Introduction

While only 10% of the United States is considered coastal, 40% of the US population lives in coastal areas. In fact, if these coastal communities were joined into their own nation, it would rank third in world GDP -surpassed only by China and the USA as a whole.¹ The importance of coastal communities to our national economy, culture, and identity cannot be overstated. Working waterfronts, the spaces that facilitate fishing, shipping, transportation, and associated industries, are the lifeblood of these communities.² So why then, have these communities been in decline?

Where we’ve been

Starting in the 1600’s, coastal areas were the first to be “settled” by European colonizers. Coastal settlements grew into urban areas, each with their own unique identity and circumstances, which shaped the infrastructure that developed alongside working waterfronts. For example, ice houses were commonplace in New England, while the Pacific Northwest preferred to preserve fish in smokehouses.

One thing that could reliably be found at every working waterfront? Fishing supply stores. However, the bait shops that once speckled our coasts are now shutting their doors. In Philadelphia, only one bait shop remains.³ The Flagler Beach Pier’s supply shop, which had been a local icon for decades, closed its doors after $400,000 in losses over 5 years.⁴ In San Diego, the Crystal Pier Bait and Tackle was forced to close after the building owners gave them a 60 day notice to vacate.⁵ These are just a few of the hundreds of iconic fishing supply shops around the coasts that have closed in recent years. Though these bait shops primarily served recreational fishermen, they were once dependent on bait sold to them by small-scale, local fishermen. This was one more place where fishermen could sell their catch – in fact, there were boats that would spend their days only fishing for bait fish. Today, these smaller boats have been outcompeted by large companies, cutting out a revenue stream for smaller fishermen and increasing the price of bait overall.

The decline in working waterfronts began with increased reliance on trains to transport both goods and humans throughout the country.⁶ This, followed by increased industrialization of the fishing fleets, led to a shift from working waterfronts as economic and community hubs for fishermen to centers of expensive tourism and housing. 

Where we’re going

Today, waterfronts are becoming increasingly gentrified, pricing out the small-scale fishermen that once were the lifeblood of those communities. A perfect example of this is Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, which has transformed from a quintessential working waterfront to a tourist trap with the fishing fleet a fraction of what it was just a few generations ago.⁷ During the gold rush, Fisherman’s Wharf was the fastest growing neighborhood in San Francisco, with primarily Chinese and Italian immigrants setting down roots and building communities.⁸ Today, it is one of the busiest tourist areas in one of the most expensive cities in the country, and fishermen can no longer afford their dock space.⁹ Fisherman’s Wharf is not alone in the pricing out of the local fishing fleet in order to make room for tourism – similar stories are found in the Port of San Diego, the Wharf in Washington D.C, and ports in most major US coastal cities. 

This trend is also evident in marinas. As large corporations buy up small, locally owned and operated marinas, they raise prices so that only wealthy patrons can afford to keep their boats in the marinas.¹⁰ In other words, marinas along the coastal United States that were once filled with working vessels are now filled with yachts and other recreation vessels. Fishermen simply can no longer afford to access the water.¹¹ In Rhode Island, where fisherman Jason Jarvis has fished for decades, the fishing community has been at odds with large corporations buying out the smaller marinas in order to make way for yachts and other expensive, recreational vessels. In order to circumvent the quickly rising prices, Jason tows his boat in and out of the water everyday. However, this is not an accessible solution. While Jason’s boat is light enough and his truck is strong enough for the daily hauls, unfortunately the same is not true for the majority of fishermen. This pricing out of small-scale fishermen and lack of access to the water leaves the fishing industry, which built the working waterfronts and the communities around them, without an affordable place to keep their vessels. 

