Community leaders and representatives from across North America’s locally focused and sustainable fishing industry are coming together to collaborate and create a network that is committed to supporting social, ecological, and economic sustainability by way of local and direct seafood marketing.

‘Moving Community Supported Fisheries & Values–Based Fishing Businesses Forward’ is the proactive goal of this year’s summit. Skipper Otto’s co-founder and managing director, Sonia Strobel will give the opening day’s keynote address to over 100 delegates. Her remarks will focus on the lessons learned in operating one of the oldest CSFs in the world over the past 8 years and how to apply those lessons to the broader CSF movement and collectively moving CSFs forward to create real social, environmental, and economic justice within the global seafood industry.

Chris Kantowicz, Director of Operations for Skipper Otto’s Community Supported Fishery, will also lead a workshop based on Operational Systems and Human Resources, as the summit will be framed around a set of broad questions related to increasing the fiscal and structural stability of CSF organizations.

Skipper Otto’s is proud to be a part of this summit as it promotes our values of working to ensure that independent, small-scale harvesters can continue to fish using the low impact practices their parents and grandparents used before them and still remain in an industry that is rapidly becoming dominated by big business and aquaculture.

What is Skipper Otto’s Community Supported Fishery?  

The CSF creates a direct connection between local fishermen and consumers with the joint goal of protecting ocean resources and improving the local food system. The CSF model is inspired by the very successful model of “Community Supported Agriculture” (CSA), which seeks to link consumers to family businesses that produce local, organic, sustainable, fairly-­‐traded food. Consumers become members of the CSF and get access to a selection of top-quality seafood at reasonable prices with a guarantee that all seafood is caught and processed ethically in B.C.  

LocalCatch.org is a community-of-practice that is made up of fisherman, organizers, researchers, and consumers from across North America that are committed to providing local, healthful, low-impact, and economy sustainable seafood via community supported fisheries (CSFs) and other direct marketing arrangements. We seek to increase the visibility and viability of community-based fishermen and aim to provide assistance to individuals and organizations that need support envisioning, designing, and implementing locally-relevant businesses that work towards a triple bottom line.

For Further Information Contact:

Sonia Strobel, Co-Founder, Skipper Otto’s Community Supported Fishery

Tel: (604) 790-1215             

Email: [email protected]