Fish City’s John Lavery sits down with Ken Lyons for Dublin City FM’s The Green Room
Dublin City FM 103.2 • The Green Room
15th April 2024
Society faces an increasingly uncertain future - climate change, biodiversity loss, extreme pollution, rising poverty and inequality - these are the challenges we collectively face. In response to our challenges we need new thinking and vision. The Green Room podcast is a space for creative conversation in a time of disruption, transition and transformation.
Each week, hosts of The Green Room invite a sector leader - be that social enterprise, circular economy, sustainability, arts, music, theatre or food, to look at our landscapes through a new lens. Through celebrating their efforts towards social and environmental sustainability, we can use our culture, customs and beliefs to inspire individual and collective change.
In this week’s episode of The Green Room, host Ken Lyons looks at prominent sustainability initiatives taking place in Belfast city, with interviews at Fish City, Queen's University, and Belfastology.
Transcription
KEN: Good afternoon everyone, and welcome to the Green Room on 103.2 Dublin City FM, your weekly sustainability fix. My name is Ken Lyons, and I was once again out and about in Belfast city learning more about interesting things being done by interesting people when it comes to sustainability. First up I had a chat with John Lavery from Fish City, who was talking to me about our oceans, the fishing industry, sustainability in business, and much more besides. Enjoy!
John, would you like to tell me more about where our oceans and the fishing industry in general are at at the moment?
JOHN: I think we’re at a very precarious place, both our oceans and the world in general. However, the oceans - the capacity, we’re at 90 percent capacity for feeding, for providing protein for the world. So there’s not much left. And it’s very important that we manage that resource so that it’s there for future generations. We’re just custodians looking after what we can so that people after us can enjoy wonderful experiences and the fruits of our ocean.
Currently, I suppose, with everything going on - Ukraine, and the Red Sea, etc. - that’s also impacting our oceans. And we’re concerned of the future impact that that might be. Treaties that were once in place are no longer in place. And there’s restrictions, which indirectly are affecting things. For example, Russia had a treaty with Norway that it could fish in their waters, as did Scotland, the UK, still does. But what people don’t realise is that the commercial fish - that’s cod and haddock - in its migration comes up into Russian waters, that’s where they feed and they grow in size, etc., and then they move across to Norwegian waters. So that ecosystem has changed because the Russians are not fishing in Norwegian waters, they’re fishing in their own. One tonne of small fish in numbers is a lot more than one tonne of a larger fish. So what effect is that going to have in the coming years? We’re not yet sure.
KEN: John, thank you for sharing that because I think it’s important for us to get a better understanding of the bigger context, even if it is challenging to hear. What I’d like to do is bring it back to more of a local level and look at what you’re doing here at Fish City. And I’d love to know what it means for you to be a member, the first fish retailer and restaurant on the island of Ireland to be a member of the Marine Stewardship Council.
JOHN: Yeah, that journey began back in 2014. At that time, we began our Kids Club, and we were bringing kids into the restaurant, and we’re telling them how important our oceans are and to look after our oceans and the effect that some of the stuff that’s going into those oceans - not only plastic - it has on those ecosystems. At that time, we’d brought a couple of classes in and then we thought, ‘Well, who are we? And what authority do we have to speak about these things?’ And we thought the old saying ‘Talk the talk, walk the walk.’ So it was at that stage that we felt, ‘Well, what are we doing?” So we decided that we should be MSC-certified and lead by example. So that was when that journey began.
For anyone that hasn’t begun that journey or is at the beginning of that journey, it may seem somewhat daunting, and it may seem that, ‘Oh, there’s going to be too many restrictions’ and ‘It’s going to be too difficult’ and ‘We’re not going to be able to do this’ and ‘We’re not going to be able to do that,’ it’s simply not true. There’s, for example, very few species that we cannot use within the restaurant. What we do need to do is be careful where we source those species, whether that be a time of year or what areas… That has now become so ingrained, a part of Fish City that we do it without thinking about it. It’s just part of who are. Some of the processes and the some of the things we do need reminded of by ourselves every now and again that we’re doing that, and that is good for the environment, and that is good for the world in general. We’re a small business, so we’re not going to change the world, but collectively, if there are enough small businesses out there, then we will make a difference.
KEN: And John, with everything that you’ve done to date and you’re currently doing as a business, are there are any future plans?
JOHN: I’d really like to improve our biodiversity, and that is a difficult challenge. Probably the way of doing that for us would be maybe to partner with some organisations. One of the things that I’m involved in with Sustainable [Food] Belfast and one of the areas that has been discussed and hopefully will be developed is that some of the schools which have decent grounds could develop their own vegetable gardens and get the kids growing their vegetables.
KEN: It’s great to hear that you’re dipping into toes in the water and constantly looking at ways to improve on what you’re doing. And John, just for our listeners who are not familiar with Fish City, where can we learn more about Fish City, website or social media, etc.?
JOHN: Yeah, we have a very comprehensive website, which gives a lot of information about us. But for any group or persons out there that want to come along and sit down and discuss what we are doing, I’m more than happy to have that discussion and show them around.
Some of the things we have done, for example, is that our water treatment… we have invested in equipment that removes fats and oils from our waste water, and that’s good for the environment. The grease and oils that are removed are recycled for biofuel.
One of the areas which in the last twelve months we have concentrated on is our food waste. We measure all our food waste, so it’s all weighed. And that’s been a development. What we’re now - how we’re trying to move that forward is we want to break down the different types of food waste. So there’s a production food waste of which the chefs are producing, peeling a carrot, cutting a stalk off, etc. So there’s that area, and then there’s food waste from cooking, or spoilage, and food waste from mistakes. So as I said earlier about ‘Good for the environment, good for business,’ if we are measuring spoilage and we’re measuring mistakes, then if we know we can quantify that, then we can reduce it, which is good for the bottom line but also good for the environment. Any food waste that we are producing goes to making compost, etc. But those are simple things that don’t cost anything; yes, they cost a bit of time, but that comes back on the bottom line as I’ve just explained, so it’s worth doing.
KEN: Fantastic! And John, I’m really glad that we’re finishing up our chat on the topic of food waste because it is such an important area to address, particularly for hospitality businesses. We have a huge role to play in combatting that food waste, and not only - as you say, John - is it good for the environment but it’s also good for business.
John, I just want to thank you for taking the time to chat with me today. I wish you all the best in everything that you do, and keep dipping those toes in the waters.
JOHN: Well, thank you very much. We’ve certainly no plans to ease up on what we’re doing.