Description:
Walking Fish, founded in 2009 by Duke’s subchapter of the American Fisheries Society, is an organization designed to facilitate community-based fisheries projects that support economic growth of local communities while cultivating an ethic of environmental stewardship. This year, seeing an opportunity, Walking Fish launched North Carolina’s first community-supported fishery.

Executive Summary:

Walking Fish, a community-supported fisheries initiative, was founded by Duke’s subchapter of the American Fisheries Society (AFS). An underlying objective of this project is to work towards enhancing the viability of our local fisheries. An important step in this process, we believe, is to make North Carolina’s commercial fishing sector part of our sustainable, secure, local food system. To achieve this, Walking Fish is working to build long-term, local markets for sustainable seafood. This year, in its first year of operation, Walking Fish launched a community-supported fishery (CSF) linking fishermen in Carteret County to consumers in Durham. A CSF, based on the community-supported agriculture model (CSA), promotes systems for consumers to achieve direct access local food.

Consumers pre-pay for a ‘share’ of freshly harvested seafood and in return they receive a box of the locally caught seafood. This season, members will receive weekly such species as: jumping mullet, black sea bass, southern flounder, and triggerfish. Just as CSAs can encourage sustainable and profitable farming practices, CSFs have the potential to do the same for fishing.

The goals of this project are simple: to foster economic opportunities, to cultivate healthy communities, and to encourage environmental stewardship. As graduate students from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, we come from a conservation perspective – one which is ultimately concerned with the health of coastal and marine ecosystems – but we recognize that conservation is intimately linked to the well-being of people and communities. We believe that in order to work towards ecological sustainability we must also work towards local economic stability and social equity.

The pilot CSF, which delivered its first shares of seafood to Durham in mid-September, has been met with overwhelming enthusiasm. In less than three weeks of marketing, four hundred shares were sold. The demand is both humbling and inspiring. This is a tremendous opportunity, and Walking Fish is well positioned to both grow and work with others to design, plan, and implement similar locally relevant community-based initiatives. As Walking Fish matures, we hope to strengthen existing partnerships and establish new relationships with fishermen, communities, and consumers.

What specific results have been achieved?

Walking Fish has accomplished the following:

• Website [www.walking-fish.org]: Walking Fish partnered with an independent web designer to build a website and Members' Forum for the CSF. The website has served as a focal point for the project, providing a platform to sell shares, offer information, and engage in a dialog with CSF members.

• Regional networking: Walking Fish was inspired by a handful of community-based projects around the country that aim to support healthy communities and the people that depend on them. To learn first hand about these projects, and to meet the catalysts behind them, we traveled the coast of New England with two members of Carteret County’s fishing community.

• Building local partnerships: Early in the process, Walking Fish recognized the need to create community partners. Walking Fish has been tremendously successful in doing so, establishing partnerships with organizations, individuals, and institutions on the coast and inland.

• Focus group and business model: To better understand the needs of our customer base, Walking Fish facilitated a series of focus groups. The data generated during these meetings was used to refine the business model.

• Community-supported fishery (CSF): In early September Walking Fish publicly launched the CSF. We anticipated consumer demand, but did not anticipate just how much. In less than three weeks Walking Fish sold four hundred shares, nearly two hundred more than we expected (and there are now more than four hundred people on a waitlist).

In what ways are the efforts of this organization/individual unique and innovative?

The CSF is the first of its kind in the southeast and only the third nationwide. We are proud of this distinction, but recognize that being first is only part of what makes this initiative unique. Here, we describe three ways that Walking Fish is unique and/or innovative.

1. Frequently, community projects seek to build capacity within communities rather than between sectors. Walking Fish is unique in its explicit emphasis on building capacity through collaboration and partnership between rural and urban communities. This is an opportunity, we believe, to utilize the strengths and resources of these sectors in a way that benefits both.

2. This initiative is also unique in the way it seeks to affect change. Issues of sustainability, regulation, and conservation are often the root cause of tensions between resource-dependent rural communities and the urban sector. Recognizing the complexity and controversy of these issues, Walking Fish is using the CSF as a positive platform to engage people (from both sectors) in a dialog about these issues. This is a change to build trust and transparency, and ultimately strengthen communication.

3. Walking Fishing is unique in its approach to implementation. The initiative takes root in the belief that people – whether they be coastal fishermen or local consumers – play an important role in creating solutions to the social, economic, and environmental challenges we face. As such, we strive to be both a “think tank” and a “do tank,” identifying innovative ideas and facilitating projects like the CSF.

How has the broader community been impacted?

Four hundred households are participating in this season’s community-supported fishery, equal to 12,000 pounds of seafood over the course of 12 weeks. For the participants and fishermen participating in the CSF, the benefits are clear: consumers have access to fresh, local seafood, and fishermen receive a higher price for their catch.

The impact of this initiative, however, extends well beyond those personally connected. The local, regional, and national media attention Walking Fish has received has sparked tremendous enthusiasm and interest from a wide range of individuals, organizations, and businesses. In the week following our Public Radio interview, for instance, we received over five hundred emails of inquiry. Though this surge of attention has felt overwhelming, the collective excitement has provided a wonderful opportunity to engage with the wider community in a dialog about marine conservation, local food systems, community development, and sustainability.

One of the most exciting outcomes from this coverage has been people’s desire to start similar projects in other communities. Groups across the state and as far away as Nova Scotia, California, and Alaska have contacted Walking Fish to learn more.