Walking Fish is a community supported fishery (CSF) that links fishermen on the coast of North Carolina to consumers in the Triangle. Walking Fish is entering its third CSF season, and we are looking forward to another exciting round of community, seafood, and innovation.

A community supported fishery (CSF) is based on the community supported agriculture (CSA) model. A CSF involves pre-payment by consumers for a ‘share’ of fresh, locally harvested seafood (i.e., a set amount of seafood generally picked up by the consumer on a weekly or bi-weekly basis). Just as CSAs can encourage sustainable and profitable farming practices, CSFs have the potential to do the same for fishing.

This initiative takes root in the belief that people – whether they be coastal fishermen or local consumers – play an important role in creating solutions to the social, economic, and environmental challenges we face. The goals of this project are simple: to foster economic opportunities, to cultivate healthy communities, and to encourage environmental stewardship. As graduate students from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, we come from a conservation perspective – one which is ultimately concerned with the health of coastal and marine ecosystems – but we recognize that conservation is intimately linked to the well-being of people and communities. And we believe that in order to work towards ecological sustainability we must also work towards local economic stability and social equity.

This fall marks an important transition period for the Walking Fish CSF. Walking Fish was initiated by a small group of graduate students at the Nicholas School of the Environment in 2009. Having established a solid foundation for the CSF in Carteret County and in Durham, organizers are now in the process of transferring leadership and administration of the CSF to the community.

This season community members in Carteret County will assume greater responsibility for the administration, leadership, and weekly logistics of the CSF. This includes Bill Rice, who is the processor for Walking Fish and has been an integral part of the program's past success. This also includes working with a smaller group of core fishers to build stronger relationships between fishers, consumers, and organizers. In addition, there is a new CSF coordinator who will be based in Beaufort and has been hired to take over the administration and communication of the CSF. The logistics of the pick-up will remain the same with members of Duke Fish continuing to help staff the pick-ups and be a resource for the project moving forward. Several of the CSF organizers will remain involved in the CSF through the fall, and will work to make the transition as smooth as possible. We are excited about this transition and feel that this is an important step for the long-term sustainability of the program.

The new leadership for Walking Fish CSF is dedicated to upholding the same goals that Walking Fish has always strived to achieve, including a triple bottom line approach and transparency.

Walking Fish
P.O. Box 2357
Beaufort, NC 28516-7908

info@walking-fish.org

CSF Coordinator: Debra Callaway