Article Summary
• Ninety percent of the seafood sold and consumed in Oregon is imported. Meanwhile, much of the seafood caught off the Oregon coast is exported.
• The Winter Waters event series aims to reverse that paradigm through consumer education and helping build infrastructure for producers.
• The series is led by women in the seafood community. It features an industry conference that’s also open to the public, plus seminars, panel discussions, workshops, dinners, and field trips.
• Every series connects attendees to the bounty of the Oregon coast while supporting local fishers and creators of seafood products.
On a gray, stormy Saturday in early February, a small group gathers on a dock at the Port of Newport, along Oregon’s central coast. Their brightly colored raincoats stand out against the seascape. Though it is hard to hear over the high winds, barking sea lions, and din of dock work, they’re paying close attention to Taunette Dixon as she stands before her family’s boat, the Tauny Ann, and spells out the challenges facing fishers today, including increasingly expensive fishing and crabbing permits.
“The fishing industry has taken a lot of hits in the last few years, and most of them hit the small guys the hardest,” says Dixon. “We’re seeing more and more families not being able to afford to maintain a small commercial fishing vessel, leading to more large businesses taking over.”
Dixon, a co-founder of Newport Fishermen’s Wives, raises her voice above the wind to make her main point: “If you are living in the Northwest, you’re very lucky to be able to have the resource of fresh seafood whenever you want—there is always a season of some type going—and supporting us means making sure you’re eating a product that was caught here,” says Dixon.
This dockside gathering here, in the Dungeness Crab Capital of the World, is part of the Blue Line, a coastal field trip designed to give the public a glimpse into Newport’s “blue economy” of sustainable, local seafood. The trip is part of Winter Waters, a seafood-focused event series from February 1 to March 1 that spans much of the Oregon coast.
“The assumption is, you come to the coast and you’re eating fish from the coast—and that’s just not true in many cases.”
Now in its fourth year, the series offers about two dozen experiences—including multicourse meals, dock tours, tastings, workshops, seminars, and panel discussions, all aimed at bridging the gap between consumers and sustainable seafood sources. Last year, more than 2,600 people registered, most of them local, with a few attendees from the East Coast and Iceland.
Local seafood is hard to come by in much of this country. A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report released in 2024 revealed that 80 percent of seafood consumed here comes from abroad—primarily Canada, Chile, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
Despite Oregon’s 362 miles of coastline and plentiful stocks of albacore tuna, salmon, pink shrimp, Dungeness crab, and bottom-feeding fish like flounder and lingcod, the same is true here—actually, more so. In 2022, a study produced for the Oregon Coast Visitors Association (OCVA) revealed that 90 percent of the seafood sold and consumed on the Oregon coast was imported from across the country or around the world. Meanwhile, the abundance of the state’s coastal waters was being exported elsewhere.
Winter Waters guests walk the docks at the Port of Newport with Taunette Dixon, whose family has been fishing here for generations. (Photo credit: Elena Valeriote)
“It’s a big shock to people to read that,” says Laura Anderson, who founded the employee-owned restaurant Local Ocean Seafoods in 2002, which sources its seafood from the boats bobbing off the Port of Newport dock. “The assumption is, you come to the coast and you’re eating fish from the coast—and that’s just not true in many cases.”
The Winter Waters initiative wants to change all that by connecting consumers with local seafood that reflects the diversity of the ocean and supports the local economy. “There’s a hunger for greater connectivity in our food systems,” says Kristen Penner, a seafood value chain strategist who founded Winter Waters in 2023 with seaweed farmer Alanna Kieffer and sustainable seafood marketing specialist Rachelle Hacmac. “Sometimes the answer you need is just one person away, a matter of one degree of separation. Winter Waters is about connecting those dots.”
The Launch of a Local Seafood Movement
Winter Waters began over a shared love of seaweed. In 2022, Kieffer was farming Pacific dulse for Oregon Seaweed and planning to launch educational marine workshops through her own company, Shifting Tides. Meanwhile, Hacmac was helping Alaskan kelp farmers launch their products in the Portland market, and Penner was serving as the regional value coordinator for the OCVA, connecting fishers with markets to sell their catch.
When the three women met for the first time that fall, they found that they shared many of the same passions and concerns—including how the pandemic had hurt the local seafood industry. “Covid happened and our supply chains fell apart,” says Penner. “It was a wake-up call. [We were] thinking, ‘Why is it so hard to get this amazing, nutrient-dense protein that’s literally in our backyards?’” It didn’t take long for them to realize that, together, they could help make that happen.
The first Winter Waters series, in February 2023, consisted of 10 events, including a prix-fixe menu organized around seaweed pairings. “That first year it was really highlighting seaweed as a culinary ingredient,” says Kieffer. “Now it’s about so much more—about all of Oregon seafood and the people behind it and why it matters to keep Oregon seafood local.”
