Dunmanus Seafoods Ltd
Dunmanus Seafoods Ltd began trading in 1976. The sea urchin hatchery was established in 1995 as a family run business, this company has shown enormous foresight as they single-handedly pioneered sea urchin cultivation for many years. The company was founded on the owner and Managing Director, Mr John Chamberlain’s, extensive experience of fishing, transporting and marketing sea urchins from Ireland to Europe throughout the 1980’s. He established the first commercial sea urchin hatchery in Europe (in west Cork, Ireland) in 1993. Since then their production figures have steadily expanded and now stand at 2 million juvenile Paracentrotus lividus per year. Dumanus Seafoods retail their juveniles directly to local growers who return the harvested produce which is marketed again through the company. John Chamberlain now has ambitions to increase production levels and to market P. lividus in Japan as well as Europe. He anticipates involvement in this project will help cut grow-out time to market size from 3 to 2 years, improving the cost-effectiveness of his operation.