Dear friend,

I hope 2022 has started off on the right foot for all of you and that you and everyone in your circles have been healthy and well.

Although we are already jumping into this new year, images of 2021 are still in our rear view mirror and shaping our work - and our lives - ahead. While the events of the last few years both within our work and within our world have really impacted how we work and what we do, they have really solidified our mission and vision for how we treat and eat from the ocean in the future.

There are a few new things coming in 2022 to tell you about. The familiar faces and voices of our staff are being joined by some new energy who will be working with us to pursue the changes we want to see. So keep your eyes open for the team of Ephraim Froehlich and Ann Robertson (of AKWA-DC), and Ryan Bradley (The Apex Group) as they work with us to help make inroads to stop further corporate takeover of the ocean, expansion of industrialization and privatization of the ocean and fishing rights, and halt factory fish farming.

As the old saying goes… god willing and the creek don't rise, we are also excited to be dreaming about a couple of in person convenings this year to shape the future of the seafood value chain that the fishing businesses whose catch ends up on our plates. With the last two years of virtual isolation, to be able to be with each other will feel both strange and welcome. 

As we start into this new year, I want to take a moment to celebrate those who fish and whose work inspires me and our team every day. Thank you for showing us what hope is really all about when you put your gear in the water every day. We are committed to doing what we can to ensure that your kind of fishing operations that put real seafood full of value and nutrition on our tables are the ones that are valued by our society, not the industrialized, globalized, privatized version that pumps unidentified food objects into the global economies of scale.

The RevolOcean is alive in 2022 and we hope to bring it to you every day as we do what we are called to do.

With gratitude,

Niaz Dorry
Coordinating Director
2021 was a busy year, but some of our highlights include: 

  • The AQUAA Act was reintroduced in the senate, aiming to open the floodgates to industrial aquaculture and in response, this poignant article, written by network collaborators Marianne Cufone and Dana Honn, in Fortune magazine highlighted the work of the Don’t Cage Our Ocean Coalition to challenge the AQUAA Act
  • NAMA, NFFC, and many others coordinated the People’s Kitchen Counter-Mobilization: Food System Take-Back in response to the corporate hijacking of the UN Food System Summit. Check out the recordings here. Speaking of NFFC, 2021 was our third year under the shared-leadership model! 

  • NAMA joined the Urgenci General Assembly as part of a broader conversation about food sovereignty and also spoke at the 8th International CSA Symposium alongside many Urgenci Members to speak about the work that CSAs and CSFs can do to change our world food systems.

  • A hearing was held on the Sustaining America’s Fisheries for the Future Act (HR4690), a bill that is a good first step toward addressing climate change, creating more resilient fisheries, and ensuring long-term sustainability of fish populations and our national fishing traditions. To learn more about the bill, check out this one-pager. 

  • NAMA was among the 267 Indigenous, frontline, environmental, business, political, and social justice organizations to tell the administration to stop the sale of more than 80 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas development (Lease Sale 257). Read the full letter here. 


To see more of what we’ve been up to over the past few years, check out our Instagram recap. 
Through all of this, we gained a lot of momentum, so what’re we gonna do in 2022? A small snapshot of our plans include: 


  • We will continue to Defend the Ocean Commons by advocating for better fisheries management policy, strengthening the Don’t Cage Our Ocean Coalition to beat the AQUAA Act, and continuing to support #BlockCorporateSalmon and their work to stop genetically engineered salmon. 

  • We will continue to Fight for Food Justice by continuing to support the Local Catch Network and partner with the Real Meals Campaign and Anchors in Action to get more local seafood into institutions.
Throughout November and December, our Digital Organizer Estenfania was humbled to join many organizations and individuals who protested factory trawl fishing in Alaskan waters at locations throughout Seattle, WA, beginning at the Seattle Expo, where the Marine Stewardship Council awarded industrial fishing giant Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP) with their 2021 Ocean Champions Award. NAMA was also present to support allies at a protest outside of Whole Foods in Downtown Seattle where community fishermen and community allies rallied to sound the alarm on Whole Foods’ seafood certification programs, including the Marine Stewardship Council and Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch standards, for allowing the factory trawler industry to count as “sustainable seafood.”
Alaskan Factory Trawlers are responsible for over 141 million pounds of bycatch a year, including Halibut, King Salmon, Chum Salmon, and many more. Meanwhile, Indigenous communities are suffering losses to harvest fish for subsistence and cultural survival. Recent efforts by Alaska Tribes to push for more tribal representation in the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council and to host a congressional hearing on the critical state of wild salmon in Alaska points towards Indigenous solutions to fisheries management. To learn more or get involved, join the STOP Alaskan Trawler Bycatch Facebook Group.
NAMA is a fishermen-led organization building a broad movement toward healthy fisheries, and fishing communities.

We build deep, and trusting relationships with community based fisherman, crew, fishworkers, and allies to create effective policy, and market strategies.

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