New Jobs in Small Fishing Communities — Olazul Opens up Possibilities in the Gulf of California

An Interview with Beau Perry, Founder and Former Director, Olazul

Olazul’s mission is to help coastal communities transition from overfishing and destructive seafood farming practices to more ecologically and financially sound livelihoods through ecological aquaculture.

In a nutshell, how do you accomplish this?

We are open to any alternative livelihood models – ecological aquaculture fits particularly well. In one project, (Seafood Waste Silage) we take processing waste from fisheries and use yogurt to convert it into “soup”, and sell it as a key ingredient for aquaculture feeds. It turns out shrimp growers can feed the shrimp the same stuff that other fisheries are throwing away. This is a huge improvement over the status quo wherein aquaculture depletes wild forage fisheries, which it consumes in the form of fishmeal. We also have fishermen working a managed fishery within our farm concession – so we’ve  integrated a new livelihood for these folks – in the form of aquaculture and made the current livelihood of fisheries easier and more sustainable. The Seafood Waste Silage project has the potential to create a lot of sustainable enterprise opportunities for fishing communities – it’s a dirty job with a lot of potential.

For our brand of social entrepreneurship to work in the long term, you have to bring in the local stakeholders. You have to be both technically sophisticated in terms of research capacity, and then you have to know how to translate that research into local business models with concrete value for fishing communities. It’s a lot of trial and error. My wife is a social scientist who specializes in fishing communities, and she really understands the dynamics of small fishing communities and what the global trends are. She understands that these people have rights to a healthy, sustainable economic livelihood – ones that don’t present false choices between coastal peoples’ well-being and ecosystem health.

What inspired you to start Olazul?

I went from being a vacationer in Baja California to having an epiphany about this quandary: how do we fix the issues I noticed affecting the fishermen I befriended on my journeys. I asked myself, What if we tried harder to develop economic alternatives to serve future generations of these communities and the ecosystem that they depend on?

Why did you decide to use a fiscal sponsor and how did you choose TCI?

It’s about being able to be versatile and get started really quickly. If I have to go out and start my own nonprofit, it takes a lot of time and money to be able to operate across borders. Having a fiscal sponsor is an efficient means for moving our grant money to different countries outside the U.S. TCI offers a really sound package of services for a competitive price.  For a reasonable fee, we can take donors’ money and get right to work. More resources get on the ground and get on the ground sooner.

What is your proudest accomplishment with Olazul?

Our scientific and communication capacity — we have a phenomenal, multi-disciplinary team of people. We put out lots of different ideas, advance them, and reinforce the ones that work. That takes a special team.

We’ve rubbed shoulders with these big for-profit aquaculture corporations, and after a lot of years there is a lot of respect for this little NGO. TCI has enabled us to challenge the industry in a constructive and positive way. We’ve shaken things up pretty well without a lot of money.

What do you love about your job?

Being able to use my brain and solving all kinds of challenges in different domains – it’s a really stimulating job. Being able to call the ocean my office is a dream I have always had. Working with fishing communities on an issue that is critical to the future – that’s really rewarding because I really respect and admire that way of life. More than anything I wish for us to enjoy the abundance of a healthy relationship with the ocean, so it’s a privilege to have a chance to pursue that challenge in my daily work. I truly cannot think of anything I’d rather be doing.