Photo: Hamida Kinge (in front) with the NAMA crew at Farm aid 2024

(Photo Credit: Hamida Kinge)

Hello Niaz,

My name is Hamida. I’m NAMA’s new content strategist. As I settle into my role, I can’t help but reflect on the personal journey that led me here -- advocating for justice and equity for fishermen, fisherfolk, seafood workers, and communities that lack access to nutritious, wild-caught seafood. So I wanted to share a little about myself.

Fishing, for me, began with a mix of necessity, ingenuity, and fumbling.

I caught my first fish around age 10. Our household shared just two fishing poles among several family members. But in our diverse, working-class Muslim community in Southwestern Connecticut, we were fortunate to have Cambodian friends who taught us the craft of repurposing soda cans as fishing poles. After catching one fish using this brilliant method, I remember a sibling and I standing over the kitchen sink stabbing at the live fish, realizing we hadn’t a clue what we were doing, dorsal fins pricking our hands. I didn’t know it then, but that moment sowed seeds of appreciation in me for the work of catching, cleaning, and preparing just one fish, let alone many.

My connection to water, land, and food deepened after learning more about my family’s agricultural roots in Georgia. My mom’s family had a farm in Meriweather County, then later in Coweta County, where they raised chickens and pigs, and grew corn, tomatoes, watermelon, and other produce. But like so many Black families across the South, they would lose their land -- a story of dispossession too common in America. Eventually, they headed for a city in the midwest during the Great Migration. And that disconnection from the land gradually eroded our family’s bond with the soil.

Today, this history mirrors what’s happening to coastal communities as they face dispossession from fishing rights, ocean access, and the surrounding land. Unchecked corporate greed, top-down policies, broken treaties, and ecosystem collapse are stripping them of livelihoods and traditions built over centuries of deep connection to the water. The movement to reclaim these rights and practices is about uplifting seafood with values, such as equity, cultural preservation, and community-based stewardship of ecosystems. 

It’s no accident that my entire career has focused on the intersection of justice, storytelling, and strategy. Since my early days as a nonprofit arts marketer, I’ve sought to drive change by challenging dominant narratives. Fifteen years ago, an environmental reporting fellowship at URI’s Metcalf Institute changed my trajectory, giving me the chance to expose how corporate greed devastates U.S. communities through climate, environmental, and food injustices. Years later, in grad school, I connected the dots to how multinational corporations and 'international development' agencies collude to strip communities worldwide of resources.

This brings me back to why I’m at NAMA, advocating for people whose livelihoods depend on these resources. As a Black and Armenian, Muslim-raised woman from a working-class family, this work is deeply personal. It ties directly to the struggles for access and opportunity that my ancestors faced and my family continues to face today. This keeps me motivated to contribute to dismantling the seafood system that empowers the few while building ones that empower the many.

Earlier this month, I got to see some of this movement-building work in action at the Slow Fish gathering in Charleston, SC. Fishers, fishmongers, chefs, advocates, and others from across North America converged in an all-hands-on-deck commitment to creating values-based seafood systems. It was a small but mighty group, and hearing powerful firsthand accounts gave proof of how each individual's efforts ripple out in their communities. If each person can make that much of a difference, collaboratively we can create a tidal wave.   

I’m excited to work alongside so many knowledgeable, passionate people in this ever-expanding movement. So if we haven’t met yet, I look forward to our paths crossing soon!

In solidarity,

Hamida

In This Issue

Giving Tuesday

New Faces

Don't Cage Our Oceans

World Forum of Fisher People

Slow Fish Charleston

Seafood Mislabeling Webinar

LCN Seafood Accelerator Innovation Lab

Photo: Island Foundation storytelling gathering, November 2024 (photo credit: L. Fernandes)

“The shortest distance between two people is a story.” – Patti Digh

This month, Niaz and I attended a gathering of NGOs that focused on the power of storytelling. As Niaz and the other panelists shared their wisdom with folks from more than 100 organizations, the unifying and fortifying power of story emerged. Across geographies, generations, cultures, and movements, we are deeply connected by the stories of a better future we all seek to create and know is possible. The struggles and the wins of farmers are the same as those of fisher people, the same as those of environmental justice advocates, of educators, elders, and activists. Stories pass on not just wisdom, but inspiration for navigating challenges, motivation to keep going, and instructions for how to care for one another no matter what.

As we move together through the months and years ahead, let us uphold and protect this most fundamental unifying human action: sharing the stories that light the way forward and inspire us all to change the world. – Lisa Fernandes, Development Director

Pedro Altagracia

Pedro Altagracia is NAMA's Program Director, leading our campaigns and programs. He is originally from New York City but has been living and farming oysters in Maine for two years. In addition to farming, Pedro worked in his community to address access barriers for diverse populations not traditionally encouraged to pursue aquaculture. Pedro’s very first day on the job was at Slow Fish Charleston - he has jumped in head first and we are so excited to have him on board!

Lateefah Morse

Lateefah Morse is NAMA’s Development Coordinator supporting both NAMA and our sister organization, the National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC), with fundraising and development efforts. She is a seasoned development professional with over seven years of experience in fundraising, grant writing, and donor relationship management. She excels at crafting compelling narratives, cultivating and stewarding donor relationships, and designing strategic fundraising plans.

In the News

Linda Behnken op-ed (paywall)

Linda Behnken of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association recently wrote in the Juneau Empire about the challenges faced by Alaskan fishing communities and how the funding opportunities in DSPA can help secure Alaska’s food systems and working waterfronts.

