ANALYSIS
THÓR SIGFÚSSON AND THE NEW FISH WAVE Thór Sigfússon’s sheer enthusiasm can hardly fail to make an impression. This someone with an irrepressible passion for the whole business of seafood
8 Students at the Southern Connecticut State University have been reading Thór Sigfússon’s The New Fish Wave as part of developing ideas for Blue Economy start-ups
Thór Sigfússon has made a huge effort to put that passion into practice. A few years ago he took the idea of a fishing industry cluster in Iceland, and ran with it. Since then things have mushroomed – and now his book The New Fish Wave details not just the concept of the cluster itself, but sets out both its successes and failures. Fortunately the successes outweigh the ideas that didn’t work out. It’s practically a given that not every smart idea will flourish, but as he points out in the book, these are things to learn from. The Iceland Ocean Cluster (IOC) started life as a research project at the University of Iceland and opened its doors in 2012. Originally one end of a building on the Reykjavík quayside that had for years been a net loft, the Cluster started out with a dozen companies and since then has grown the full length of this building as more companies were attracted to such an innovative space. Today there are around seventy companies based there, ranging from modest ventures to larger concerns, and bringing under one roof a startling variety of ventures that are involved in one way or another with the seafood business. Not all of them stay – some have simply outgrown what the Cluster can offer them and have moved on to bigger premises of their own, but there hasn’t been a shortage of companies seeking to fill the vacant space. At the heart of the Ocean Cluster and Thór Sigfússon’s overview of the seafood industry is the concept of waste – or rather, of eliminating waste – that there’s so much more to each fish than the fillet or the loin that ends up on a plate in a restaurant. The Iceland Ocean Cluster has become central to an emerging ‘new’ seafood industry in Iceland in which cross-pollination of ideas is a vital element. The IOC has become a agent of change for 10 | APRIL 2020
Iceland’s seafood industry in Iceland, and The New Fish Wave sets out both a vision of what the seafood sector could be – and needs to be – while detailing the experience of establishing such a venture. As the Ocean Cluster at the Reykjavík quayside has grown, sister clusters have also been established in the US, with the Portland, New Bedford and Seattle clusters all built around the same philosophy of driving innovation and collaboration in the marine industry. "Can we inspire other seafood nations to follow the Icelandic example; creating more value in seafood through innovation and collaboration?" Thór Sigfússon asks – and this is one of the key questions the book tackles. The seafood sector around the world has plenty to learn from Iceland, which in many ways has rapidly transformed itself from being one of the poorest countries in the world a century ago to its present position as a leader in the technology of many aspects of the seafood industry. “Iceland is a nation which has shown pride in its seafood industry and uses new innovation to safeguard the environment, create wealth, derive more value from each fish and manage fisheries in a sustainable way,” he said. “The oceans – their temperature, chemistry, currents and life – drive global systems that make the Earth habitable. Our rainwater, drinking water, weather, climate, coastlines, much of our food, and even the oxygen in the air we breathe, are all ultimately provided and regulated by the sea. Throughout history, oceans and seas have been vital conduits for trade and transportation. Careful management of this essential global resource is a key feature of a sustainable future. However, there is a continuous deterioration of coastal waters For the latest news and analysis go to www.worldfishing.net/news101