Happy Fish: Mobile fish catch tracking in the Solomon Islands

May 102013
 

What are fishermen catching in the Solomon Islands? The government wants to know, to better manage the archipelago’s fisheries. Our Marine Consulting Initiatives (MCI) team recently linked up with the Solomon Islands government and the Coral Triangle Initiative to develop a new mobile app that will allow improve the ability for surveyors in fish markets to record what’s coming over the docks.

Solomons HappyFish

A surveyor with the Ministry of Fisheries interviews a vendor at the Honiara fish market using a new mobile app Happy Fish, counting the number and type of species in the vendors bin or ‘esky’. Photo via USAID CTSP / Tory Read.

The aggregated data will help the government paint a better picture of fishing hauls in the Solomons.  A post on the Coral Triangle Initiative site explains more:

Good fisheries management requires good data.  The administrators at the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources in Solomon Islands felt constrained in their work by the lack of information on the current use of inshore fisheries around the country.  Ben Buga, marketing director and chief fisheries officer at Ministry of Fisheries, summed it up: “For resource management programs and to support the fishing communities, we need accurate data on production, species, origin, how, when and by whom the fish are being caught.”  Leaders from the Ministry of Fisheries explained this need at a CTI Regional Business Forum in 2012, and USAID’s Coral Triangle Support Partnership (CTSP) stepped up to help the Ministry meet the challenge.

With CTSP support, the Ministry of Fisheries tasked Ben with making an information-gathering plan and hiring and training eight people to work as market surveyors. With CTSP support, Dr. Robert Pomeroy from the University of Connecticut Sea Grant Program and Dr. Kevin Rhodes, a professor of marine biology at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, were brought in with the help of CTSP consortium members WWF and CI to develop surveys to close information gaps, supervise and train market surveyors and assist Buga in managing the program.  Training in how to administer surveys was conducted in the main market at Honiara, the capital of Guadalcanal Island.

survey_photo-2

The Happy Fish survey interface.

Similar surveys have been done in many places, and the weakness of all of them has been the use of paper forms to record the interviews.  Paper can be damaged or lost, and the information from the forms must be transcribed manually to computers, creating the potential for mistakes and posing considerable challenges to timely use of data.  To clear this hurdle, CTSP worked with the NGO Ecotrust to develop a mobile application to enable surveyors to capture and input data on site.  The mobile app, called Happy Fish, will allow accurate recording and instantaneous wireless transmission of survey information to a database programmed to analyze the data and generate useful reports for managers, on demand.  This exciting program is setting an example for other Coral Triangle and Pacific countries to use technology to support local economies and food security for inshore fisheries.

 

 

Diving out of the ivory tower, fisherman organizes on the docks

May 032013
 

Stephanie Mutz was on track to becoming a professor. She earned a bachelor’s degree in marine biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a master’s degree in tropical marine biology from James Cook University in Aus­tralia. But while her thesis was being reviewed she took a job as a deckhand and didn’t look back.

Mutz has operated her own boat, primarily dive fishing for urchins and snails, while also trapping fish, rock crab, spiny lobster, and Santa Barbara spot prawns. She now serves as President for Commercial Fishermen of Santa Barbara, a non-profit organization that strives to create new models for collaboration by connecting fishermen with each other and with fishery scientists. CFSB is a member of the Ecotrust-backed Community Fisheries Network, which held its third annual meeting in March.

Stephanie Mutz serves as a go-between for fish harvesters and communities in Santa Barbara.

Stephanie Mutz serves as a go-between for fish harvesters and communities in Santa Barbara. Photo: Fran Collin

CFSB operates by the Golden Rule: only catch what you can sell. They partner with the Santa Barbara Fish Market, which is 200 yards from the pier and will fillet their fish for free.

While Mutz does serve as an adjunct professor of biology for Ventura Community College, her overall educational approach is grassroots. She holds a number of positions on advisory and executive boards, including serving as Co-founder for Santa Barbara’s first and only Community Supported Fishery.

Q. How is CFSB evolving?

A. Fishermen are talking together more, working through issues, and coming up with resolutions. We’re becoming more formal with bylaws and insurance policies. We’d also like to engage more in marketing. But we want to keep our focus at the community level. The largest boat size is 60 feet and we only have two of those; the average boat size is 30 feet. Inventory isn’t always consistent, depending upon the circumstances. We tell restaurants that a good way to think about us is don’t put us on the menu, put us on the chalkboard.

Q. What are the benefits of working with someone in Maine or Alaska, through the Community Fisheries Network?

A. Having a national network like the CFN provides a common ground—it’s a way to hear other people’s stories and issues and see how ours compare. If we’ve dealt with the issue here, we can provide advice to others and vice versa. The network provides strength in numbers and support for common struggles.