Some cities, like Seattle, are doing all that they can to curb this gentrification, though it is unclear if their efforts will be enough.¹² Washington legislators have worked hard to maintain their fishing fleet by supporting the jobs and industries that constitute working waterfronts, rather than investing in the development of quay-side tourism in those areas in an effort to avoid gentrification.¹³ Across the country, researchers in Maine have developed a tool to track changes in Maine’s public and private infrastructure and marine economy in order to better understand and plan for the threat of gentrification.¹⁴ 

Connection to Fish Farming

Fish farms have decimated coastal areas around the world, from shrimp farms in Thailand¹⁵ to salmon farms in Chile.¹⁶ Now, there is another type of fish farming promoted by big agri-business and aqua-business. Offshore fish farming (OFF) is the industrial farming of fish out in the open ocean – far from working waterfronts. These farms pollute the water with harmful agrochemicals,¹⁷ produce low quality fish, and lead to the overfishing of wild forage fish due to the need for fish meal.¹⁸ Additionally, they will buy up dock space at any cost to deliver the fish to shore and then transport to markets. OFF is another threat to the livelihoods of fishermen as it creates ripe conditions to degrade opportunities for small-scale fishermen and their communities to access the sea and healthy, plentiful fish. 

In the Gulf of Mexico, fisherman Kindra Arnesen is concerned about shrimp farms outside of the US undermining locally caught, domestic shrimp in order to drive out the competition. Year after year she has seen imported low quality, farm raised shrimp dumped on the US market in huge quantities at the beginning of shrimping season. This flooding of the market drives down the price that local, small-scale fishermen can get for their high quality, wild-caught seafood. This is putting fishermen, and all support industries, out of business, leading to a massive shrinkage in working waterfront infrastructure in some areas of her home state of Louisiana. 

This model is not unique to the shrimp industry and is repeated throughout the seafood industry. OFFs are owned and operated by large corporate interests, not local businesses that keep the money in the community. A prime example of this is Cooke Aquaculture.¹⁹ Cooke Aquaculture is a Canadian company that operates fish farms in the United States – including a fish farm in Washington State waters where there was a major escapement of nonnative Atlantic salmon in 2017.²⁰ This escapement pumped about 263,000 Atlantic salmon into the Pacific Ocean,²¹ threatening the native, Pacific salmon populations and in turn the small-scale fishermen and native communities who depended on them.²² It also sent heaps of netting and caging adrift in the territory of the critically endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales – putting them at risk of entanglement. In 2022, Washington State banned fish farms in state waters and sent Cooke Aquaculture packing. This is just one example of a corporation with no ties to the coastal communities putting the ocean, wild fish populations, and working waterfronts at risk. 

Another blow to small-scale fisheries came out of the Trump-era Executive Order 13921, which fast-tracks the development of offshore fish farms by expediting the permitting process, and by ordering NOAA to develop Aquaculture Opportunity Areas (AOAs).²³ Not only do these proposed AOAs facilitate the development of OFF, they are also to be sited in the middle of important fishing grounds in the Gulf of Mexico and Southern California. These AOAs, and OFF as a whole, place corporate greed over the health of our ecosystem and our coastal economies. And, some Members of Congress are trying to open our federal waters to offshore fish farms through legislation. This, despite the known negative economic, ecological, and cultural repercussions they will have on working waterfronts and the people who need them. 

What’s Next?

Small and large communities alike must work together to preserve the working waterfronts that small-scale local fish fleets depend on for their survival. Coastal communities need our support against the threats of gentrification and industrial take over from offshore fish farms, and they need the US government to step up and invest in necessary infrastructure to keep waterfronts working. Support these communities by joining the fight against harmful open ocean aquaculture today. 

