Fishermen’s participation in “Maine Won’t Wait” climate plan
Guest blog by Sofia Morris, Brown University ‘25
Last year, I took a course called Ocean Governance that sparked a passion for ocean policy, particularly surrounding fisheries. For my senior thesis, I wanted to work with a community partner in Rhode Island – the ocean state – to tackle an issue relating to the ocean users and ocean resources. I came across the Fishery Friendly Climate Action Campaign and immediately reached out to see if they had a project I could collaborate on.
I have been working with Sarah Schumann since August to help facilitate engagement of fishermen in their state’s Comprehensive Climate Action Plan (CCAP) and advocate for “fishery friendly” decarbonization pathways. The research for my thesis is centered on the Maine Won’t Wait 2020 and 2024 climate action plan. With 46 states currently developing CCAPs, we wanted to learn from Maine on what has worked well and what could be improved in terms of fishermen’s engagement in climate action planning, and then share these valuable lessons with fishermen and state planners who are beginning the community engagement process of their state’s CCAP.
The study included nine interviews with members of the 2020 and 2024 Coastal and Marine Working Group (CMWG) of the Maine Won’t Wait plan and Maine fishermen were conducted, recorded, and transcribed between October 2024 and December 2024. Data coding was used to identify key themes, patterns, and emerging insights related to fishermen’s involvement in climate action planning and decarbonization pathways planning.
Below are two quotes from the interviews that emphasize the importance of this research:
“The trouble with fisheries people is that they start out with such a little voice and such little value in those processes that they have to be loud, which makes their image a little bad, but doesn’t mean they are a bad person.” – Richard Nelson, retired Maine lobsterman
“There are no more astute observers of what's going on out on the water than fishermen or harvesters. Every day, their livelihood revolves around making observations and making decisions based on those observations. It's science in real-time. Including their observations and experience in this type of planning and in these conversations is a no-brainer because they bring a very different perspective than, say, a scientist.” – Curt Brown, Ready Seafood & Co-Chair of 2024 CMWG
On December 10, 2024, I hosted a webinar for fishermen, scientists, NGO employees, state planners, and other interested parties on the initial findings from the study. For the last half hour of the webinar, I facilitated a discussion with webinar participants on their experience engaging in climate action planning, important takeaways from the webinar, and additional points that were not addressed in my research. The link to watch the webinar can be found here.
It was amazing getting to share my research and hearing the thoughtful conversation from the webinar participants. Strategic engagement of fishermen in climate action planning takes a lot of intention and effort on both the fishermen and state planner side of the process. With the dedicated and enthusiastic work of the Fishery Friendly Climate Action Campaign, I believe meaningful engagement in CCAP processes is possible. Throughout the next couple of months, I will be writing a guide for state planners to facilitate strategic engagement of fishermen in their state’s CCAP process in addition to a longer write-up on the Maine Won’t Wait planning process. If you are interested in this research or engaging in your state’s CCAP, please feel free to reach out to me (sofia_morris@brown.edu) or Sarah (fisheryfriendlyclimateaction@gmail.com).
