The Mexican family who gave up fishing to monitor and rescue sea turtles

Nonprofits and coastal communities are popularizing sustainable fishing practices and fishery management to allow ocean ecosystems to bounce back from overfishing and sustain the fishing industry long-term. For example, a community-led organization in Scotland campaigned to create the country’s first “No Take Zone” marine reserve, and a nonprofit in Hawaii is restoring fishponds to revive traditional Hawaiian aquaculture.

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.

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.

A Whale Protection Unit in British Columbia, Canada, patrols the sea to protect whales from boats and ensure boaters are following federal regulations by staying out of whale sanctuary zones.

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.

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.

Fishers, researchers, and managers came together to create Torre Guaceto, a marine reserve off the coast of Italy. The area was previously exploited, but because of this cooperative management project, biodiversity has recovered. Fishers enter the reserve once a week for their catch and usually make up $10,000 a day, which is more than other Mediterranean fishers. While some illegal fishing still happens at night, the dialogue between key stakeholders was crucial to developing the reserve’s sustainable fishing model.

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.

Visiting Florida, one will find lionfish served as food, captured in derbies, and hunted as part of ecotourism efforts. The invasive species has become widespread and is having a disastrous effect on the coastal ecosystem. In a multi-pronged effort to rid the area of them, scientists, government agencies, and local communities have teamed up to eradicate them.