Aquaculture 2025

March 6 - 10, 2025

New Orleans, Louisiana USA

CROSS-PACIFIC INDIGENOUS AQUACULTURE COLLABORATIVE NETWORK: CULTIVATING ABUNDANCE THROUGH BIOCULTURAL PRACTICES

Indigenous aquaculture systems such as clam gardens and fish ponds offer proven approaches–tested over thousands of years–of integrated and adaptive systems capable of expanding local food production without deleterious ecological effects. There is growing evidence that these systems yield net-positive benefits to coastal environments, while also amplifying cultural and economic benefits to local coastal communities. In 2019, Washington Sea Grant, Hawai’i Sea Grant and Alaska Sea Grant came together to catalyze a cross-Pacific regional collaborative with the aim of integrating community engagement, research, outreach and education to advance sustainable Indigenous Aquaculture practices and enhance seafood production in the broader Pacific region. These efforts eventually grew into a thriving community of practice made up of Pacific-region Sea Grant offices that now also includes Guam, together with practitioners from Northwest Tribes and First Nations, Native Hawaiian and Indigenous communities from the Pacific, and organizations and universities. Through virtual and in-person gatherings, the community of practice shares the living traditions from unique places to develop strong cross-cultural learning and support collective efforts. This presentation will provide an overview of Indigenous biocultural systems, and showcase partner activities of the Cross-Pacific Indigenous Aquaculture Collaborative Network over the past 5 years. We will focus on activities by partners in Hawai’i, Washington and Guam that build sustainable coastal food abundance for local Indigenous food sovereignty and well-being.