Henriques co-coordinates #FindYourSeafoodWeek with Local Catch Network

Paloma Henriques co-coordinated #FindYourSeafoodWeek with the Local Catch Network to raise awareness for community-based fisheries across North America from August 22-28, 2022. The social media campaign aims to "promote local and regional values-based small scale seafood businesses across North America,” Paloma Henriques, a graduate assistant at the University of Maine, told WABI's Channel 5 News in Bangor, Maine.

The Find Your Seafood Week is a social media campaign that increases the visibility of domestic seafood harvesters and businesses that participate in direct marketing. The initiative was inspired last year, after the pandemic exposed the importance of community-based fisheries in building resilient local and regional seafood systems. While global
supply chains faltered, the direct-to-consumer businesses within the Local Catch Network saw an uptick in community support.

“The global supply chains really faltered and struggled. If you’re looking at seafood, it’s one of the most highly traded commodities. A fish can be caught in one country processed in another and consumed in a third country,” Henriques said. “Instead of looking at the few species that are really on the grocery store shelves, there’s a multitude of species out there that we can consume, and that have less impact on the environment. So, for example, seaweed and shellfish have a lot of co-benefits and seaweed actually sequesters carbon and provides habitat for fish, and then a lot of shellfish like oysters, they can clean the environment as well and help the habitat, too."

Read more in WBAI news and find out how you can find sustainable, local seafood via the Local Catch Network.