The Local Fishing Project, launched by the John Nurminen Foundation in 2015, is off to a promising start. The objective of the project is to remove a significant amount of nutrients from the Archipelago Sea by fishing cyprinid fish. At the same time, project activities aim at producing ethical, local food and increasing its popularity. Within its Circular Economy programme, Sitra has selected the Foundation’s Local Fishing project as one of the pilot projects for sustainable food systems.
Sitra’s Circular Economy programme searches for new kinds of operational models that increase the economy and wellbeing without fossil fuels and the overconsumption of natural resources. Sitra’s publication ‘Finnish road map to a circular economy’ highlights best practices and pilots that are easy to duplicate and provide added value on a national level. The Local Fishing project of the John Nurminen Foundation has been selected as one of the pilot projects of the sustainable food systems focus area.
‘The Local Fishing project seeks to create a permanent foodstuff chain as well as demand for the cyprinid fish products from both institutional kitchens and consumers. The activities benefit both the Baltic Sea and the Finnish consumer. We are very happy to see that our project is now also included in Sitra’s investigation’, says Miina Mäki, Project Manager of the John Nurminen Foundation’s Local Fishing project.
Summer fishing season ends with great results
For the Local Fishing project, the summer 2016 fishing season ended in success, as the catch of the 12 fishermen who participated in the project reached a total of 150,000 kg of bream and roach. Bream from the Archipelago Sea is used to prepare food for the schools and day care centres of the Turku and Helsinki metropolitan areas, for example. Project partners include Arkea Oy, and Espoo Catering Oy. The roach fished in the project end up as fish patties on the plates of the customers of Palmia Oy restaurants in Helsinki.
Learn more about the Local Fishing project and its environmental benefits by watching the video ‘Roach on the menu’ (only in Finnish).
Read more on the Archipelago Sea Local Fishing project here.
Read Sitra’s publication ‘Finnish road map to a circular economy’ (in Finnish) here.
