New seafood brand coming
With the successful launch by Grieg Seafood in British Columbia of its “Skuna Bay Craft Raised” farmed Atlantic salmon, one would think that the announcement by another salmon farming company of a new seafood brand would be for a special product based on farmed salmon, but perhaps this will come down the road. In the meantime, as business reporter Bruce Erskine of the Chronicle Herald reports, Cooke Aquaculture will apparently focus on seafood sourced from commercial fishing rather than farming- at least in the initial stages. The name of the brand will be Jail Island Seafood, and the motto for the initiative is “hooked on fresh fish”;
The region’s largest aquaculture operator is behind a new wild seafood venture in Nova Scotia. A.C. Covert Ltd., a Halifax seafood distributor and division of Cooke Aquaculture of New Brunswick, plans to launch the Jail Island Seafood brand next spring, said Mike McGlone, A.C. Covert’s general manager. “We want retailers and restaurants to know when they see the brand that it’s fresh, local, premium, responsible and traceable,” McGlone said in an interview Thursday.
Details are still in the works, but McGlone said the Jail Island brand, named for a Bay of Fundy island where drunken sailors were allegedly dropped off overnight to sober up, will initially include haddock, halibut and other groundfish. He said seasonal seafood products, such as swordfish, could also be offered under the Jail Island brand, whose logo is a stylized fish with a tail that turns into a hook and whose motto is “hooked on fresh.” McGlone operated Mike’s Fish Shop at the old Brewery Market on the Halifax waterfront before joining Covert.
He said he sees the Jail Island brand connecting seafood consumers more closely with seafood producers. “We need to educate people about seafood,” McGlone said, noting that North American seafood consumption is dropping. Cooke marketing director Andrew Lively said the hook-and-line initiative, a first for the aquaculture company, was a response to consumer demand for fresh seafood products. “This is a good business move,” Lively said in an interview. “We’re trying to make it easier for consumers.”
Cooke has come under fire for its ambitious aquaculture expansion plans in Nova Scotia, which some critics say threaten traditional wild fisheries. Lively said the Jail Island development wasn’t a reaction to that criticism and Cooke’s overall acceptance in Nova Scotia has been positive. Marketing consultant Holly Reardon, formerly marketing director with Clearwater Seafoods, is helping develop the Jail Island brand. Reardon said the new initiative will also benefit local fishermen.
