Who's ocean is it anyway? Reflecting on the 2023 Our Ocean Conference

“I cannot be a fisherman who cares about my job without being a conservationist.” - Tiare Boyes

I’m still here in beautiful Panamá, and finally having a chance to reflect on my time at the Our Ocean Conference.

I have a lot of thoughts about the event, now having been to two of them. But there’s one in particular that I want to focus on today: the role of fisheries and aquaculture at the Our Ocean Conference.

Being at the main conference and participating in the Youth Leadership Summit beforehand, one thing is abundantly clear to me: we still have a long way to go in seafood communications - and not just with consumers. We need to do a better job of communicating with our fellow colleagues in the ocean space.

It’s been disappointing, to say the least, to see so many prominent figures in the ocean space given a massive platform like the Our Ocean Conference to re-affirm anti-aquaculture and anti-fishing rhetoric, usually based in anti-science theories and narratives.

I’ve heard a lot of claims over the last few days that are fundamentally false and disproven by science. But as one of the few voices of the seafood industry in this room, I’m outnumbered trying to set the record straight.

Representatives from various NGOs, government, and Sylvia Earle herself, took to the stage several times to emphasize the need to “take the ocean back” from those in extractive industries, including fisheries and aquaculture.

While in the same breath, claiming that the ocean belongs to everyone.

What I quickly learned is that when certain people got up on the podium to claim “the ocean belongs to everyone”, what they really meant was “the ocean belongs to everyone - oh, but not them”.

The unfortunate reality is that this isn’t uncommon. It’s the rule, not the exception, for many in ocean spaces to speak about fisheries and aquaculture in a negative way.

My experience was similar at last year's Our Ocean Conference in Palau. As a first time attendee of the Our Ocean Conference in 2022, I had no idea what to expect. Needless to say, I was surprised by the blatant disregard and disrespect for the role that fisheries and aquaculture play in global food security and coastal livelihoods.

But Palau was nothing compared to the fire and fury that was being thrown at fisheries and aquaculture at the 2023 conference.

The general sentiment amongst most in the room is that the ocean is something that should be left alone. We should close it off and let it be. And while I can understand the (good) intentions behind why people think this way, it’s not realistic, nor should it be.

The ocean is a provider of resources and we as humans do not exist separate from it.

There is no “us” and “the ocean”. Humans do not exist separately from nature, we are part of nature.

We exist together and the goal of these types of conferences should be to figure out exactly how we do that.

Suggesting that we remove our existence from the ocean is frankly, a waste of everyone's time.

It’s not a real solution.

Our ocean is in trouble. Yes. This is a fundamental point that we can agree on. But suggesting that we shut down sustainable fishing and aquaculture operations is not an appropriate way to address any of these problems.

Instead, we need to recognize that the ocean does provide us with resources and our focus should be on how we can enjoy those resources sustainably while also giving back to the ocean (see; regenerative aquaculture).

And the thing is, we know how to do this. We know how to extract resources from the ocean sustainably. We’ve been fishing for over 40,000 years and farming the seas as far back as 4,000 years ago.

The ocean does belong to everyone, including fishermen and water farmers.

When I pushed back on a speaker who suggested we “take back the ocean” from fishermen and water farmers, his simple, deadpan response was “but do we really need seafood?”

In 2023, after all the decades of fisheries and aquaculture science, all the work that has gone into building resilient supply chains and researching how to feed the world sustainably, and all the social scientists who’ve explained why this narrative that the world simply 'shouldn’t eat seafood' is racist, xenophobic, and privileged, people are still being given a platform to suggest the most globally traded food product in the world doesn’t have a place in our food systems.

“Do we really need seafood?”

YES. We fundamentally, absolutely, unequivocally need seafood.

This is not a debate, it’s not an ethical disagreement, it’s a definitive fact backed up by years of scientific research.

Currently, 3.3 billion people rely on seafood as their primary source of protein and this number is only expected to increase. A 2021 report by the FAO cites the importance of seafood for ending hunger and addressing malnutrition.

The global seafood industry also plays a vital role in livelihoods by employing hundreds of millions of people worldwide. The seafood industry plays a crucial role in supporting coastal economies, providing jobs, and achieving Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality.

Fisheries and aquaculture are not perfect, but the way they are dismissed at the Our Ocean Conference is inaccurate and a disservice to the scientists and advocates who’ve been working to make the seafood industry better for a long time.

And we know that when fish stocks are sustainably managed, they’re more productive, meaning more seafood to feed the world, more jobs for workers, and more profit. We know that aquaculture is already the fastest growing food producing sector in the world, helping to alleviate pressure off of wild stocks, and providing ecosystem benefits to the ocean through the cultivation of restorative species.

It seems fitting that today I woke up to a post from my friend Tiare Boyes, a fishermen and underwater photographer from BC, that read, “I cannot be a fisherman who cares about my job without being a conservationist.”

Fishermen are not the enemy. Water farmers are not the enemy.

The Our Ocean Conference is supposed to be a forum for solutions, where people come to make commitments to how they’re going to protect the oceans. Ideas like, banning fishing on the high seas, which are productive, constructive, equitable, and actually possible.

Though I share the Our Ocean Conference’s mission and commitment to protect the oceans, I do not believe in doing so with a homogenous group of individuals who lack diversity of thought.

If we really want to save our oceans, we need EVERYBODY at the table.