For nearly four years, elite athlete and rower Martin Helseth (29) has been a sustainability ambassador for MMC First Process.
Martin Helseth - Olympic rower
Age: 29
International track record:
As a keen freediver and underwater hunter I spend a lot of time in the sea.
By spending so many hours with my head under water, I have gradually built up a personal relationship with the living things down below. I can lie still for a long time and observe how different animals behave and even the tiniest hermit crabs can hold my attention for long periods.
The ballan wrasse is a fish that fascinates me. In the aquaculture industry it is usually known by the collective term “cleaner fish”, the family to which it belongs. The ballan wrasse is a monogamous and territorial fish, which means that it lives in a fixed partner relationship, often around the same rock, throughout the whole season. I can watch them swimming around with small bits of seaweed and kelp in their mouths, as they purposefully build a nest where the female will eventually lay her eggs. The male looks after the eggs until they hatch. When the female is approximately six years old, she typically changes sex to become male and the species can live for up to 25 years. I tend to see them, with the wolf fish, as the guardians of the seaweed forest. They help to keep the ecosystem in balance and graze on several species that live by eating seaweed and kelp.
It may sound strange, but after studying the behaviour of these fish, I have decided always to leave them alone, if I see them when I am out with my harpoon hunting for dinner.
On the other hand, a fish that I hunt without any bad conscience is pollock. It may be the case that this fish is under-fished in the west and north. Pollock is an undervalued food fish that can be found at most diving sites I visit. It shows an unusual combination of inquisitiveness and scepticism. To get close to it while hunting I must pretend to be uninterested. If I see a large pollock from the surface I swim a short distance away from it and dive without looking directly at the fish. I swim right down to the bottom and lie down flat so that I look smaller than I really am. I also begin to dig down into the sand a little bit. I also make some guttural noises in my throat and make a minor disturbance in the seaweed around me. This is all to awaken the pollock’s interest.
The desire to surface and take a breath is becoming pressing when I see the looming hulk over there against the horizon begin to swim towards me.
When it is within a couple of metres and is lying broadside on to me. I look up, aim my harpoon and pull the trigger. Ideally, I hit it just behind the gills, high up on the fish.
In this way, the fish will be paralysed immediately before we reach the surface.
I bleed the fish without delay and remove its innards (apart from the roe). Treated like this, the flesh will maintain its high quality all the way to the dinner plate. The innards go straight back into the ecosystem in the area.
As an underwater hunter you form a personal relationship with the fish you eat. I consider it a matter of course that when I take a life, all the flesh on the fish will be eaten.
If the fish has roe, I like to make a starter out of it.
I think the best flesh on a fish is in the head. Tongue, forehead and cheeks. The wings can also be fried or boiled along with the backbone to make stock to use in a creamy fish soup. My mouth waters when I think of Grandmother’s fish soup.
I consider it unethical and a waste of resources to throw away edible fish.
In the aquaculture industry utilising the whole fish is a vital factor. This is not just from a financial perspective; we must also think about sustainability and animal welfare. “We never throw away food.” These are words that were said to me repeatedly as I grew up and from that day to this, I continue to agree with them.
