Fishermen and their representatives have been working through the Fishery Friendly Climate Action Campaign in partnership with the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) and three regional coastal/ocean acidification networks to define core principles of “fishery sensitive” marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR). In this webinar, we will describe a set of 17 fishing industry roundtables that we held on this topic in 2025, and then share RODA’s new “Guidance for Fishery-Sensitive mCDR” memo series, which was developed by the project partners based on fishermen’s input.

Agenda

• Introduction to mCDR (Gabby Kitch)

• Roundtables: what we did, what we learned (Sarah Schumann)

• Introducing the “Fishery Sensitive mCDR” Guidance Memo Series (Fiona Hogan and Darcy Dugan)

• What else is the fishing community doing regarding mCDR?

  • ICES Working Group on Interactions between mCDR with Ecosystems, Fisheries, and Aquaculture (Helen Gurney-Smith)

  • Community Leaders and mCDR (CLaM) project in Alaska (Theresa Peterson)

  • mCDR Literacy Course for Commercial Fishermen (Sarah Schumann)

• Q&A and Discussion

Read the Guidance Memos!

Read RODA’s succinct and user-friendly “Guidance for Fishery-Sensitive mCDR” Memo Series!

• Effective engagement of the fishing community in an mCDR context. Fiona Hogan, Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA). Intent: To provide preliminary guidance that mCDR developers and mCDR permitting agencies should use when engaging the fishing industry in the design of proposed projects or surveys taking place in fishing areas and seeking feedback from the broader fishing industry community.

• Elements of effective governance for fishery-sensitive mCDR development. Fiona Hogan, Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA). Intent: To provide preliminary guidance on the core elements that should be incorporated into the governance of pilot and full-scale mCDR projects that would ensure a transparent, science-based, and collaborative approach is taken that recognizes the expertise of the fishing industry.

• Engaging commercial fishermen as co-producers of information in a mCDR context. Darcy Dugan, Alaska Ocean Acidification Network (AOAN), Alex Harper, California Current Acidification Network (C-CAN), Austin Pugh: Northeast Coastal Acidification Network (NECAN) Intent: To provide preliminary guidance for engaging commercial fishermen in the context of: mCDR project design, assessing baseline biogeochemical conditions of prospective mCDR sites; monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) of mCDR projects; and assessments of impacts to marine resources via pre-development and post-development site-specific fisheries surveys.

Read the synthesis report!

Read our Roundtable Synthesis: “Marine carbon dioxide removal: Early Insights from the U.S. Commercial Fishing Community”