Remotely FishWise: San Francisco to Santa Cruz
Homemade floor desk! Good for the back, bad for when I actually need one of those books to do something other than hold up scarf-covered plywood…
It’s only week two of my CBE fellowship here at FishWise, a non-profit sustainable seafood consultancy, and I’m already a horribly negligent blogger…
Where to begin?!
My project this summer is producing a white paper on social issues in aquaculture and fisheries. I knew my work would involve Illegal, Unregulated, and Unreported (IUU) fishing and traceability, but working specifically on human rights issues associated with seafood production and processing was a welcome suprise. It’s a completely new focus for FishWise, and it’s awesome being able to break ground where the organization is concerned.
I’m working with Mariah Boyle, the Traceability and IUU Project Director, and I am so, so grateful to have her constantly available via Skype and email for direction and feedback. Fortunately and unfortunately, I’m only down in the Santa Cruz office one or two days a week. The rest of the time I’m working from home in San Francisco. (Cool, because I get to hang out in SF and save rent $$$ by mooching off my gainfully employed boyfriend. Lame, because it means working solo most of the time and commuting 1.5+ hours whenever I want to engage at the office.)
Right now, I’m spending most of my days researching (i.e. either huddled over my computer at my home-made floor desk, or at one of five free wi-fi destinations within walking distance of my house). On Wednesdays, I try to make it down to the Santa Cruz office for the weekly FishWise staff meeting, which is awesome because I get to hear what everyone else is working on. FishWise now consults for everyone from small, independent retailers (such as SF based BiRite) to huge corporations such as Safeway and Target, who are completely revamping their seafood supply chain.
I am so, SO happy I was able to come work with FishWise, and I only see things getting better as my research progresses and I am able to communicate more to FishWise (and to you!) about the sometimes nebulous social and human rights issues associated with seafood production and supply.
