About 60 percent of each commercially caught fish in the Great Lakes is ground into low-value animal feed or discarded, while just 40 percent of the fish is consumed by humans.
That's according to the Conference of Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers — a binational organization committed to protecting the Great Lakes. The group includes partners from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Québec.
21 Great Lakes region fishing companies have signed the organization's 100% Great Lakes Fish Pledge, committing to using all parts of the whitefish, lake trout, yellow perch, and walleye that they catch by 2025.
The organization created the pledge to encourage Great Lakes region fishing companies to reduce waste and maximize the value of their catch. It aims to turn the 60% that is typically discarded or used as animal feed into other products for human use like collagen, oils, vitamin supplements, leather goods, and more, said David Naftzger, the executive director of the Conference.
"Our overall goal is to increase the value of the fishery as a whole so it can help support more jobs, support rural economic development, and create a lot of other positive outcomes for the region," Naftzger said.
"One thing that I think is interesting in the context of Michigan specifically is the number of tribes who are catching fish. That represents a little bit of a different wrinkle than some of the other jurisdictions, and there's been a really good partnership with the tribes working as part of our initiative," Naftzger said.
Paul Smith is the owner of First Catch LLC, a Baraga-based fishing operation that signed the pledge in fall 2023. He has already been working with his tribe — the Keweenaw Bay Indian community — to transform the leftover parts of his lake whitefish catch into fertilizer. The fertilizer is used in the tribe's community garden.
"I thought the fertilizer was a good idea. When I heard that there was a 100% fish pledge for it, I didn't hesitate to jump on board," Smith said.
Naftzger said the pledge is partly modeled after the success of the Reykjavík-based Iceland Ocean Cluster, which has a similar project called the 100% Fish Project that focuses on Iceland's seafood fisheries. The group said the value of one Icelandic cod jumps from about $12 USD when used only for filets to over $5,000 when 100% of the fish parts are used.
Naftzger said the 2025 goal is ambitious but the organization and partners are excited to tackle it.
"This is a region that's serious about this goal."
