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Jónas Rúnar Viðarsson
Director of Business and Development
jonas@matis.is
Sea King (Neptune despecta) is a kingfisher that resembles a bait king, but is somewhat larger and usually stays at a deeper depth. It is believed that the kingfisher is in large quantities in many parts of the country and that the stock can withstand considerable fishing. The MRI has recorded information about the king of the sea from lobster expeditions for many years, which indicates considerable density in many parts of the country.
The company Sægarpur in Grundarfjörður began to explore the possibilities of fishing, processing and marketing sea king in 2012 and when Sægarpur went bankrupt in 2013, the company Royal Iceland took over and continued experiments until 2016. Matís assisted the companies with this work, in addition to The AVS fund came to finance. Matís has now published a report outlining the experiments that were carried out and the main results.
The main results of the mapping of distribution and experimental fishing were rather limited, as information on kingfishers as by-catch in other fisheries is scarce and the species has received little attention in the research of the Marine Research Institute. The experimental expedition led by the project also yielded disappointing results, despite the fact that a seaweed plow was pulled in 29 places where it was thought likely that a sea king was expected.
Since kingfishers can produce tetramine, their processing is mainly concerned with ensuring that the products are safe to consume. The results of processing experiments showed that it is possible to remove the king of the sea's toxic glands and that it is possible to measure whether tetramine is found in products, but this does require a considerable cost. To be effective, you must manually remove the gland and the sac that contains the poison.
The results of a basic market survey conducted indicate that it is possible to sell kingfisher products, especially in well-paying markets in Asia. However, since the king of the ocean is not well known in Asian markets and there is always a risk of tetramine poisoning, marketing of the products is very difficult. It is therefore clear that considerably more research is needed in the entire value chain before it is possible to state anything about whether and to what extent there are opportunities in fishing and processing kingfishers in this country.
The report can be accessed at Matís website.