1. “What percentage of the American population lives near the coast?” NOAA’s National Ocean Service, 20 January 2023, https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/population.html. Accessed 2 June 2023. ↩︎
2.  “Synopsis.” National Working Waterfront Network, https://nationalworkingwaterfronts.com/historic-trends/synopsis/. Accessed 2 June 2023. ↩︎
3. Williams, Tyger, and Jason Nark. “For fishermen in Philly, there’s just one bait & tackle shop left.” Philadelphia Inquirer, 5 June 2023, https://www.inquirer.com/news/fishing-bait-tackle-license-record-bass-striper-delaware-20230605.html. Accessed 7 June 2023. ↩︎
4.   “With a $400,000 Loss in 5 Years, Flagler Beach Pier’s Bait Shop Will Close Permanently as a City Business.” FlaglerLive.com, 17 April 2023, https://flaglerlive.com/bait-shop-history/. Accessed 7 June 2023. ↩︎
5. Handy, Shannon. “Crystal Pier Bait & Tackle massive rent increase.” CBS 8, 20 May 2022, https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/crystal-pier-bait-tackle-to-close/509-60b3c5e6-f4ed-4b9f-8e55-db87439f3e60. Accessed 7 June 2023 ↩︎
6.  “Sustainable Working Waterfronts Toolkit.” National Working Waterfront Network, https://nationalworkingwaterfronts.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/EDA_App_A_HistoricTrends.pdf. Accessed 7 June 2023. ↩︎
7. “The Wharf’s Fishing Fleet.” Fisherman’s Wharf, https://www.fishermanswharf.org/plan-your-visit/wharf-history/wharfs-fishing-fleet/. Accessed 9 June 2023. ↩︎
8. “A History of Fisherman’s Wharf.” Gray Line San Francisco, 18 January 2023, https://graylineofsanfrancisco.com/history-fishermans-wharf/. Accessed 9 June 2023. ↩︎
9. Truong, Kevin. “Is There a Future for Fisherman’s Wharf Without the Fishermen?” The San Francisco Standard, 27 April 2023, https://sfstandard.com/business/fishermans-wharf-san-francisco-redevelopment-plan-proposed/. Accessed 9 June 2023. ↩︎
10.  “Gentrifying Southport.” Wilmington Star-News, 25 March 2007, https://www.starnewsonline.com/story/news/2007/03/25/gentrifying-southport/30298810007/. Accessed 22 September 2023. ↩︎
11.  “Loss of slips a Florida ‘Epidemic.’” Soundings Online, 28 April 2005, https://www.soundingsonline.com/news/loss-of-slips-a-florida-epidemic. Accessed 22 September 2023. ↩︎
12. Scruggs, Gregory. “Seattle’s working waterfront offers rare combination of maritime roots and high-tech economy.” GeekWire, 29 November 2019, https://www.geekwire.com/2019/seattles-working-waterfront-offers-rare-combination-maritime-roots-high-tech-economy/. Accessed 9 June 2023. ↩︎
13. Ibid. ↩︎
14.  Schreiber, Laurie. “New tool will help working waterfronts track threats, changes.” Mainebiz, 23 February 2023, https://www.mainebiz.biz/article/new-tool-will-help-working-waterfronts-track-threats-changes. Accessed 9 June 2023. ↩︎
15.  Aksornkoae, Sanit & Tokrisna, Ruangrai. (2004). Overview of Shrimp Farming and Mangrove Loss in Thailand. 10.4337/9781843769668.00009. ↩︎
16.  “Entregan Informe lapidario a CONAF: salmonicultura es incompatible con la Reserva Nacional Kawésqar.” Greenpeace, 24 January 2023, https://www.greenpeace.org/chile/noticia/greenpeace/ entregan-informe-lapidario-a-conaf-salmonicultura-es-incompatible-con-la-reserva-nacional-kawesqar/. Accessed 6 October 2023. ↩︎
17. Bracey, Akayla. “Toxin-Free Factory-Farmed Fish? Good Luck With That!” Don’t Cage Our Oceans, 16 March 2022, https://dontcageouroceans.org/toxin-free-factory-farmed-fish-good-luck-with-that/. Accessed 9 June 2023. ↩︎
18.  Evans, Monica, and Rebecca Kessler. “Catching fish to feed fish: Report details ‘unsustainable’ fishmeal and oil industry.” Mongabay, 4 December 2019, https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/catching-fish-to-feed-fish-report-details-unsustainable-fishmeal-and-oil-industry/. Accessed 9 June 2023. ↩︎
19.  Cooke Aquaculture Inc., https://aquaculturegrowsns.ca. Accessed 26 June 2023. ↩︎
20. Bush, Evan. “Cooke Aquaculture agrees to pay $2.75M to settle lawsuit over salmon net-pen collapse.” The Seattle Times, 29 November 2019, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/cooke-aquaculture-settles-lawsuit-with-wild-fish-advocates-over-net-pen-collapse/. Accessed 26 June 2023. ↩︎
21. Ibid. ↩︎
22.  “Why Recover Salmon?” State of Salmon, https://stateofsalmon.wa.gov/executive-summary/why-recover-salmon/. Accessed 22 September 2023. ↩︎
23.  Willson, Casey. “Executive Order 13921.” Don’t Cage Our Oceans, 3 May 2023, https://dontcageouroceans.org/executive-order-13921/. Accessed 9 June 2023. ↩︎