Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust

Strengthening the viability of commercial fishing businesses in Monterey: we provided technical assistance, tools, and resources to strengthen fishing businesses and help fishermen navigate regulations and covid relief programs. We continued our quota leasing program, protecting local access to sustainable groundfish fishing rights, and saving fishermen thousands of dollars in lease fees. Through our partnership with California farmlink, we increased fishermen's access to technical assistance and loans and explored succession planning for retiring fishermen and new entrants. We advocated to state and federal legislators for infrastructure improvements and the need to support fishing community resilience. Stats: 10 fishermen received direct technical assistance; 178k pounds of groundfish was leased locally; 2.4k views of web resources for fishing businesses.

Sustaining local families and Fisheries: we continued our Monterey Bay community seafood program to provide healthy, sustainably harvested seafood to community members in need of food assistance, along with more than $82k in economic support to our local fishermen, food workers, and seafood businesses. As a direct result of this program, meals on wheels of the Monterey peninsula has made a commitment to source local seafood year-round. We also expanded our reach and connections in the local food system network and now hold a seat on the newly formed Monterey county food policy council as the only local seafood representative. Stats: $82k raised to purchase 18k pounds of local seafood; 18.5k seafood meals donated; 28 fishermen and 35 food workers supported.

Inceasing access to, availability of, and demand for local, sustainable seafood: mbft led outreach programs aimed at raising awareness and demand for local, sustainable seafood. Through digital storytelling, videos, blogs, social media, and presentations, mbft connected consumers with Monterey Bay seafood and our fishing community. We educated consumers about sustainable Fisheries, helped them identify and prepare seasonal seafood, and directed them to businesses that sell local seafood through our local catch guide. Stats: 40 stories published featuring local seafood and the fishing community; 100% increase in web traffic with 77k unique visitors; 23k views of the local catch guide.

Supporting stakeholder engagement in conservation and management: for the fifth year in a row, we coordinated the lost gear recovery project with fishermen and harbors to prevent marine life entanglements. We facilitated and promoted dialogue and collaboration among fishermen, conservationists, scientists, local government, and legislators. We provided resources through our monthly buoy bulletin newsletter, website, and meetings, and continued to support fishermen's education through the marine resource education program (mrep). Stats: 82 members of the fishing community directly participated in our programs; 627 stakeholders received resources via the monthly buoy bulletin newsletter; 9 fishermen participated in our lost gear recovery project.