As a part of Capitol Hill Ocean Week, the SCUBAnauts attended “Feeding the Nation: National Security and American Seafood,” a panel discussing overfishing, where they became enlightened with the discussion, debate, and panel perspectives on the potential and current state of aquaculture fisheries. The panelists included Bill Dewey, Director of Public Policy and Communications for Taylor Shellfish Company; Dr. Daniel Pauly, Professor of Fisheries and Zoology at UBC Fisheries Center; Tom Raftican, President of The Sportfishing Conservancy, and Mark Holliday, Director at the Office of Policy at NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service. The ‘nauts furthered their understanding of this topic in meeting with Dr. Daniel Pauly after the panel session.
Probably the biggest moment for me was the conference on the world’s fisheries. My school has a ninth-grade environmental science class, which taught me some of the basics of overfishing, but it was amazing to hear real experts debate the problems that the world faces today and propose intelligent and innovative solutions. I learned tons about the issues, and am very excited to take my new knowledge home. I also can’t wait to follow up on the things they were discussing such as a bill NOAA is trying to get passed (I’m not entirely sure what it was about, I think I got there a little too late in the conference to catch that).
~Sara Vannah, Lake Hitchcock Chapter
Organized by Julienne Brown.