Much of Oregon’s seafood—including oysters and crabs—thrives in cold winter temperatures, making it an especially good time of year to dine in small coastal towns like Newport. (Photo credit: Rachelle Hacmac)
Winter Waters now begins with the Blue Foods Forum, a two-day solutions-oriented conference for industry experts, but most events are open to the public and attract a surprisingly diverse audience: elderly fishermen, marine biology students, seafood-centric chefs, nature-inspired artists, and curious nonprofessionals.
The self-guided Blue Line trip enables participants to speak directly with producers and gain a deeper understanding of their work. The 192 registered ticket holders this year visited the Oregon Coast Aquarium to chat with volunteers reforesting kelp forests, the Hatfield Marine Science Center to explore an oyster farm, the Pacific Maritime Heritage Center to ask fishers about the state of the seafood industry, and the Central Coast Food Web (CCFW), to hold wriggling sea urchins raised for uni.
Oregon’s Productive Waters
In Oregon, about 1,200 commercial fishers work on about 800 vessels annually, according to 2024 data from the Oregon Department of Employment. The highest concentration is in Lincoln County, home of Newport, where the typical boat is crewed by just one to four people.
“People here never use the term ‘beach’—it’s always the ‘coast,’ ” says Kieffer. “Our water is cold and murky, and that’s because it is full of nutrients. It fuels all of this seafood: tuna, crab, shellfish, so much kelp.”
Eating seafood sourced locally means you’re getting the freshest flavor, the ideal texture, and maximum nutritional value. Also, says Penner, there’s the climate and economic impact: “It just doesn’t make sense that we ship seafood overseas—that’s a pretty big carbon footprint. Buying local is one way to support the people in our communities that are doing the really amazing hard work of feeding us.”
“Buying local is one way to support the people in our communities that are doing the really amazing hard work of feeding us.”
However, it’s challenging to increase the in-state demand for Oregon-caught seafood. As it is, markets in cities like Portland can’t keep up with requests for local seafood, such as Dungeness crab, in peak season. “We’re remote,” says Kieffer. “It’s tricky to get seafood from a boat to a restaurant over the mountains that get covered in snow in the wintertime.”
Anderson, of Local Ocean restaurant, adds, “Local Ocean buys direct from the fleet across the street, and it’s hard,” she says. “I can’t imagine most seafood businesses maintaining relationships with dozens of different vessels, the timing, having to take their entire fish load.”
When dealing directly with fishers, says Anderson, there’s very little consistency in terms of product or price, which are crucial components of running a restaurant. “You can’t just say, ‘Bring me 10 pounds of petrale sole on Tuesday and another 10 pounds on Friday.’ Sometimes they don’t catch the fish that they thought they were going to catch.”
Winter Waters co-founder Rachelle Hacmac leads a seminar at the event. (Photo courtesy of Winter Waters)
Despite the challenges, Local Ocean has found ways to make local sourcing work. Amber Morris has held the title of “Fish Goddess” at Local Ocean since 2007. As the liaison between the restaurant and around 70 local fishermen, she’s the one making the trip down to the Dixon family’s Tauny Ann to pick up salmon, tuna, shrimp, or crab.
The Local Ocean menu, which features the names of the fishing boats that supply the restaurant, shifts seasonally around simple classics like fish and chips, and incorporates daily specials based on what comes in. They also rely on their freezer. “Local Ocean uses frozen fish so we can provide local year-round,” says Anderson, who recommends other restaurants adopt this model. “Getting past the ‘fresh is better than frozen’ myth is a huge win for everyone. Higher quality, less food waste, more control—and more local.”
Educating and Creating Connections
Through Winter Waters, founders Hacmac, Kieffer, and Penner hope to educate the public about seafood systems and spark a desire for a diversity of seafood, so people are more inclined to buy the catch of the day, even if they’re not familiar with it.
They also aim to build connections in the local seafood industry by supporting seafood hubs, centrally located shared facilities where members can process, package, store, or distribute their catches.
Winter Waters has hosted several events at the Central Coast Food Web (CCFW)—a Newport-based nonprofit that Anderson and Penner founded in 2022. CCFW, one of one of five seafood hubs in Oregon, offers a shared-use processing facility for seafood and farm businesses. An adjacent complex houses a sea urchin ranch as well as the Oregon Ocean Cluster’s emerging ‘OMX’ (Oregon Mariculture Accelerator) project—an R&D mariculture farm for trialing land-based seaweed farming and value-added products. “They have processing and packaging equipment for small producers who can rent things—and kitchen space,” explains Kieffer. “Not every fisherman needs to have a vacuum sealer, and cold storage is usually very limited.”
The founders hope that visitors return throughout the year, forming a bond with local fishers who can offer guidance about seasonal seafood selection.
During the Blue Line tour at CCFW, participants can walk through the hub and taste some of the products created there, including canned tuna and glass jars of seafood broth, learning about the seafood supply chain while finding new favorite local goods.
