I’m going to convince you tonight or at
least I’m gonna try that if we really
want to save the world’s ocean
if one address overfishing address the
fisheries crisis we need to keep eating
fish
perhaps we even need to eat more fish
yes you heard me right
more fish of course we need to choose to
eat the right kind of fish caught by the
right kind of Fisher Fisher man Fisher
woman why because who fishes matters it
matters to the sustainability of our
oceans to our food systems now my
argument might be quite different from
what you may think or what you we hear
in the mainstream media and believe me
I’m a conservationist at heart otherwise
I wouldn’t be standing here but widely
advocate tools such as marine protected
areas or very useful in very specific
contexts if set up in the right kind of
environment are not the best solution
the most scalable solution to address
the crisis in our oceans to unpack my
proposition to to give you kind of a
glimpse of my perspective I’m going to
take you a bit of an on a journey I’m
gonna go back a few steps and go back to
where I started to get you through and
how I’ve come at this conclusion I’m
Sara markers
I grew up in urban Europe and as a kid I
was very quickly intrigued like many of
you borrow oceans but their vastness by
by the fauna I think I was thin when I
could recite old dolphin and whale
species by their Latin name yeah I went
to every aquarium in Europe
I learned to dive when I was 13 and by
15 I’d actually dive across the globe on
trips with my parents I was privileged I
am privileged I was groomed to become a
conservationist and I studied by
engineering at university I obviously
went into marine biology
to fishery science but in 2004 I came to
South Africa to undertake a PhD and to
do a stock assessment of abalone now
stock assessments in fishery science
sock assessment are done by using
fisheries independent data and fisheries
dependent data and putting all of that
in a complex mathematical model so I had
to dive count abalone and use particular
research methods now what my supervisor
hadn’t told me that I was gonna be doing
this along the wild coast around the
South African coast so we’re diving
conditions in the intro area as a pretty
terrible now penny never dropped but it
gave me quite a bit of time it gave me
quite a bit of time to connect with
local traditional Fisher’s and I got
interested in their story how are they
fighting for fishing rights how are they
trying to secure their customary
practices their tradition what is the
context of extreme poverty of limited
opportunities together with millions of
Fisher’s around the globe these people
these small-scale Fisher’s contribute
from some sixty to eighty percent of the
global catch depending on the statistics
years but I became very intrigued by how
they understand how they perceive
ecosystems how do they perceive
ecosystems change how do they understand
climate change in fact maybe I could
learn something from them and that
changed my whole trajectory I’ve learned
vicious catching species that had even
even know we could eat I’ve learned from
Fisher’s how they can tell by the color
of the lobster from which area it comes
from how they can read the oceans to
predict red tides how they have eleven
different names for one fish depending
on its size depending on the currents it
swims and depending on how it interacts
with other species and of course how it
how its prepared in their traditional
cuisine that local ecological knowledge
can become any
extremely powerful opportunity for ocean
stewardship as these fissures are of
course the ultimate observers they’re
salt water running through their veins
now the realization that local
ecological knowledge can be a catalyst
for ocean stewardship for better
fisheries management it’s an asset for
fisheries management that spurred me on
together with a whole team and of course
these fishers to embark and embrace the
power of mobile technology to harness
this knowledge we never realized that
providing fishers with a simple mobile
log book on their smartphones would
become such a powerful tool fishers card
fishing record various Oceanic and
Atmospheric variables their catch of
course their expenses their income the
occurrence of illegal fishing activities
and the catch of unusual species and
then they take this data they look at
their dashboards they look at these
summary charts of their activities on
their personal dashboards to make sense
of their fishing operations to perhaps
plan for better fishing operations or to
understand the impact they have on their
fishing operations they can then share
this data with fellow fishers with
stakeholders to look at MOCA aggregated
catch more aggregated data or they can
use the tool as an accounting tool to
upgrade their activities or simply they
can showcase that they exists that
they’re legitimate in their informal
fishery now a co.design approach and a
co-ownership model has spurred on the
movement of movement of fishers claiming
their fishing rights claiming their
human rights but showcasing to us that
day to have a voice in science and
conservation we’re seeing a big data
movement in small-scale fisheries but it
doesn’t stop there why because that
local ecological knowledge can be
channeled through a digital value chain
your plate a few years ago I went to
equip well-known Cape Town restaurants
and I ordered a mixed seafood platter
well I was served New Zealand mussels
white fish caught by an industrial
trawler and squid from Patagonia
needless to say I wasn’t very thrilled
about a year ago I went to another
restaurant and he got the same muscles
again from New Zealand only to be told
by the waiter and that these mussels
were caught artisanal fishers of Cape
Point nice try but green mussels only
occur in New Zealand and Kay point is a
reserve at the same time our sir African
small-scale fishers can provide us with