Dana Honn op-ed (paywall)

Chef Dana Honn published a column on NOLA.com that celebrated the inaugural Louisiana Shrimp Fest & Shrimp Aid and explains how DSPA will support shrimpers in crisis in the Gulf of Mexico.

DCO2 Newsletter

After five (!) years fighting against industrial fish farms, Don’t Cage Our Oceans decided to launch a quarterly newsletter! Every quarter we will share what we have been up to, uplift news from our network, and introduce some of our coalition members. You can sign up for our newsletter here.

Science Advances Issue on Aquaculture

The prestigious academic journal Science Advances recently dedicated an issue to the latest science and research on the impacts of global aquaculture. In sum, the articles challenge assumptions about the sustainability of the rapidly growing aquaculture industry. In “Phasing out open net-pen salmon farming in British Columbia,” Charles Mather, geography professor at the Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, writes: “The promotion of ocean net-pen aquaculture and the protection of wild species are incompatible.”

Washington State Net Pen Ban

Washington state is on the cusp of finalizing the process of keeping commercial finfish net pens out of state waters once and for all. You may remember that the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) trailblazing Commissioner Hilary Franz issued an executive order in Nov 2022 to boot out commercial finfish farms in state waters, and about a year ago issued a notice to develop implementing regulations to support that executive order. This proposed rule was recently open for comments and now will be decided in coming weeks.

Cooke Aquaculture Lawsuit

The Conservation Law Foundation has just issued their notice of intent to file suit against Cooke Aquaculture's alleged violations of the Clean Water Act. Cooke Aquaculture is a Canadian company that currently operates 13 Atlantic Salmon farms off the coast of Maine.

Photo: Indigenous People's Assembly at WFFP 2024

From November 13 to 21, the World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP) held their 8th general assembly (GA8) in Brasília, Brazil. NAMA’s board members Jason Jarvis and Melanie Brown attended as delegates for the United States, staff members Estefanía Narvaèz and Feini Yin joined as part of the communications and documentation team, and consultant Maíra Netto helped organize the whole thing! A tremendous thank you to Maíra, the coordinating committee of the WFFP, WFFP members, and Movimento de Pescadores e Pescadoras Artesanais (MPP), the largest movement of fisherfolks in Brazil and our hosts for GA8.

The gathering was a moving deliberation between representatives of traditional and small-scale fisheries from 40 countries. Over the week we heard devastating testimonies of the destruction wrought by climate change, global capitalism, and industrial fishing and aquaculture. We also heard powerful stories of resistance, food sovereignty, and real community-led solutions. 

NAMA has a deep-rooted history with WFFP, which you can read about here. The 8th general assembly was the group's first one since 2017, which Brett Tolley was able to attend in New Delhi, India, shortly after he gave testimony at the United Nations on behalf of small-scale fishers everywhere. GA8 in Brasília hammered home that the struggles of our fishing communities in North America are shared with fishing and water peoples everywhere. The issues discussed at the general assembly are the same ones we grapple with at home: ocean grabbing, extractivism, the blue economy, corporate greed, and false solutions from top-down conservation efforts. It is clear that we are stronger all together, and we need each other to win. 

GA8 also included WFFP’s first ever Indigenous People’s Assembly, which Estefanía Narvaèz, Jason Jarvis, and Melanie Brown helped organize and support. On the heels of the National Day of Mourning and Native American Heritage Month, we want to share a couple excerpts from an Indigenous People’s Statement produced at the assembly. 

Photo: From left, feini yin (NAMA), Estefanía Narvaéz (NAMA), Maíra Netto (NAMA), Melanie Brown (NAMA Board), Jason Jarvis (NAMA Board), and Carsten Pederson (Transnational Institute) at WFFP

“The WFFP recognizes that Indigenous Peoples suffer the most under capitalist and imperialist supply chains and will work to particularly center Indigenous Fishers who fish as a collective, rooted in their cultures, beliefs, and spirituality in both inland and marine fisheries and those who are located in downstream communities who bear the brunt of the contamination and destruction of habitat by extractive industries. Often, these industries that are targeting single species cause imbalance in natural systems by impacting other species with incidental catch and habitat degradation, thus demonstrating their lack of understanding and incompetence in managing the natural world. Our governments have separated the land from the sea in their policymaking, yet Indigenous Peoples, who have coexisted and managed Indigenous ecosystems since time immemorial, know that these two are intricately connected.”

“This statement acknowledges that harm to fishing habitat comes from both non-fishing extractive industries like tourism, agriculture, oil, and mining, as well as capitalist fishing practices, where market pressures prioritize fish for export and international trade led and facilitated by multinational corporations, instead of feeding local populations with local catch. We believe that Indigenous Peoples’ right to food needs to come before anyone's profits… We believe that no fishing activity or conservation effort, no matter how well intentioned, should come at the expense of natural resources and Indigenous livelihoods.”

We will be sharing more about WFFP and our time in Brazil. For now, check out this video on our Instagram recapping the Cry of the Fisheries march we participated in on World Fisheries Day with WFFP and MPP. And follow @world_forum_of_fisher_peoples to stay in the loop with WFFP! 

Photo: Brett Tolley leading a group discussion

Applications are now open! LCN is excited to announce the 2025 application cycle for their two upcoming Seafood Accelerator and Innovation Lab (SAIL) programs: (1) SAIL Catalyst is a 14-week seafood business accelerator to support network members establish their businesses and gain traction; (2) SAIL Mentorship is a year-long peer-to-peer mentorship program designed to support network members build capacity and work towards long-term goals.