The series also hosts events at sustainable seafood markets along the coast, including at Port Orford, the Astoria Fisherman’s Co-op, and Fishermen Direct in Gold Beach. The founders hope that visitors return throughout the year, forming a bond with local fishers who can offer guidance about seasonal seafood selection.
Championing Equity
The Winter Waters founders intend for their series to support diversity in the seafood industry—not only what is fished but who is fishing.
“There’s an assumption that it’s a male-dominated industry, but it really isn’t,” says Hacmac. In fact, women make up 50 percent of the global seafood workforce, based on a 2024 report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The most recent research, however, indicates that the number of women in leadership roles in the industry is as low as 4 percent—and studies do not collect data on people who identify beyond the gender binary.
This year, the Winter Waters series included a conference in Newport called “Women of the Water.” The conference co-hosts were Julie Kuchepatov, founder of Seafood and Gender Equality (SAGE), an Oregon-based global nonprofit, and Becca Williams, the organization’s director of gender strategies.
At the Women of the Water session, Imami Black, founder of Minorities in Aquaculture, gets close with a live sea urchin. (Photo credit: Rachelle Hacmac)
“Our mission is to ensure that women and genderqueer folks are getting the recognition that they deserve for their contributions to the sector and that their voices are heard in spaces where decisions are made,” says Williams. With just 22 spaces available, the event sold out and developed a waitlist shortly after being announced online, demonstrating the demand for a gathering of this kind.
“What is needed in the seafood sector right now is not too far off from what is needed generally—and that is an open heart toward questions like: How do we create policies and practices that really center wellbeing?” says Williams. “In the workplace, how do we lead with a sense of compassion and support folks coming into jobs on boats being fully who they are?” Some examples of this: Where to find fishing gear that fits a female body, and ways to improve safety during weeklong fishing expeditions when you’re the only woman on the boat.
To shine a light on women’s contributions to the Oregon Coast seafood industry, Winter Waters purchases and promotes products from local women-run seafood companies, including Local Ocean and SueAnna Harrison’s Oregon’s Choice Tuna. The event series also hires local women chefs who source sustainable seafood, like U’ilaniku’ulei Vele and Maylin Chávez, both based in Portland, for pop-up food stands and sit-down dinners, including the Seafaring Speakeasy that follows the Blue Foods Forum.
The Ripple Effect of Winter Waters
Winter Waters takes place in February by careful design. “February is a slow time in the restaurant industry on the coast,” says Hacmac. “Chefs have more time to be creative with us.”
“It’s also when businesses like restaurants and hotels really need our support,” adds Kieffer. In 2025, Winter Waters events brought in $79,808 for participating food and beverage businesses along the Oregon coast. They also donated $6,235 to nonprofit partners, including Oregon Kelp Alliance and FishHer.
Besides this critical influx of income during the slow season, the impact of Winter Waters ripples outward in many tangible ways, including in the form of products inspired by the events.
Following a presentation by the 100% Fish Project—an Icelandic endeavor dedicated to reducing waste—at the 2025 Blue Foods Forum, Anderson was inspired to use all parts of the fish that arrive, whole, at her restaurant. This past year, Local Ocean began experimenting with the less requested parts of the fish, adding them to seafood broth and creating fish-skin dog treats, which customers can purchase from the small market on the restaurant’s lower level.
Two other attendees were so galvanized by the 100% Fish Project that they founded the fish tannery Reclaim Cooperative in Hoskins, Oregon, where they now make sustainable seafood leather goods out of fish skins.
In partnership with the OCVA and Oregon Ocean Cluster, the founders of Winter Waters are developing a new program called the Oregon Coast Seafood Trail, a carefully coordinated route that highlights partnerships with local businesses, set to launch later this year. The idea came from like-minded initiatives elsewhere in the country, like the Local Catch Network, Maine Oyster Trail, Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch, and South Carolina’s Good Catch program.
To become part of the Seafood Trail, businesses must serve at least 50 percent local fish and shellfish. “This will become an easily accessible online list for visitors and locals alike to find places that truly have local seafood,” Hacmac says.
This could include quality fish-and-chips spots, like Squatchsami in Lincoln City. Kieffer recalls speaking with Squatchsami co-owner Debbie Martin before hosting a Winter Waters event there: “She told us her goal is to get Atlantic cod off every fish and chips menu in Oregon,” Kieffer says.
The Winter Waters founders recognize that many working waterfronts and coastal communities have similar challenges in building their local seafood economies. “We’re really excited about what the future holds,” Penner says, “especially as we dive deeper into what else is possible, connecting with a larger community to learn and share resources to accelerate this movement—not just here, but everywhere.”
The last of this year’s Winter Waters events include a crab picking demo in Gold Beach, a tour of Port Orford, a seaweed cyanotype class in Brookings, and several special seafood-centric meals. Visit Winter Waters for tickets and more information.
The post In Oregon, a Local Seafood Movement Connects Consumers to the Coast appeared first on Civil Eats.
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