an amazing variety of seafood they catch
it with low impact gear some of these
species are underutilized did you know
that sea food production has one of the
lowest carbon footprints of all our food
items and stuff to think about so what
we need to do is disrupt value chains
from boat to plate from hook to cook we
need to go back to a different kind of
food systems to try to eat catch of the
day
where we can while at the same time of
course offer a fair price for the Fisher
who often is a price taker to the
middlemen for example yellowtail in Cape
Town here in some of the restaurants
fetches a price of up to 250 even 300
Rand a kg we’re a small-scale Fisher
we’ll get up to 30 R and kg that’s a
massive margin so what if what if chefs
retailers consumers like you and I could
access what we call story seafood
traceable seafood on a digital platform
powered by a community technology that
at the same time provides us with the
data we need to better manage our
fisheries to rebuild our fisheries but
all of that on a foundation of local
ecological knowledge well that’s the
jury
we’ve embarked on okay and that’s how
Fisher’s in South Africa are empowering
themselves in their communities
it’s taken me from marine biologist to
social scientist to the social
entrepreneurship space I’ve had to learn
concepts like FinTech and Lean Startup
and agile development and unit
econometrics hope because I want to try
and drive the sustainability and the
scalability of the program but also at
the same time nurture his movement of
fishers Fleming their space loud and
clear in the future of our oceans in in
their livelihoods in their tradition
let’s face it people or the majority of
the world’s population is poor and so
are many small-scale fishers they can’t
stop fishing
they won’t stop fishing they shouldn’t
in fact it’s been estimated that in
Africa’s fisheries were well managed
they would contribute more to food
security than agricultural production
that’s big at the same time these
fishers can offer us an amazing food
system and through technology it offers
an opportunity for us to drive our
conservation efforts with Fisher’s
rather than against or without them so
by purchasing storied seafood seafood
with a story buying the right fish
caught by the right Fisher we’re not
only contribute to the Fisher’s economy
but we also contribute to the generation
of that data that we so desperately need
for fisheries management so what we eat
has the power to change the world
for the worse or for the better no where
in the world is storage seafood as
important as in South Africa given our
marine diversity but also against the
backdrop of our political history and
our prevailing social injustice so next
time you go and buy seafood find out if
it’s sustainable where when how it was
caught but also ask yourself
who caught it because record it truly
matters that’s the idea I have to share
thank you very much
least I’m gonna try that if we really
want to save the world’s ocean
if one address overfishing address the
fisheries crisis we need to keep eating
fish
perhaps we even need to eat more fish
yes you heard me right
more fish of course we need to choose to
eat the right kind of fish caught by the
right kind of Fisher Fisher man Fisher
woman why because who fishes matters it
matters to the sustainability of our
oceans to our food systems now my
argument might be quite different from
what you may think or what you we hear
in the mainstream media and believe me
I’m a conservationist at heart otherwise
I wouldn’t be standing here but widely
advocate tools such as marine protected
areas or very useful in very specific
contexts if set up in the right kind of
environment are not the best solution
the most scalable solution to address
the crisis in our oceans to unpack my
proposition to to give you kind of a
glimpse of my perspective I’m going to
take you a bit of an on a journey I’m
gonna go back a few steps and go back to
where I started to get you through and
how I’ve come at this conclusion I’m
Sara markers
I grew up in urban Europe and as a kid I
was very quickly intrigued like many of
you borrow oceans but their vastness by
by the fauna I think I was thin when I
could recite old dolphin and whale
species by their Latin name yeah I went
to every aquarium in Europe
I learned to dive when I was 13 and by
15 I’d actually dive across the globe on
trips with my parents I was privileged I
am privileged I was groomed to become a
conservationist and I studied by
engineering at university I obviously
went into marine biology
to fishery science but in 2004 I came to
South Africa to undertake a PhD and to
do a stock assessment of abalone now
stock assessments in fishery science
sock assessment are done by using
fisheries independent data and fisheries
dependent data and putting all of that
in a complex mathematical model so I had
to dive count abalone and use particular
research methods now what my supervisor
hadn’t told me that I was gonna be doing
this along the wild coast around the
South African coast so we’re diving
conditions in the intro area as a pretty
terrible now penny never dropped but it
gave me quite a bit of time it gave me
quite a bit of time to connect with
local traditional Fisher’s and I got
interested in their story how are they
fighting for fishing rights how are they
trying to secure their customary
practices their tradition what is the
context of extreme poverty of limited
opportunities together with millions of
Fisher’s around the globe these people
these small-scale Fisher’s contribute
from some sixty to eighty percent of the
global catch depending on the statistics
years but I became very intrigued by how
they understand how they perceive
ecosystems how do they perceive
ecosystems change how do they understand
climate change in fact maybe I could
learn something from them and that
