Excerpt from reasonstobecheerful.world
Forget AI — in Iceland, the truly exciting startups are working in fish. From medical bandages to sustainable furniture, the Icelandic fishing industry has learned to extract value from virtually every part of its catch, putting the country at the forefront of a global “blue economy.”
It wasn’t always this way. A collapse in Iceland’s fisheries in the ’80s and ’90s forced the island nation to look beyond the fillet and find new uses for its top export, from scales to tails. Today, Iceland cod fishers use more than 90 percent of the fish they catch, compared to roughly 40 percent of each fish caught in North America’s Great Lakes.
Now, the 100% Great Lakes Fish Initiative aims to follow Iceland’s lead, showing seafood companies from the region how using all of the fish can help keep their industry both profitable and sustainable. RTBC Founder David Byrne spoke with David Naftzger, executive director at Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers, which oversees the initiative, about Icelandic innovation, doing more with less, and Byrne’s method for cooking up homemade fish head broth. —RTBC Editorial Team