Mr. Goodfish, a committed industry.
Dominique Godefroy, Director of Ifremer (French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea) English Channel / North Sea: "Ifremer plays an upstream role in the acquisition of data on a European level concerning both the state of stocks and the general state of the marine environment. They allow Mr. Goodfish to help and guide both restaurant owners and consumers on the right way to consume seafood. In figures, this amounts to monitoring 200 species and for Ifremer, this means 25 campaigns per year. Even today, about 26% of species are overfished and that is why Mr. Goodfish contributes to marketing fish that are sustainably exploited rather than fish that are endangered by overfishing or overexploitation."
Eric Guygniec, Head of fishing company APAK in Lorient: "Mr. Goodfish fits somewhat with our way of seeing things. That is, there was a time when people would fish for the sake of fishing. Today, we fish with regard to a resource, an environment and a market. The philosophy is that we take care of the resource, we just take the interest and we don't touch the capital. When we target a species, we have three important points: the resource must be there, and we must have the quotas and the markets. If these three points are not fulfilled, we will not pursue this specific species. Mr. Goodfish promotes fish that is affordable, very good and in season."
Aymeric Chrzan, General Secretary of the Mareyage Boulonnais trade union in Boulogne-sur-mer: "For some years now, the fish market has been identifying the species, the products are Mr. Goodfish. Consumption is directed towards products that are resource friendly and consumers are also encouraged to diversify their consumption. We are also on lists that enable us to discover species that consumers are not very familiar with. We are in Boulogne, one of the largest fishing ports for squid, cuttlefish and whitefish, … In France, these species are not well known and are not widely consumed."
Valentine Courageux, Fishmonger, Le MINCK in Grand-Fort-Philippe: "It was an obvious choice for us to join this programme. Our role is to be able to give customers advice on seasonal products, to give them ideas for products that they don't usually eat, to give them ideas for recipes and to teach people about what fish is in season. There are people who have their own consumption habits and there are certainly a lot of products that are not well known. However, once people have been invited to taste the fish, they find it delicious and they will take it again. This involves everyone and this is what is important. I think it is a great advantage to participate in this kind of programme."
Henri Hellin, Production manager at Gloria Maris sea farms in France: "Aquaculture and fishing will be two complementary trades in the marketplace. We are sea farmers. Our goal is not to produce at low cost, at whatever price, no matter what, but to have very high-quality products. This requires a completely different philosophy of approach. This means that all the parameters on which we have a potential to act must be taken into consideration to optimise all the impacts. Mr. Goodfish is all about respecting the environment in the broad sense of the term, which I consider to be very noble. And we feel that we are directly implicated, both by our actions and by the impact of the environment on our activity. When we found out that there was a process to identify the criteria that make aquaculture virtuous, we were very keen to be a part of this process, to work together with them and move in this direction.
Gaël Orieux, Chef of the Restaurant AUGUSTE - Paris: "The reason I joined this programme was mainly because I had noticed that from 2007 onwards, there were shortages of certain well-known fish species, such as sea bass and turbot. There were also many issues related to tuna and anchovies. My reasoning was: what can I showcase so that other species can breed in peace during this time? So, I looked for what I could cook and serve on my plates. It also made me change my menu significantly, because there were species that I hadn't necessarily heard of. As far as I'm concerned, fishing is a bit like harvesting, you have to take what is abundant at particular seasons."
Find all our partners at www.mrgoodfish.com and on the Mr.Goodfish application.
