Illawarra's first Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified sustainable seafood dinner at Diggies was such a success that Stan Crinis and his head chef Daniel Waterman would love to do more.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
When Diggies announced it was putting on a six-course sustainable seafood meal the event sold out quickly.
But those who missed out still got the chance to try sustainable fish and chips using MSC certified Blue Cod the following Sunday at North Beach Kiosk.
It was Sustainability Seafood Week and Mr Crinis jumped at the opportunity when he was approached by Grant Logue, of Harley & Johns Seafood.
Mr Logue's business is considered an industry leader after becoming the first independent fish market in NSW to secure a Blue Fish Tick from the MSC for sustainable seafood practices.
The dinner occurred just weeks after MSC presented Harley & Johns Seafood with the Community Champion Award for the entire Oceania.
The recognition for Harley & Johns was for proactively working to protect our oceans and ensure seafood is available for future generations.
Mr Crinis described the response to the dinner as fantastic.
He said it had also helped start a conversation in the Wollongong community about sustainable seafood.
"It is a full house," Mr Crinis said.
"It is fantastic to see our venue full like this. There are so many people here tonight.
"We are just happy to be involved. And we would like to continue to be involved.
"The team in the kitchen have had a great time. They were so excited to be working with these products.
"And we are looking forward to doing sustainable fish and chips at the kiosk this Sunday."
Diggies head chef Daniel Waterman said he totally enjoyed the opportunity to put together a six course menu using sustainable seafood sourced by Mr Logue.
Mr Waterman said it helped the marine environment and it t was great to work on new and different dishes with the other chefs in the kitchen and learn more about where sustainable seafood comes from.
"The whole night has been really rewarding," he said.
"Working with this team in the kitchen is always a pleasure and using all sustainable seafood was really cool.
"100 per cent we would like to follow this up with another event."
Mr Logue had to get permission from MSC International to run the events at Diggies and is eager to do more to help Wollongong be seen globally as a sustainable seafood city.
He said Thursday night's dinner was a first. and described the menu Mr Waterman and his team in the kitchen produced as incredible.
As part of the night Mr Logue invited OpenSC implementation director Devon Long to Wollongong to demonstrate an app which allowed diners to scan a QR code and see where the Patagonian Toothfish they were eating came from.
They were also able to see the name the company, vessel and the captain who caught the fish and where that occurred.
The 90 diners were able to read that the fish was caught by Austral Fisheries in sub-antarctic waters near Glacier 51 and was traced from the ocean to their plate using the OceanSC platform.
"We are actually a supply chain transparency company," Ms Long said.
"We tracked that Glacier 51 Toothfish all the way from catch to port, though processing and then into final packaging.
"The data we collect on our platform can be used for a multitude of purposes.
"In the case of Glacier 51 we don't just track and trace the product. You will see in the app that we actually verify it has been caught outside of marine protected areas. There are many applications for this app."
Anita Lee, MSC's senior commercial manager for Oceania, said Wollongong having the first certified fishmonger in NSW and hosting the first sustainable seafood dinner in the state was significant.
"Grant and his team have done a fantastic job here," Ms Lee said.
"It is amazing for the community to have access to a variety of fresh sustainable seafood from a local fishmonger.
"We definitely hope other communities around Australia will follow Wollongong's lead.
"We want to make sure consumers have that choice available to them and understand more about sustainable fishing, what it means to be sustainably certified and can reward the local fisherman who are actually doing fishing sustainably."
Ms Lee said it was so appropriate having the dinner next to the beach where everyone could hear the waves and see a light show with flashes of lightening on the horizon.
She said it was a really special atmosphere and a really special and important evening that will help ensure fish and other marine life survive in our oceans for many generations.
Mr Logue said the idea for the MSC dinner in Wollongong was raised over a coffee with Centre For Food Certification business development manager Jo-anne McCrea.
Ms McCrea thanked everyone who attended.for showing they care about the ocean and its marine life.
"I am a marine scientist. I talk to people in the industry about how to fish and farm sustainable seafood," she said.
"Currently about 35 per cent of fish stocks around the world are over-fished. And about 60 per cent of stocks are fully fished. Which means they can't be fished any further without causing an impact."
The bycatch from indiscriminate fishing can also impact other endangered species such as turtles, dolphins and sea birds.
"The good news is we now have a really good understanding of how to do it right.and avoid those impacts."
Ms McCrea said MSC was formed in 1991 to create a best practice standard for fishing.
"Fishers who meet that standard are able to access the MSC logo," she said.
"And businesses businesses that buy from those sustainable fisheries are able to access the logo and display it to customers so they know they are buying an MSC certified product and eating trusted sustainable seafood."
Ms McRea said the number of fishers and businesses that are MSC certified has been growing internationally over the last three decades.
"A real highlight for the Illawarra is last year Harley & Johns became the first sustainable seafood fishmonger in NSW," she said.
"It means Grant and the team at Harley & Johns buy sustainable seafood and pass it on as a certified sustainable product.
"That was a completely voluntary move by Grant because he felt the need to invest in sustainable product. He felt the need to really invest in marine resources that his business relies on."
Ms McRea said by winning the MSC Community Achievement Award for the whole Oceania region had really put Wollongong and the Illawarra on the sustainable seafood map globally.
And she said Diggies could not have been any more enthusiastic about hosting a dinner during Sustainable Seafood Week.
"Stan and Dan were completely supportive to this cause and wanted to know all they could do to help. And they knew their customers really cared about this as well."
Ms McRea encouraged everyone to note the MSC logo on their menus and look for it on frozen products as well when they go shopping.
"If you go somewhere and don't see it please think about saying to the restaurant, retailer or fishmonger that you really want to buy sustainable seafood because you want to be able to support a better future for the ocean," she said.
"And please continue to support those businesses that you can see are doing their bit to protect the ocean."
Mr Logue said during the 12 years he has owned Harley & Johns Seafood he has been aware of how much miss-information there is about what is and isn't sustainable.
He said he went down the MSC path because it is independent and global.
And said getting such a good response to the first sustainable seafood dinner was really important.
"Hopefully we can start a bit of a movement down here in the Illawarra and get Wollongong known for its sustainable seafood practices," he said.
"I think this dinner is something we will definitely look at doing again."
"We have already had interest from other people about what they could do to support it."
Read more:
We depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support.