Every year, European artisanal fishermen land species that never reach a restaurant plate. Not because the fish are inedible – many are indeed excellent – but because our supply chains, our culinary training, and our market systems were not designed with them in mind. The result is waste: ecological, economic, and culinary.

The Forgotten Fish project, a two-year Erasmus+ collaboration between Nordic Wellbeing Academy, Marstang Mad & Vin (Ærø), Lazareta Cultural Association (Syros, Greece), and Igor Vitale International (Foggia, Italy), has spent two years researching this challenge with 117 fishermen and restaurateurs across three countries. The conclusion is consistent across Denmark, Greece, and Italy: the barriers are structural, not natural. The fish are there. The appetite for change is there. But we are missing a coherent framework for action.

The project has now published 24 Policy and Business Recommendations across three streams:

• Fisheries policy: adaptive quota systems that reflect what coastal waters actually produce today; fisher-chef cooperative programmes; improved Marine Protected Area management; and dedicated funding pathways for small-scale artisanal operators
• Gastronomy and VET: a proposed micro-credential in sustainable use of underutilised fish species; integration of forgotten fish into public procurement for schools and hospitals; and consumer communication rooted in storytelling rather than sustainability lectures
• Food chain and business: digital platforms connecting fishermen directly to restaurant kitchens; processing grants for emerging species; whole-fish circular economy approaches; and a proposed European Forgotten Fish Network as a permanent community of practice

For Denmark, several recommendations might be surprising. Fishermen in Denmark are now regularly catching octopus – a species for which no domestic market or culinary tradition really exists – and shipping it raw to Italy and Greece. Shore crab populations are growing. Lobster is recovering in inshore areas. The 2025 Danish Fisheries Agreement took important steps toward protecting the coastal fisheries these species depend on. Yet there is still no market infrastructure, the culinary knowledge, and the policy framework that would allow Danish coastal communities to capture the value their waters are now producing. This is a picture similar to presentations at the Eurofish conference in Istanbul we we’re part of in June this year; traditions and structures are a block for blue protein potentials.

The recommendations are designed for flexible use – by individual restaurants and fishing cooperatives taking the first practical steps, and by local authorities, VET institutions, and policymakers working toward systemic change. Find them below or via forgottenfish.com.

Nordic Wellbeing Academy contributed the EU policy analysis, the social science framework, the Danish fisheries SWOT, and the evaluation methodology to the Forgotten Fish project.