The Fish In The Sea

Local fisheries have been struggling to keep up with major manufacturers. Sustainable fishing practices have been countering that by creating Niche markets.

A family of former fishers created the Kino Bay Turtle Group to monitor sea turtles in Mexico’s La Cruz Lagoon. The conservationists work to rescue and tag turtles entangled in fishing gear, track the population, and educate the public about their importance.

A fishing cooperative at the San Ignacio Lagoon protects gray whales that use the lagoon as a nursery by not fishing at that time of the year. Instead, their income comes from ecotourism which brings people close to the whales during that season.

Mangroves can store up six times more carbon than an area equal to the Amazon rainforest. However, they are rapidly declining, over the past century their population has been reduced by 30 to 50 percent. One nonprofit, Blue Ventures, is working with local communities to regenerate fisheries, which helps the mangroves. They're also helping local communities to manage their mangroves.

To weather the uncertainties of the pandemic and geopolitical trade disputes, many small, locally-operated fisheries in the United States have upended the way they do business by selling their catches directly to consumers. For example, OC Wild Seafood in California started to sell its spiny lobsters locally. Though the logistics and regulations can make fish-to-dish initiatives challenging, many community-supported fisheries saw an increase in sales and customers in 2020.

A community-based seafood program called Fiishadelphia is the first community supported fishery run by high-school students in the city. They offer locally harvested and affordable seafood to a diverse customer base with an emphasis on accessibility for those experiencing economic hardship. The major cost is the distribution, delivery, and operation of the program, but so far, they have purchased 5,000 pounds of various types of fish and 25,000 pounds of shellfish and have connected community members directly to the suppliers.

A research project in a marine protected area (MPA) off the coast of South Africa brought fishers and scientists together to understand the abundance of fish and rock lobster in the waters. The project paid fishers to lower baited remote underwater video stations and got youth involved to review the video footage. By bringing fishers into the project and building trust with the community, they were able to demonstrate the importance of a MPA and empower them to be part of the decision-making process.

Coastal Shellfish, an Indigenous aquaculture company in British Columbia, is focusing on sustainable food and food security through its product Great Bear Scallops. This is the first project funded by the Costal Funds trust set up by donors, governments, and First Nations to support sustainable Indigenous-led businesses. The company has been selling scallops to several local businesses like restaurants and breweries.

In Myanmar, aquaculture production from medium-sized freshwater farms is growing and could be an important and sustainable supplier of food for the world’s growing population. Aquaculture businesses are thriving in Southeast Asia despite the decline of wild fisheries — the acreage of cultivated fishponds in some regions has expanded by more than 250 percent. While some environmentalists argue that it damages ecosystems, research suggests that freshwater aquaculture have a much lower environmental impact than marine fish farming.

In Jamaica, locally-led coral nurseries are working to restore the coral reef that have been lost to natural and manmade disasters. These organizations have small coral gardens where they can grow free of danger and when they’re big enough, are transported to a reef. With coral and fish being so codependent in the underwater ecosystem, the regrowth of coral has meant an increase of fish and fishing for the country, which many people rely on for their livelihood.