Q. What does your outreach to the community look like?

A. A number of CFSB fishermen talk to food clubs, at festivals, and to people who want to know more about harvesting/quirky biology about seafood. My passion has always been teaching, and I’ve realized that I prefer grassroots, organic education. I want to nerd out and tell people all the things they want to learn about.

When I first started outreaching to the community seven or so years ago, I was on my soap box, telling people what they should and shouldn’t do and I realized that I have to relate to people on their level. I’m still learning how to get my message out in language that is accessible to the public and sometimes I need to tone down my approach. I used to teach people how to fillet a fish and boil a crab on Earth Day. Some people had a visceral reaction to me killing food right there on Earth Day!

Q. Is there a good return on investment in outreach?

A. We’re seeing a lot more fishermen getting involved in direct marketing, but it is extra work. I enjoy helping people with strategy; I’d like to be a consultant for fishermen. There’s a communal nature to the industry—consumers like knowing where their food is coming from and fishermen like seeing where their food goes.

National ocean plan finalized — now time to act

Apr 172013
 

Yesterday, the Obama Administration released the final ocean action plan to help coordinate the federal government’s efforts to tackle some of the biggest threats facing oceans, coasts and Great Lakes. This advances the National Ocean Policy’s  goal of creating healthier oceans and coasts and stronger economies for our coastal communities.

The health and resilience of the marine environment are crucial to maintaining a diverse suite of economic, social and environmental benefits that we all depend on. In the Pacific Northwest, ocean-related activities contributed nearly $1.8 billion and 26,700 jobs in Oregon and $7 billion and 103,500 jobs in Washington in 2009. America as a whole is no different: the nation’s ocean economy is valued at $138 billion per year and supports 2.3 million jobs.

Hoh River mouth, WA Photo by Sam Beebe

The national ocean plan sets the stage for smarter ocean use along our coasts. Photo by Sam Beebe

 The implementation plan released yesterday is meant to ensure all government agencies that play a role in ocean-related work — from fishing to shipping to offshore energy and coastal development — work from a single playbook: the National Ocean Policy.

 As Nancy Sutley, Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality and Co-Chair of the National Ocean Council said yesterday:

With increasing demands on our ocean, we must improve how we work together, share information, and plan smartly to grow our economy, keep our ocean healthy, and enjoy the highest benefits from our ocean resources, now and in the future.”

Ecotrust recognizes the value of robust regional ocean planning and we are working with a number of partners along our nation’s coasts to support smart implementation of the NOP. Our cutting edge data visualization and interactive mapping tools, such as the MARCO Ocean Data Portal that we designed with our partners in the Mid-Atlantic, offer ocean stakeholders a means to engage in informed dialogue about the best uses of our oceans.

The MARCO Portal and other data visualization tools are key piece of implementing the national ocean plan.

The MARCO Portal and other data visualization tools give diverse stakeholders common ground to consider the best ocean uses.

As Rick Robins, Chair of the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council, remarked yesterday on the White House blog, tools like the MARCO Portal allow the kind of…

…enhanced coordination and communication between agencies and ocean sectors [that] is critical to ensuring positive outcomes for present and future generations.”

 The National Ocean Policy (NOP) coordinates the work of our federal agencies through the National Ocean Council and encourages states and all stakeholders, including the public, to work together to help address some of the biggest challenges facing ocean life and the communities that are connected to the sea. And the NOP’s Final Implementation Plan reflects over two years worth of hard work, investment and commitment made by state governments, commercial and industrial ocean users, universities and scientists, 25 federal agencies and departments and tens of thousands of citizens across the country to move our oceans toward better ocean management.

 We now need state and federal agencies, Governors, tribes, and our elected leaders to support and fund the implementation of the National Ocean Policy.

True story: How a fish went to school

Apr 102013
 

Julie Mack, Healthy Active Schools Coordinator for the Centennial School District, was looking for fish. She needed enough for a district with a student enrollment of 6, 700 and it had to be caught or processed in Oregon.

Enter FoodHub.

Mack searched the online directory FoodHub, Ecotrust’s network that connects food buyers and sellers. She found Lyf Gildersleeve of Flying Fish Company. Gildersleeve fishmongers from a 176 square foot shack on Southeast Hawthorne in Portland. He set Mack up with an order of cod filet from Astoria.

Mack is using a $29,033 grant from the state Department of Education to bring more local foods into school cafeterias to expand food choices and help support local food producers. She presents new, locally-based dishes to the district on Wednesdays through the middle of May. That cod from Astoria featured once last month and will return to the plates again on April 22.

Centennial is one of 11 Oregon districts receiving a total of $189,000 in grants through a Farm to School bill passed by the 2011 Legislature. Ecotrust research made the case for that bill. Since 2007, Ecotrust has also been active in connecting schools, farmers, and other producers as the Western Regional Lead agency for the National Farm to School Network.

