Future of Fish

Who We Are | Swimming Upstream

  • Ed Backus : Portland, Oregon

    Vice president of community ecosystem services at Ecotrust, and founder of the $6 million North Pacific Fisheries Trust

  • Shannon McDiarmid : San Francisco, CA

    President and Director of Safety & Sustainability at Royal Hawaiian Seafood, a premiere Bay Area seafood distributor focused on high-caliber and responsibly produced fresh and live seafood.

  • Steve Vilnit : Annapolis, MD

    Director of Fisheries Marketing at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, a state-run program that helps watermen increase the value of their harvest through grassroots marketing efforts.

  • Village Fishmonger : New York, NY

    Founders of Village Fishmonger are in the process of launching a seafood retail business selling locally sourced sustainable seafood a la carte or by seasonal subscription.

  • Dune Lankard : Cordova, Alaska

    Native Athabaskan Eyak fisherman from the Alaskan Copper River Delta and founder of Copper River Wild Salmon

  • Jerry Knecht : Bali, Indonesia

    Founder and president of North Atlantic, Inc., a primary processor, importer, and distributor of fresh and frozen seafood, and sustainability pioneer

  • Robert Terry : Palo Alto, CA / Newport, OR

    Founder and CTO of Smart Catch LLC, a startup that‘s developing cost-effective, innovative trawl-net fishing gear that will help fishermen increase efficiency and reduce by-catch.

  • Thomas Kraft : Seattle, Washington

    Founder of Norpac Fisheries Export, a successful processing and distribution business dedicated to accountability, responsibility, traceability & sustainability

  • Miguel Jorge : Washington, DC

    Director of the National Geographic Society’s Ocean Initiative working with an array of partners to restore ocean health and productivity

  • Barton Seaver : Washington, DC

    Chef, speaker, National Geographic Fellow, and author of the sustainable seafood cookbook For Cod and Country

  • Jared Auerbach : Boston, MA

    Owner and CEO of Red’s Best, an innovative technology and logistics platform that builds efficiency and traceability in order to support small fishing fleets and ensure maximum freshness.

  • Kristofor Lofgren : Portland, Oregon

    Ecopreneur and founder of the nation’s first MSC certified sustainable sushi restaurant, Bamboo Sushi

  • Sean & Michael Dimin : Brooklyn, NY

    Founders of Sea to Table, a business that overnights fresh fish caught by small-scale sustainable fishermen around the world to top restaurants

  • Richard Boot : Fort Collins, Colorado

    Founder and president of FishChoice Inc., an online matching service for buyers and suppliers of sustainable fish

How to Play

Fish Labs

Collaborate, Convene, Engage

These invitation-only collaborative engagements are theme-based projects and convenings that build the strategies between organizations and among multiple players in the space. In these labs we will support the development of “connective tissue” among networks of players whose collaboration in the supply chain meaningfully increases the market rewards for responsible behaviors. That includes traceability partnerships, efforts to sell “storied” fish, new transaction models, or pilots of new initiatives that require cross-sector cooperation. Ocean Entrepreneurs can participate in Fish Labs as well, but the labs will also draw from outside our close-knit group of entrepreneurs.

Network Members

Stay Connected, Contribute Ideas

We support a growing community of cross-sector players who want to partner to ensure the future of fish. Within the seafood industry-wise, membership in this group will be vetted to ensure that players have activites that demonstrate commitment to responsible harvesting and “storied” fish. But this group will also include investors, technology players, and others with an interest or stake in this issue. Our goal is to build a broader network of experts, visionaries, and practitioners to engage more deeply through our Fish Labs, as well as cultivate an audience for publishing our industry insights.

  • Free membership
  • Free newsletter subscription
  • Access to all FoF published reports
  • Invitation to larger group convenings/events
  • Access to the member list
  • Access to pitch or join Fish Lab initiatives by invitation

Ocean Entrepreneurs

Discover, Refine, Broadcast, Scale

Ocean Entrepreneurs are innovators whose game-changing ideas have the potential to effect meaningful shifts in seafood supply chain behavior. We hand-pick 4-5 entrepreneurs to engage in fellowships designed to support and contribute to their company's success with a specific endeavor or initiative. These entrepreneurs could lead technology companies, seafood companies, or operate in other sectors altogether. The litmus test is whether the company’s individual success at scaling, or with an individual initiative, substantially contributes to systemic change. An emphasis will be placed on companies piloting new approaches to fish traceability.

  • We supply: Strategic fish supply chain expertise, business model refinement, convening power, network of specialists and potential partners, media exposure.
  • Our partners supply (at an FoF negotiated rate): Leadership development, presentation coaching, recruitment support, marketing and branding support.
  • Entrepreneurs supply: Executional capacity.

Application required. That (short!) application will require an articulation of the project/initiative on which we’ll collaborate.