See Fogo Island Fish's Economic Nutrition label for details on where your money goes for every purchase you make.
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Our Story
Founded by Fogo Islander Anthony Cobb and his wife, Janice Thomson, Fogo Island Fish is now a Shorefast social business. Our cod fishers receive higher compensation for their catch, and we work directly with the Fogo Island Co-operative Society Ltd.—a community-owned enterprise located in Fogo, Little Seldom and Joe Batt's Arm—to catch and process a variety of seafood products.
Currently most domestic seafood is exported. Buying Canadian in Canada lightens the carbon footprint of the fish on your plate. We want to ensure the best of our North Atlantic bounty can be enjoyed by restaurant clientele and home cooks in Canada too.
Shorefast
Fogo Island Fish is a Shorefast social business. Shorefast is a registered charity whose mission is to build cultural and economic resilience on Fogo Island and to serve other communities by sharing place-based models of economic development. Shorefast’s social businesses (Fogo Island Inn, Fogo Island Fish, Fogo Island Workshops and Growlers Ice Cream) are designed to be economic engines for the community: they create meaningful employment, contribute to the local economy and generate income to be reinvested in the local through Shorefast’s charitable programs. There is no private gain—the businesses are operated for the exclusive benefit of strengthening the cultural heritage, supporting ecological sustainability, and investing in the economic well-being of Fogo Island.
Fogo Island Community
Fogo Islanders are people of the sea, who have historically made our living by fishing the frigid and often unforgiving waters of the North Atlantic.
We are ten distinct cultural communities combined to make a single economic community. Our fishers, both men and women, all live on Fogo Island, as do all the workers at Fogo Island Fishing Cooperative’s processing plants, stationed in several small communities around the island.
The Fogo Island Co-operative Society was formed in response to the 1960s collapse of the cod fishery in Newfoundland, and talk of forced resettlement for the people of Fogo Island to urban centres on the mainland. The fishery diversified from cod fishing to include species such as pink shrimp, snow crab, squid and turbot, allowing cod stocks to slowly recover. It is internationally renowned for its community-owned model and the exceptional quality of its catch.
Today, Fogo Island’s population stands just above 2,000, half the size it was fifty years ago. Our mission is to help rebuild the connection between our foodways and our communities, while revitalizing the local economy and continuing a proud legacy of fishing.
Catch Methods
We work directly with fishers on Fogo Island, Newfoundland.
They catch cod with the traditional handlining method, which uses one line. This catch method ensures minimal by-catch and a superior product. All Fogo Island Fish product meet these standards, and that's why they are prized by industry-leading chefs and fishmongers.