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September 20: Interactive Webinar on Identifying Priorities for Shifting Marine Species

September 12, 2019 — The following was released by the Lenfest Ocean Program:

The Lenfest Ocean Program will host an interactive webinar on Friday, September 20 from 12:30 pm-2 pm ET during which participants can share their perspectives on shifting marine species. The webinar is open to anyone interested in discussing this critical issue.

This webinar is a precursor to an Ideas Lab workshop that the Lenfest Ocean Program, in collaboration with the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Biodiversity Funder’s Group, will host later this fall to discuss the future of U.S. fisheries in the face of climate change, generate research priorities, and kickstart the funding of key research projects. The application period for this workshop closed on August 22.

To facilitate planning around the webinar, which will include breakout discussion groups, please register by 12 pm ET on Thursday, September 19.

For background on the Ideas Lab, listen to the introductory webinar hosted by Lenfest on July 31.

APPLICATIONS DUE THURSDAY, 8/22: October 2019 Workshop to Identify Research Priorities for Shifting Marine Species

August 19, 2019 — The following was released by Lenfest Ocean Program:

The shifting distribution of marine species is one of the most visible impacts of climate change on the world’s oceans. Scientists, fishermen and others on the East and West Coasts of the United States have observed range shifts that have disrupted species ecology, fishing patterns and management strategies. In every region of the US, fish populations are projected to shift further as ocean temperatures continue to warm.

Open Call for Participants

This fall, the Lenfest Ocean Program, in collaboration with the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Biodiversity Funder’s Group, will host a three-day Ideas Lab workshop to bring together scientists, managers, stakeholders, and funders for a collaborative discussion about the future of fisheries in the face of climate change. The workshop, which will take place from October 21-23, 2019, in Washington, DC, will aim to generate research priorities and kickstart the funding of key research projects.

We are seeking individuals with local knowledge, scientific expertise, insights or specific perspectives who are interested in a collaborative, interdisciplinary Ideas Lab designed to generate priority research questions for funding consideration. An Ideas Lab is an intensive meeting that brings together multiple diverse perspectives to focus on finding innovative cross-disciplinary solutions to a critical problem.

Read the full release here

Applications Due August 22: October 2019 Workshop to Identify Research Priorities for Shifting Marine Species

August 14, 2019 — The following was released by the Lenfest Ocean Program:

Call for Participants

The Lenfest Ocean Program, in collaboration with the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Biodiversity Funder’s Group, is seeking applicants for a three-day Ideas Lab workshop to discuss the future of U.S. fisheries in the face of climate change, generate research priorities, and kickstart the funding of key research projects. Our geographic focus will be the continental United States.

  • Workshop dates: October 21-23, 2019
  • Location: Washington, DC
  • Application deadline: August 22, 2019

All travel, lodging, and meals will be paid for by the Lenfest Ocean Program.

Event Background and Eligibility

An Ideas Lab is an intensive meeting that brings together diverse perspectives to focus on crafting innovative cross-disciplinary solutions to a critical problem. This workshop will bring together state and federal managers and policymakers, stakeholders, scientists and funders with local knowledge, scientific expertise, insights or perspectives who are interested in developing priority research questions for funding consideration.

If you are interested in applying, please read the entire call on our website which includes additional background and eligibility requirements.

If you have questions about this opportunity, visit our website or email us.

Workshop series aims to boost “harvest strategy” for tuna management

April 23, 2018 — On late February, Fiji’s Ministry of Fisheries and the World Wildlife Fund hosted a two-day regional workshop to create a better understanding among states in the western and central Pacific Ocean of the “harvest strategy” approach to tuna management. About 40 participants from Fiji and across the Pacific region attended.

The event, held in the city of Nadi, was funded by the Global Environment Facility’s Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction project. The term “areas beyond national jurisdiction” generally refers to the high seas, which lie outside of any country’s exclusive economic zone. The Global Environment Facility is a grant-making organization formed after the 1992 Rio Earth Summit to address environmental problems around the world. Its members include the World Bank and the FAO as well as many countries. Several business partners are also involved.