The new grants not only support purchases from farmers but fishermen as well, through what is becoming referred to as “Boat to School.”

FoodHub directly connects schools with local food distributors, like Flying Fish Company. Photo: Lyf Gildersleeve

FoodHub directly connects schools with local food distributors, like Flying Fish Company. Photo: Lyf Gildersleeve

Stacey Sobell, Farm to School Manager for Ecotrust, recently pointed out to OPB’s Ecotrope that grants play a key role in making more local food available to schools, and establishing the connections between all sorts of new producers and large local buyers like schools.

 Sobell said “center of the plate” protein items are a new focus for schools looking to serve local lunch food, and seafood is gaining traction in a handful of schools nationwide.

“This is a big new area that’s really taking off,” she said.

FoodHub and Farm to School are central to Ecotrust’s efforts to build a resilient food system that offers fresh, healthy food to all residents, economically viable food value chains that fairly compensate and respect the dignity of all participants, and methods of food production that renew our resources.

Flying Fish Company is the sort of company that forms the heart of that system.

Recently one of four nominees for Edible Portland’s Local Hero Award in the Retailer category, Flying Fish was first opened by Lyf’s father, Craig Gildersleeve, in 1979 in Sandpoint, Idaho. The family business now has branches in Colorado, Utah, and Oregon.

Flying Fish was recently one of four nominees for Edible Portland's Local Hero Award in the retailer category. Photo: www.flyingfishcompany.com

Flying Fish was recently one of four nominees for Edible Portland’s Local Hero Award in the retailer category.
Photo: www.flyingfishcompany.com

Flying Fish’s mission statement reads, “We would never sell anything we wouldn’t serve at our own dinner table.” They’re the kind of small business that can leverage FoodHub’s marketing and networking tools to find buyers like Centennial.

In addition to selling responsibly harvested seafood, including Oregon Dungeness crab and Oregon albacore tuna, the company also offers grassfed meat, including beef, lamb, pork, elk, and bison. Their specialty products range from hand-churned butter to wasabi. To continue stocking the shelves when seasonal products run dry, Flying Fish is now selling products like smoked salmon, sauerkraut, soup, crab and salmon cakes. Gildersleeve said he’ll be looking to FoodHub to help stock that supply chain as well.

Community Fisheries Network raising the bar on accountability

Mar 282013
 

As the seafood industry faces a wave of new questions about the legitimacy of fish labels, the Ecotrust-backed Community Fisheries Network is buckling down and working to build back public trust by establishing rigorous accountability on sustainability standards for its 13 membership organizations nationwide.

At a recent annual meeting in Portland, Maine, a new work group set to drafting metrics to more clearly measure member performance in meeting the network’s detailed sustainability standards. The standards support three broad goals: improving or sustaining ecosystem and species health; ensuring that communities have equitable access to fishery resources and provide intergenerational opportunities; and improving the economic performance of local fisheries businesses and associated community infrastructure. The standards include an emphasis on traceability for the high-value seafood delivered by network members.

Port Orford by Scott Trimble 2

Community Fisheries Network members are pushing for new metrics for to track progress on sustainability and traceability. Photo by Scott Trimble.

“Our members have understood the problems with labels and traceability for years,” says Stephanie Webb, the business manager for the Community Fisheries Network, who is based at Ecotrust. “False labeling breaks down the trust and relationship between consumers and fishermen. Our work group is concerned with establishing clear metrics that the public can understand, and working on a framework to establish a clear chain of custody from boat to plate.”

Several member organizations sell their fish under their own labels to distinguish themselves in the marketplace and provide traceability back to fishermen. Port Clyde (Maine) Fresh Catch established the first community-supported seafood subscription service in the country and now processes and wholesales its own fish and shellfish. The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association sells longlined and troll-caught salmon to community-supported fish subscribers in Juneau and Sitka under the “Alaskans Own” label. In Maine, Calendar Island Lobster Company was established by lobstermen in Maine’s Casco Bay to add story and value to their product. Meanwhile, members in Port Orford, Oregon will deliver fish to subscribers under the Port Orford Sustainable Seafood label beginning this spring.

The focus on transparent labeling becomes even more important as several studies and investigations have found widespread fraud with fish labels. In the most widely publicized study, Oceana found that one-third of more than 1,200 seafood samples collected across the country were sold under false labels. Fish sold under common labels like “tuna” and “red snapper” were in fact other species from poorly managed or unhealthy fisheries. Salmon sold as “wild” were in fact farmed; Asian catfish was often sold under the label of “cod” or “grouper.”

“The Community Fisheries Network believes that its new metrics will improve traceability, provide a real foundation upon which to ‘walk the talk’ on sustainable fisheries, and help consumers understand they are supporting fishing communities that care about the ocean,” says Ed Backus, Ecotrust’s vice president for fisheries.

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