Earlier this year, I attended the World Fisheries Congress in Seattle, WA to present on findings of a recently submitted paper exploring the value of sustainability ecolabels such as the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) towards shrimp production. This research was an extension of my masters thesis, funded by the U.S Department of Agriculture, as well as support from Oregon Sea Grant during my Natural Resource Policy Fellowship. The study focused on consumers in South Carolina and their willingness to pay for locally sourced, sustainably farmed shrimp. Using a choice experiment, where survey participants are given several options with varying attributes and prices, our results showed that consumers were willing to pay 41% more for locally sourced shrimp, in addition to 7% more for ASC-certified farm-raised shrimp. The results of this study are novel in that shrimp that is locally sourced on the Atlantic coast, such as Brown and White Shrimp, is harvested, whereas consumers showed a preference, and were willing to pay more for sustainably grown shrimp. Although land-based, recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) is a nascent industry in the U.S., significant steps are being made federal and state governments to expand this form of aquaculture to meet domestic seafood demands, and in turn move towards more sustainable production of shrimp.

The conference covered many topics, ranging from conservation through marine protected areas, to emerging technologies using artificial intelligence to monitor at-sea activities of fishing vessels. Scientists and policymakers around the world convened to share advancements being made in fisheries management through a series of breakout sessions and keynote presentations. The opportunity to present on findings from my masters was both rewarding and insightful as a diverse audience of ecologists and economists asked questions and provided feedback.

While attending the conference, I was fortunate enough to be part of the first cohort to receive accreditation as a fisheries conformity assessor from MSC. This newly formed course was offered to conference participants with previous experience working with MSC fisheries standards under version 2.01. During the workshop phase, we discussed expectations of the new version 3.0 that is currently being incorporated into certified fisheries across the world. Considering the relevance to Oregon, I drafted a policy brief and accompanying technical overview of meeting MSC fisheries standard version 3.0 for the Oregon Pink Shrimp fishery, which has been certified by MSC since 2007 and continues to be the only MSC-certified shrimp fishery in the world. I look forward to continue supporting the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and it’s partners in meeting these new fisheries assessment standards from MSC that ensure a sustainable and economical Pink Shrimp fishery for years to come.

Greetings! My name is Sam Cheplick (He/Him) and I am currently a natural resource policy fellow with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Marine Reserves program. I’m based at the ODFW marine resource programs South Beach office in Newport. A little bit of background on Oregon’s five marine reserves. The reserves range from Redfish Rocks on the southern Oregon coast to Cape Falcon on the northern coast, while the three other marine reserves are situated across Lincoln County on the central coast. They were phased in starting in 2012 until 2016 to conserve a variety of marine habitats while minimizing negative impacts to ocean users and coastal communities. Oregon marine reserves are unique in that they are mandated to monitor both the ecological and human dimensions of protecting nearshore ocean ecosystems, without negatively impacting coastal communities. In my role as a fellow, I’m working with ODFW staff to continue monitoring socioeconomic impacts to communities living in proximity to marine reserves along the Oregon coast.

In 2022, a team of academic scientists conducted a legislatively mandated decadal review of marine reserves that aimed to synthesize existing results and provide recommendations to be considered over the next decade. The primary objective of my work focuses on 1) supporting the development of an updated human dimensions monitoring plan, 2) developing tools that can be integrated into an adaptive management framework for monitoring marine reserves; and 3) assessing the economic impacts of nearshore resource management both within and outside marine reserves. What interests me most about this opportunity is the transdisciplinary nature of marine reserves. Approaches in ecology, economics and social science come together to answer broader questions of the role of protecting marine areas that informs management in the face of increasingly variable ocean conditions.