Ocean Outcomes, an organization funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, helped design the program, and the workshop was also attended by a representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization. It was the seventh in a series of eight workshops, held in locations around the world, including Dakar, Senegal; Bali, Indonesia; and Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Fish 2.0 Offers Cash, Advice to an Ocean of Seafood Start-Ups

January 25, 2018 — In a large ballroom at Stanford University’s Arrillaga Alumni Center, jittery entrepreneurs make their way onto a small stage to pitch their sustainable seafood ventures. Out of 184 applications, only 40 have made the cut. Among the finalists are a mail-order oyster startup that will ship the food overnight to your door, a manufacturer of devices that track lost fishing gear, an Alaskan processing facility looking to expand, and training programs that teach Peruvian fishermen how to operate more sustainably.

They’re taking part in the third bi-annual Fish 2.0 competition, and the stakes are high. Many of these entrepreneurs have never made a pitch in front of an audience before. And with some of the largest and most respected investors in the sector, including Rabobank, Aqua-Spark, and Obvious Ventures, eagerly looking on, competitors are anxious to make a good impression. Flanked by projectors and armed only with a microphone and a remote to advance their slides, entrepreneurs from as far away as Italy, Peru, and the Solomon Islands have only a few minutes to make their pitch in front of a four-judge panel and a room full of potentially lucrative connections.

With global demand for sustainable seafood growing rapidly, the industry hasn’t been able to keep pace. Programs like Fish 2.0 hope to meet that demand and support the sector’s growth by connecting investors to emerging businesses. Similar to accelerators like Mixing Bowl, Imagine H2O, and the Chobani Incubator, Fish 2.0 aims to strengthen the sustainable seafood movement by helping ventures become financially sustainable, scalable, and profitable.

Although Fish 2.0 is framed as a competition, networking is what really matters for most participants. The eight competition winners each receive $5,000 in prize money, but for past winner Norah Eddy, whose company Salty Girl Seafood sells sustainable fish in ready-to-cook, pre-marinated packages, the experience and exposure were more important than the actual cash. Eddy says the connections she fostered at Fish 2.0 two years ago have remained fruitful for Salty Girl, which has expanded its line of products since they won a prize at the competition.

“We’ve subsequently raised money and our connection to Fish 2.0 has only served us well in business following the competition,” Eddy adds.

A Forum for Changemakers

Fish 2.0 is the brainchild of Monica Jain, a Wharton MBA graduate and former marine biologist, and it brings her two passions together. “There are a lot of great companies starting up and they need capital to grow effectively,” she says. “It’s the same in every field. We can’t expect innovative business to grow without capital.”

Funded by academic institutions, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, USAID, the U.S. State Department, investment funds, and others, the Fish 2.0 process starts a year before the actual event, with businesses applying to the competition online. Each applicant is put through a series of assessments that examine their business plans, potential for impact, risks, and opportunities for investment. While some businesses are well-established and looking to expand, others are looking for their initial seed money.

No matter the size of their business, each of the top 40 entrepreneurs is paired with an impact advisor and an investment advisor who offer feedback on both the science and the business sense of their model. The contestants span the broad and diverse seafood supply chain, with offerings ranging from an oyster co-op in Florida looking for investors to help fund construction of a hatchery, to Seafood IQ, an Icelandic company that uses radio frequency identification (RFID) labels so consumers can be sure they know where their fish is coming from.

Seafood provides a unique challenge because the industry is global, fractured, and full of middlemen. Salmon, for example, may be caught in Alaska, processed in China, and then shipped back to the U.S. for sale. As with other meats, it’s often difficult to tell where seafood is coming from or whether it’s sustainable. And the problem is getting more pronounced as global demand increases. In 2016, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) found that global per capita fish consumption had hit more than 44 pounds a year, an all-time high.

Earlier this year the World Bank reported that, “about 90 percent of marine fisheries monitored by the FAO are fully fished or overfished, up from about 75 percent in 2005.” In addition to increased consumption, the report also points to the fact that “fish stocks are also under pressure from pollution, coastal development, and the impacts of climate change.”

Rather than focusing on improving consumer education or tightening governmental regulations, Fish 2.0 hopes to protect the oceans by showing sustainability makes good business sense. Because the seafood industry relies on natural resources, Jain believes that sustainable ventures, which are able to preserve those resources for years to come, are more “likely to do better in the long run.” Sustainable, she says, is simply “better business.”

Tim Fitzgerald of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)—and a judge at this year’s Fish 2.0 contest—agrees that this investment is vital to the long-term health of the oceans. “To have large-scale change, you have to engage business,” he says.

Read the full story at Civil Eats

 

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