could be a good solution for this.”
The event is the latest in a series of BIM initiatives focused on supporting the Irish seafood processing sector. In October 2024, BIM announced a new strategic partnership to support development of new seafood products with food incubation and innovation centre BIA Innovator Campus.
In February of this year, BIM organized a delegation of Irish seafood businesses visiting Finland to explore processing solutions to upcycle fish by-products, and later announced it is working in partnership with leading research and technology organisation Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR) in a bid to boost the Irish seafood processing sector.
