WORLD renowned food writer and chef, Máirín Uí Chomáin has penned an absolute gem entitled Celebrating Irish Salmon with over 100 recipes guaranteed to whet the appetite of most fish revellers.

Speaking at the launch in l’Ecrivian, Baggot Street, Dublin, Máirín said: “The inspiration for this book came from my father who was a ghillie on the Costelloe River in Connemara. I was reared on salmon from the river, we knew nothing else.

“Salmon is the love of my life and recently summed up nicely as ‘A love letter to the Prince of Fish’. That really is the book and, you know, if you eat loads of salmon you’ll feel very romantic,” she said with a smile.

Officially launching the book, l’Ecrivian proprietor, Michelin-star chef, Derry Clarke referred to teh author as a “multi-talented lady" who has written this book in such a way it will be used by professionals and domestic cooks alike. "There is something in it for everyone.”

The BIM Strategy – Capturing Ireland’s share of the Global Seafood Opportunity claims to have been 'constructed in line with the targets and objectives set out in key government policies relating directly or indirectly to the over the next five years'.

For those engaged in the fishing, aquaculture and processing sectors it will be their look-to roadmap to success. We talk to the agency’s chief executive Jason Whooley on the key priorities.

 BIM chief executive, Jason Whooley 

BIMs strategy is an action plan for Ireland’s seafood sector that will deliver twelve hundred jobs and a billion Euro from sales by building scale and enhancing competitiveness in the Irish seafood sector. This sounds optimistic, but is it realistic?

Optimistic, not really when we look at the growth that we’ve had over the last number of years in our seafood exports. Over the last two years we’ve had almost 30% growth in seafood exports, and the growth that we’re talking about for the one billion Euro in sales is primarily driven by an increase in seafood exports. And, with an increase in scale and raw material, we believe that figure is achievable.

The Irish sea-fisheries board has launched an ambitious five-year strategy to deliver 1,200 jobs and €1bn in seafood sales by building scale and enhancing competitiveness in the seafood sector.

Capturing Ireland’s Share of The Global Seafood Opportunity is “grounded in Ireland’s ideal position” to take advantage of the projected increase in seafood demand of an additional 42 million tonnes per annum, by 2030.

Tom Moran Secretary General of the Dept Agriculture, Food and the Marine; BIM Chairman Kieran Calnan; BIM CEO Jason Whooley and Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney, TD at the launch of the BIMs 2013-2017 strategy.

With constraints on wild fish catches to meet this demand, “informed market analysis” predicts a 50% increase by 2020 in the current annual production of two million tonnes of farmed salmon,” remarked BIM chairman, Kieran Calnan.