This summer has flown by! I can’t believe it is already week eight of the summer scholars internship. In the past two weeks I have been able to attend Eat Oregon Seafood’s “Shop at the Dock” events. Shop at the Dock is a tour of the local fishing docks that goes over Oregon fishing management regulations and helps consumers navigate purchasing seafood directly from fishermen. In addition to contributing information to the tours, I have also learned a lot from participating in them. One fun fact is that all Oregon fishing gear is required to have safety systems in place that release gear after a short period of time to prevent ghost fishing!

This Friday will mark my last Shop at the Dock and my last interview for my Oregon Seafood Journey project. I am so excited to be posting the interviews from this project to our Instagram account (@eatORseafood) next week! I have learned a lot about the Oregon seafood industry while connecting with people up and down the coast and hope these interviews make other Oregonians just as passionate about purchasing local seafood. In addition to learning more about the industry, I have also gotten a lot better with my interview skills. It is fun comparing the flow of my first interview to my most recent one and realizing how much more relaxed they sound now. Hopefully I’ll be able to use my new found interview skills during my graduate degree!

The most surprising part of the summer for me was how similar the values of everyone I interviewed was. It didn’t matter if they were a processor or fisher or restaurant owner or retailer. Every person wanted the public to know how well managed and beneficial (for the environment and the economy) the Oregon seafood industry is! This message also shined through at our Shop at the Dock tours. In post tour interviews, consumers were even raving about the high standards of the Oregon seafood industry!

If I could start the summer over, knowing what I know now, there is one thing that I would definitely change. I would connect more with the other Oregon seafood commissions and try to set up a better network for re-sharing our information. I would also write a couple of press releases to try and spread the word more as well! Nevertheless, I am glad our posts are reaching as many people as they are currently. Hopefully the information will continue to spread to other Oregonians!!