What We Do

The compass that guides our collaboration

Fishery friendly climate action achieves the internationally established target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 while also:

Minimizing negative impacts on ocean, coastal, estuarine, and watershed environments.

Maximizing co-benefits that enhance the resilience of these ecosystems to climate change and other stressors.

Minimizing interference with the harvest and provision of wild seafood for the public.

Facilitating voluntary adoption of cost-effective, locally-appropriate technologies and practices to reduce fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions by fishing vessels and shoreside businesses.

What the Campaign is (and isn’t)

Unlike an advocacy coalition built around specific positions, the Fishery Friendly Climate Action Campaign is a community, built around shared livelihoods and concern for our common home, the sea. The Campaign does not speak for this community, but instead helps its members make their own voices heard.

We nurture climate leadership in the U.S. fishing community by providing:

  • Participation in the Campaign’s Community List-Serve and activities is open to all members of the U.S. fishing community. Whether you’re a captain, boat owner, or deckhand; a seafood company executive, forklift driver, fish cutter, or port engineer; and whether you’re a seasoned climate leader or just a bit climate-curious: you will find a welcoming place in the Campaign to expand your learning and engagement. The Campaign is nonpartisan and welcomes the participation of fishing community members from all points along the political spectrum. 

  • Independent by nature, we fishermen like to make up our own minds about an issue. The Fishery Friendly Climate Action Campaign does not promote groupthink and does not take policy positions as a whole. Instead, it focuses on facilitating collaboration among its participants to identify and advocate for solutions that feel most appropriate to them, individually or collectively. We welcome constructive conflict and diverging viewpoints, and we seek to enable members of our community to become champions for climate action at their own pace and on their own terms.

  • The Campaign focuses on solutions to the root causes of climate change: greenhouse gas emissions and destruction of ecological carbon sinks. While there is much important work to be done to support the fishing community’s adaptation and resilience to the impacts of climate change, we leave that very noble work to others.

  • The Campaign envisions a just transition that empowers fishing communities and sustains fishery ecosystems, and our work lifts up climate solutions that can help fishermen and their communities reach that vision. We do not devote resources to resisting false climate solutions that impose risks on fisheries, but our work complements the many courageous fishermen-led initiatives that do.

  • The Campaign values and respects the network of established fishermen-led associations around the U.S. and seeks to further strengthen these organizations by providing support and coordination. The Campaign works "through" existing fishermen's associations, and these associations work "through" the Campaign. We do not compete with existing organizations for funding, access to policy makers, or members.

Participants in a “Transition to a Low Carbon Fishing Fleet” workshop hosted by the Whatcom Working Waterfront Coalition in Bellingham, WA.