changed my whole trajectory I’ve learned
vicious catching species that had even
even know we could eat I’ve learned from
Fisher’s how they can tell by the color
of the lobster from which area it comes
from how they can read the oceans to
predict red tides how they have eleven
different names for one fish depending
on its size depending on the currents it
swims and depending on how it interacts
with other species and of course how it
how its prepared in their traditional
cuisine that local ecological knowledge
can become any
extremely powerful opportunity for ocean
stewardship as these fissures are of
course the ultimate observers they’re
salt water running through their veins
now the realization that local
ecological knowledge can be a catalyst
for ocean stewardship for better
fisheries management it’s an asset for
fisheries management that spurred me on
together with a whole team and of course
these fishers to embark and embrace the
power of mobile technology to harness
this knowledge we never realized that
providing fishers with a simple mobile
log book on their smartphones would
become such a powerful tool fishers card
fishing record various Oceanic and
Atmospheric variables their catch of
course their expenses their income the
occurrence of illegal fishing activities
and the catch of unusual species and
then they take this data they look at
their dashboards they look at these
summary charts of their activities on
their personal dashboards to make sense
of their fishing operations to perhaps
plan for better fishing operations or to
understand the impact they have on their
fishing operations they can then share
this data with fellow fishers with
stakeholders to look at MOCA aggregated
catch more aggregated data or they can
use the tool as an accounting tool to
upgrade their activities or simply they
can showcase that they exists that
they’re legitimate in their informal
fishery now a co.design approach and a
co-ownership model has spurred on the
movement of movement of fishers claiming
their fishing rights claiming their
human rights but showcasing to us that
day to have a voice in science and
conservation we’re seeing a big data
movement in small-scale fisheries but it
doesn’t stop there why because that
local ecological knowledge can be
channeled through a digital value chain
your plate a few years ago I went to
equip well-known Cape Town restaurants
and I ordered a mixed seafood platter
well I was served New Zealand mussels
white fish caught by an industrial
trawler and squid from Patagonia
needless to say I wasn’t very thrilled
about a year ago I went to another
restaurant and he got the same muscles
again from New Zealand only to be told
by the waiter and that these mussels
were caught artisanal fishers of Cape
Point nice try but green mussels only
occur in New Zealand and Kay point is a
reserve at the same time our sir African
small-scale fishers can provide us with
an amazing variety of seafood they catch
it with low impact gear some of these
species are underutilized did you know
that sea food production has one of the
lowest carbon footprints of all our food
items and stuff to think about so what
we need to do is disrupt value chains
from boat to plate from hook to cook we
need to go back to a different kind of
food systems to try to eat catch of the
day
where we can while at the same time of
course offer a fair price for the Fisher
who often is a price taker to the
middlemen for example yellowtail in Cape
Town here in some of the restaurants
fetches a price of up to 250 even 300
Rand a kg we’re a small-scale Fisher
we’ll get up to 30 R and kg that’s a
massive margin so what if what if chefs
retailers consumers like you and I could
access what we call story seafood
traceable seafood on a digital platform
powered by a community technology that
at the same time provides us with the
data we need to better manage our
fisheries to rebuild our fisheries but
all of that on a foundation of local
ecological knowledge well that’s the
jury
we’ve embarked on okay and that’s how
Fisher’s in South Africa are empowering
themselves in their communities
it’s taken me from marine biologist to
social scientist to the social
entrepreneurship space I’ve had to learn
concepts like FinTech and Lean Startup
and agile development and unit
econometrics hope because I want to try
and drive the sustainability and the
scalability of the program but also at
the same time nurture his movement of
fishers Fleming their space loud and
clear in the future of our oceans in in
their livelihoods in their tradition
let’s face it people or the majority of
the world’s population is poor and so
are many small-scale fishers they can’t
stop fishing
they won’t stop fishing they shouldn’t
in fact it’s been estimated that in
Africa’s fisheries were well managed
they would contribute more to food
security than agricultural production
that’s big at the same time these
fishers can offer us an amazing food
system and through technology it offers
an opportunity for us to drive our
conservation efforts with Fisher’s
rather than against or without them so
by purchasing storied seafood seafood
with a story buying the right fish
caught by the right Fisher we’re not
only contribute to the Fisher’s economy
but we also contribute to the generation
of that data that we so desperately need
for fisheries management so what we eat
has the power to change the world
for the worse or for the better no where
in the world is storage seafood as
important as in South Africa given our
marine diversity but also against the
backdrop of our political history and
our prevailing social injustice so next
time you go and buy seafood find out if
it’s sustainable where when how it was
caught but also ask yourself
who caught it because record it truly
matters that’s the idea I have to share
thank you very much
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