Northern California’s salmon season is in full swing and on San Francisco’s Pier 45, a two-year-old fishermen’s cooperative, the San Francisco Community Fishing Association, is upending a fishing industry dominated by 800-pound gorillas and consolidation.
The co-op is moving tens of thousands of pounds of members’ salmon directly out onto the market, to ensure a fair price. After paying out healthy profit sharing to members at the end of 2011 and 2012, the group paid some of the highest prices on the West Coast to members for crab in early 2013. It’s also been active in fisheries conservation efforts.
This is the new business-savvy, stewardship-minded look of community-based fishing organizations, which are enjoying a resurgence across the country.
An irascibly gregarious crab fisherman, Larry Collins, and his wife, Barbra Emley, formed the San Francisco group in 2010; they wanted to put more money in fishermen’s pockets, while protecting fish stocks and developing new dock infrastructure to support independent operators. Collins and Co. are now part of the two-year-old Community Fisheries Network, a nationwide membership organization convened by Ecotrust and the Island Institute that is helping community fishing organizations become stable businesses and effective marketers, while leading fisheries and marine ecosystem protection, and building community assets.
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