Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) in association with SeaFest 2016 will host a two day Seafood Experience with fun for all the family in the ‘Big Top on the Docks’ in Galway on Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd July 2016.
Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) in association with SeaFest 2016 will host a two day Seafood Experience with fun for all the family in the ‘Big Top on the Docks’ in Galway on Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd July 2016.
Designed to educate and inform visitors, the BIM Seafood Experience will take you on a magical journey of all things seafood! BIM’s interactive showcase will explain how our seafood is caught and farmed and how sustainability is vital to our fishermen and fish farmers in protecting their stocks. This educational tour will include custom built cinemas showing ‘Tails from the Deep’, a specially commissioned short movie giving an exclusive glimpse into the life of an Irish fisherman. ‘Professor O’Mara’s Undersea Farm’, an animated character who will explain how our world famous oysters, mussels and salmon are farmed
As part of theBIM Seafood sustainability programme, there will be regular live lobster v-notching demonstrations. BIM’s Lobster v-notching conservation programme has been a great success with over 30,000 lobsters returned to sea in 2015. Fishermen who participate in the programme are paid grant-aid to v-notch (cut a v shaped cut in the tail) of a female lobster allowing her to return to sea to breed.
This area will also include a visual and hands on exhibition space explaining how our fishermen and seafood producers are embracing sustainability in their business including BIM’s Fishing for Litter initiative, BIM’s Green Seafood Business Programme and new fishing net technology that allows fishermen to fish in a way that is more environmentally friendly.
In partnership with Bord Bia, seafood cookery demonstrations from celebrity TV chefs’ Martin Shanahan and Rory O’Connell not to mention Michael O’Meara, chef and owner of Oscar’s Seafood Bistro in Galway and recent winner at the prestigious Gourmand World Cookbook Awards for his cookbook ‘Sea Gastronomy’ along with BIM’s Young Fishmonger of the Year 2015 (Gerard Collier from Fisherman’s Catch, Clogherhead, Co. Louth) are sure to draw a crowd with a range of delicious seafood recipes, filleting techniques and tastings of locally sourced seafood available throughout the day. There will also be an opportunity for visitors to sample and purchase seafood products from 16 Irish Seafood Companies.
Do you want to taste beer made from seaweed? Or, how about salmon sausages? Based on the work of the BIM Seafood Development Centre, all sorts of novel seafood products will be available and this is your chance to see them before they hit the supermarket shelves.
Following on from BIM’s Live to Tell the Tale safety at sea campaign earlier this year and the focus on how dangerous fishing is with 53 fishermen losing their lives in the last ten years; the importance of wearing a Personal Flotation Device (PFD) will also be a key part of BIM’s presence at the event. BIM’s expert training staff will run regular exciting demonstrations of the new compact PFD with integrated Personal Locator Beacons in a custom made water pool right beside the exhibition area.
So whether you want to expand your knowledge of seafood, learn how to easily cook seafood at home or round it all off with the chance of winning a great prize in our seafood knowledge quiz; the BIM Seafood Experience is a must attend event on the 2nd and 3rd July!
The BIM Seafood Experience is part-funded by the Exchequer and European Union through Ireland’s EMFF Operational Programme 2014-2020. For more information on SeaFest 2016 please visit www.seafest.ie
