November 2024 update: The home stretch
It's been almost two years since we launched this project, and we are rounding the bend into the home stretch! Thanks to seed funding from the Experiment Foundation, additional funding from several partners in the fishing industry, and a lot of supportive volunteers, we have accomplished a lot. In this lab note, we report on what we've done and what you can expect when our reports come out in early 2025.
Fieldwork update: What we did
We formed a team of five interview enumerators with lived experience in the commercial fishing industry and skills at talking with their fellow fishermen about complex topics. In 2023 and early 2024, this team fanned out across Alaska, the West Coast, and New England to interview 149 fishing vessel owners, 10 port managers, and 14 intermediaries with experience acquiring and managing funding for vessel energy improvements, and administrators of existing state and federal programs related to vessel energy improvements.
The research team's mission was to assess fishermen’s familiarity, perceptions, and direct experience related to technological pathways to a low carbon fishing fleet, including:
efficient diesel engines,
a wide variety of load reduction (demand efficiency) strategies,
electrification of vessel propulsion,
alternative liquid and gaseous fuels, and
energy generation on fishing vessels.
They also evaluated existing state and federal programs capable of facilitating a reduction in diesel consumption on commercial fishing vessels. Most importantly, they asked fishermen: what new and improved state and federal programs would you like to see made available to support a safe and affordable transition to a low carbon fishing fleet?
We have spent the last year coding, analyizing, and writing up those findings - a big effort! To make sure our interviewees received regular updates, we visited seven states again in spring 2024 to hold 9 workshops and several one-on-one visits with port communities and fishermen who participated extensively in the 2023 interviews. Those workshops gave us a chance to reaffirm our commitment to these communities and to explain why our research was taking so long! Interestingly, those conversations led to several side benefits, including at least two of our attendees applying for and receiving federal energy grants that they learned about for the first time through our workshops.
Publication contents and schedule
No later than January 2025, we expect to publish 14 reports from this work, including:
Series: Policy Pathways to a Low Carbon Fishing Fleet
Evaluation: California’s Carl Moyer and Related Programs
Evaluation: EPA’s National Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) Program
Evaluation: EPA’s Tribal Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) Program
Evaluation: State-Administered Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) Programs
Evaluation: USDA’s Rural Energy for America (REAP) Program
Recommendations for future policy pathways
Series: Technological Pathways to a Low Carbon Fishing Fleet
Fishing vessels: the energy baseline (including fleet-specific profiles)
Reducing energy consumption through efficient diesel engines
Reducing energy consumption through load reduction
Electrification of vessel propulsion
Alternative liquid and gaseous fuels
Energy generation on fishing vessels
Series: Contextual Factors
Contextual barriers to innovation and adoption
Opportunities and constraints in fishing ports
What's next after publication?
After publishing our reports, we will convene three opportunities for fishing industry members and leaders to turn our research into action. Opportunities will include:
A collaboration with writers at the trade publication National Fisherman to explore fishermen's burning questions (as identified in our interviews) about energy efficiency and green power on fishing vessels.
A fellowship for early- to mid-career fishermen will launch in 2025 in specific states. Fellows will receive training in community organizing and technology and policy pathways to a low-carbon fishing fleet, and will then complete an independent or team project that involves organizing their local fishermen and fisheries leaders to develop a policy-ready action agenda based on our fact-finding that outlines a vision for how their fleets and ports would like to pursue a low carbon transition.
A bicoastal federal policy think tank will convene virtually in 2025 to develop federally-facing policy recommendations based on our fact-finding.
Funding needs
We are still seeking funding for our 2025 fellowship in select states. We also do not have any funding to support the 2025 bicoastal federal policy think tank. If you are a funder interested in supporting our work please get in touch with Sarah Schumann at fisheryfriendlyclimateaction@gmail.com
Hear from a member of our research team
Being part of this research team “has felt like a step out in a new direction and at the same time, a step through the threshold home," said Erika De la Rosa, an intern who helped launch this project. "I’ve been commercial fishing with my family in Bristol Bay, Alaska (gillnet), for the past 14 years and with my partner in Southeast Alaska (purse seine) for the last 5 years…. If the federal government is serious about providing funds to different industries for action on climate change, we are serious about ensuring its maximum efficiency, accessibility, and usability for American commercial fishermen."
Hear from fishermen we interviewed
“I got to learn more, I guess. I would be would be really interested to look into some of these testimonies, test products, and beta versions and see what it looks like. Do I want to be the guinea pig? No. I mean, maybe. I am very interested in this. I would love to see where this goes. I can't wait to see the publication and see what happens, because it's real thing. It won't be too long before I'm driving the boat with a controller. I see that." – Oregon fisherman
"I turned 40 at the end of the summer. I'm getting old, but I'm not that old. I got another 20 years in this industry. Thinking about the next engine upgrade, and then the one after that, and then the one after that, is something that has been on my mind... Programs like what you guys are talking about are things that I will be looking at in the very near future. Anything I could do to support you, I will." -- Alaska fisherman
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