News
Roderick Sloan. Chef and sea urchin fisherman in the Norwegian Arctic
The objective of Roderick Sloan, chef and sea urchin fisherman in the Norwegian Arctic, is to work and leave the surroundings intact. He believes that the sea is a major source of food with a coherent, sustainable, proper fishing system.
“When a customer asks me for something, I never say yes or no because give-me is normal", says Roderick Sloan. A genuine declaration of intent. “Do you think fishing is sustainable?”, he asked the audience. The answer was held back until the end.
He explained that Covid changed his life: his customers closed down, and he had no work. A period he used to reflect. After a year had elapsed, a fishing company offered him a job as consultant. “My idea was to draw up an area cartography to decide where and when we would fish. They told me that, on principle, this wasn't possible. But I told them that, if they couldn't permit this, then a person like me couldn't either. In fact, they hate me at the restaurants because, when I go into their kitchens, I inspect everything, and I even ask about salaries. I believe in sustainability”.
Sloan then listed the kind of molluscs to be found in the sea, and how important the fishing system is if it is not to damage the sea bed. “I'm very strict. In Norway, we do everything by hand - fishing is not mechanical. Divers go down and they take them one by one, and that's why it's so expensive", he explains. And, he adds: "my work is changing the way we fish". Roderick feels the ideal system is to use small boats and divers, because this ensures that the product is top-quality, and also creates jobs and payment for workers. “The dragnet system damages the sea bed, and doesn't produce quality fish or seafood. If I take that to my customers, they would refuse. And I only sell live produce because it's a guarantee of quality", says Sloan.
The trapping system is one of the most sustainable fishing systems for spider crabs, for example, "but it is not extraordinary", he says. Sloan feels that Norway has one of the world's best fishing systems, but he believes that they are not keeping up with technology. He feels that drones are the solution, because they allow sea food to be selected without any need for divers. “They are operated by remote control, but this is a two-year technology in Norway”.
And he rounded off his talk with support for the younger generations. “The next generation is better. It thinks more about all these things. The time has come for us to work with them, to inspire them, to educate them ... in my company, we only take on employees aged 30 to go into management. We have to support them”.
Related news
News
Tenerife is the venue for the 5th Meeting of the Seas this summer
The event will feature some of the best oceanographers and marine biologists, along with leading chefs, fishermen, shipowners, entrepreneurs operating in the sector, and journalists.
News
The 4th Meeting of the Seas showcases the mussel as the sea's super food
The bivalve with a faint environmental footprint and high protein value, at a price that has not risen in recent years ticks all the boxes as the best blue super food.
News
Ángel León: “In the future I hope to offer cast-off fish on a supermarket shelf"
The Aponiente chef comes out once more in defence of cast-off fish to find a "balance in the sea", fish he wishes to popularise to take them to supermarket shelves.
News
Michael Bank: “Cooperation by everyone is essential for the recovery of seas and oceans”
Michael Bank, scientist at the Institute of Marine Research in Bergen (Norway), presents a number of studies on global environmental change, blue foodstuffs and the problems of contaminants.
News
The mussel, Galicia's most popular super food
The winner of the 2022 Sartún Award, marine biologist Uxío Labarta, makes a stand for the mussel, a super food with a "low environmental footprint and high protein value, at a price that hasn't gone up in recent years".
News
Nicolai Ellitsgaard, standard-bearer of algae and discarded fish on the coasts of Norway
The Norwegian chef at the underwater restaurant Under* (Lindesnes) recreated the enormous biological and gastronomic variety of Norway's sea at Meeting of the Seas
News
Canning as a way of boosting the consumption of fish and sea food
Canadian Charlotte Langley introduces Meeting of the Seas to the canning variant, a market which boosts the consumption of fish and sea food, and may be decisive in terms of reducing food waste.
News
Fishing demands more attention from governments, otherwise "after two generations there will be no fishermen left"
Representatives of the fishing world raise their voices for the acknowledgement of a key sector, an "increasingly more sustainable sector", a sector which "needs recognition before it dies out".
News
Super blue foods such as mussels or sea urchins could be the solution to world hunger
The 4th Meeting of the Seas kicks off with a focus on the sustainable aquaculture of super blue foods "to combat the world's food problems".
News
Healthy, sustainable regenerative aquaculture as the path to the future
The scientific director of Meeting of the Seas, Carlos M. Duarte, focuses on the most sustainable super bluefoods such as mussels or sea urchins as a solution to worldwide hunger.
