In a Community Supported Fishery (CSF), consumers contract to buy fish from a fishermen at the beginning of a season, providing them with a stable, guaranteed income. CSFs in the Northeast produce groundfish, shrimp, and lobster. Under a soon-to-be-implemented catch share system, collaborating fishermen will receive a quota for many individual stocks. If CSFs can cultivate a set of consumers who demand traditionally “less-desirable” species, this may increase their profitability under a catch share system.
This research examines the benefits to consumers and harvesters from participating in a CSF program. Furthermore, this research compares the revenue from fish sales to the CSF versus sales in a traditional market to the dealer. Proponents of CSFs typically claim that CSF-caught fish is “better” than traditionally caught fish according to quality, environmental, and/or social metrics. A secondary goal of our research is to define and evaluate quality, environmental, and social metrics for CSF-caught fish. Finally, we are also working to understand and quantify changes in targeting behavior by CSF fishermen.