Dispatch from the Local Catch Canada Retreat

I’ve recently returned from the 1st Local Catch Canada retreat, and it was an emotional, inspiring, and sometimes challenging experience. Local Catch Canada has been slowly forming over the past 18 months through a multisector collaboration of fish harvesters and seafood retailers, Indigenous organizations, NGOs, and academic partners. This retreat marked our first in-person event where the nascent network could ‘meet itself’ and form relationships.

The Local Catch Canada Network retreat starts with a presentation from Joshua Stoll and Sonia Strobel, each longtime members of the U.S.-based Local Catch Network that has inspired the formation of a Canadian-focused sister group. Photo by Josh Neufeld Photography.

Fish harvester Jordane Robichaud of Robichaud Commercial Fisheries speaks on a panel about direct-to-consumer seafood retailing. Photo by Josh Neufeld Photography.

Local Catch Canada is an information sharing network designed for and by fish harvesters and other seafood practitioners. Academics like myself are meant to serve a supporting role, leveraging our expertise, connections, and resources in service to the network’s needs. As someone used to attending professionalized conferences, it was really powerful to attend this event and spend most of my time listening, helping facilitate sessions, watching fish harvesters connect with each other and build relationships, and often spend the end of the day cleaning up tables or sweeping the floor. It reminded me of the qualities that initially drew me to academia: working for and with communities who know what they need and just need the right partners to solve their own challenges.

Hannah Harrison facilitates a discussion about challenges in the Canadian seafood supply chain. Photo by Josh Neufeld Photography.

The retreat, which attracted about 40 people, accomplished the one goal I had as a network steering committee member: create space to build relationships, engage in ceremony, and learn in a way that uplifts. This is entirely due to the open minds and hearts that the attendees brought, and the experience within Canadian and Indigenous fisheries that they were generously willing to share. Unexpected was also the need to memorialize our suddenly and unexpectedly departed colleague and friend Leona Humchitt, who has been a central part of the network’s spirit since its formation. As I later told a close colleague, I have never cried so much at a professional event in my life. He suggested to me that maybe this means the retreat isn’t like other professional events in that it allows for experiences like crying, sorrow, and sharing grief together. I think it is Leona and her enduring spirit that taught us that; that brought us that. I miss her.

Fish harvesters from opposite sides of the country discuss their challenges during a Local Catch Canada retreat workshop. Photo by Josh Neufeld Photography.

Overall, the Local Catch Canada Network identified where we want to go in the future and the work we want to do. We built relationships in our time together that will strengthen our efforts and ensure the work of the network is grounded in the needs of the people it is meant to serve. My job now is to go forward on helping to organize the actionable work of the network and help us find the money to take us forward.

Thank you to everyone who attended, and to the chefs that kept us fed with Canadian-caught seafood.

A seafood feast of all Canadian-caught seafood was a highlight of the retreat. Photo by Josh Neufeld Photography.