Hello Niaz,,

Our coalition Don’t Cage our Oceans organized a membership gathering in DC last week and to borrow a phrase that you might hear during a March Madness basketball game, we were “in the zone”. 

We visited 21 congressional offices, we made plans for the year, and we advanced a key piece of legislation that will boost local and regional seafood supply chains (for both wild-caught and farmed seafood) while blocking factory fish farms on the ocean. Overall a successful event. 

But this one felt extra special. And no, not because it was peak cherry blossom season (which was actually pretty spectacular). It was because of fishing community leaders like Ronalda Angasan of Alaska Village Initiatives, Leo Wassillie of Salmonberry Tribal Associates, and Ryan Horwath of Pacific Cloud Seafoods. Or chef leaders like Colette Nelson of Ludvig’s Bistro and Dana Honn of Carmo. And many others from our 53-member coalition representing 4.5 million people in every state across the U.S. 

We came to the table with a solution bill. We had a well organized coalition behind us. We spoke truth to power with authenticity, relevancy, and a tremendous amount of team synergy. We were in the zone. Ocean-size gratitude to all our team and the coalition for all the hard work and dedication. Click here to learn more about Don’t Cage our Oceans and get involved. Plus follow on social media.

In Solidarity,

Brett Tolley

In This Issue

Diving Below the Surface on Bluewashing!

The Reach of Walanthropy

Gardening the Ocean!

Wild Fisheries Are Dead?! (Part 2)

AquaBounty Selling Indiana Facility

The FSNE Racial Equity Challenge is Here!

Shop Our Swag!

If you missed the excellent webinar “Diving Below the Surface on Bluewashing,” it’s definitely worth a watch here! Co-hosted by Don’t Cage Our Oceans and the Indigenous Environmental Network, the webinar dug into bluewashing, examined its mechanisms, and learned how to approach the “Blue Revolution” with a critical lens and alternate frameworks, such as the Blue Commons, Oceanhood, and Rights of Nature. Featuring BJ McManama from the Indigenous Environmental Network, Dr. Ben Belton from Michigan State University, and Dr. Mike Skladany from Cleveland State University. 

Photo Credit: Scott Carr, Getty Images

Civil Eats has been digging into Walmart, its founding family, the Waltons, and their unprecedented influence over the American food system, including fisheries and seafood. It has been a hard-hitting and illuminating series so far. Check it out here.

MYTH: US wild-caught fisheries are fundamentally unsustainable and have no future. That’s why we import so much seafood. To fix our trade deficit and eat more domestic seafood we need more industrial aquaculture and factory fish farms. 

REALITY: The true danger to our ocean and food system is corporate consolidation, NOT Wild Fisheries. Instead of believing the industry's false solutions and false narratives about the future of Wild fisheries, we can look to tribal managed fisheries like the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and networks of Community Supported Fisheries for examples of shared management systems. We should counter any narrative that keeps us from believing that small scale fisheries can feed us and our communities or that Wild Fisheries are dead.

In February, biotech company AquaBounty announced it’d be selling its principal facility for growing genetically engineered salmon, a land-based aquaculture farm in Albany, Indiana, a move that’s sure to destabilize the small town. Amidst ongoing financial uncertainty, including having been recently threatened with NASDAQ delisting, the corporation claims to want to focus on securing funding for a new salmon farm in Pioneer, Ohio. There, too, AquaBounty is facing legal challenges and allegations of corruption. Who’s to say the company won’t do the same thing in the community of Pioneer — parachuting in, making a mess of its public resources, then picking up and leaving to chase profits?

The Food Solution's New England Racial Equity Challenge is here! The FSNE 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge is simple! You commit to deepening your understanding of, and willingness to confront, racism for twenty-one consecutive days in April of each year and the Racial Equity Challenge will:

• Raise your awareness, change your understanding and shift the way you behave.
• Go beyond individual or interpersonal racism by helping to demystify structural and institutional racism and white supremacist patterns that are sometimes invisible to people.
• Inspire you to act, on your own or with others in your organization, business, or group, to dismantle these systems, to make changes in your work and the world that can build true equity and justice for all.

Have you always wanted a NAMA hoodie? Now’s your chance! We’ve got hoodies, aprons, and onesies for the littlest fishes among our movement! Our merch is made in the US by Worx Printing Co-op, a worker-owned union coop and printed with water-based, organic, toxin-free, vegan ink. They’re PVC free, contain no phthalates and are safe for babies!