Talia's Reflections from LSS Fall 2025
We are so very lucky to have had the opportunity to attend another Local Seafood Summit (LSS) in Gulf Shores, Alabama, in November. This conference, for folks working in community-based seafood systems, happens every three years. Four of us attended the 2022 summit in Girdwood, Alaska; Tasha and Talia went to the 2019 summit in Portland; and Talia was at the 2016 summit in Norfolk, Virginia (which was only the second one ever). This time, Talia, Tasha, and Ronnie went, and Victoria, Feini, and Ms. Val were also there.
There were so many highlights, it’s hard to know where to start! The inspiring Diane Wilson gave the keynote, and talked about her decades of work fighting (and winning) against the plastics corporations polluting her home in coastal Texas. You can read more about her here. There’s also a great picture book about her, and she has her own book, too! We got to meet Kung Li Sun, author of Begin It All Over, a delicious queer alternate history novel set in the post-American Revolution period featuring James Hemings, Denmark Vesey, and Black-Asian-Indigenous solidarity across the American South and Caribbean. Kung Li is now an oyster farmer at Water is Life Oysters in Apalachicola, Florida.
It was a joy to meet and/or reconnect with so many friends and mentors and champions, including Josh Stoll (who started the Local Catch Network and Summit), Sonia Strobel and Chris Kantowicz from Skipper Otto, Imani Black from Minorities in Aquaculture, our amazing friends at NAMA, and so many others. We got to visit with Mimi Tran, who interned for us, because Mimi grew up in Fairhope (which is about an hour down the road from Gulf Shores). We were excited to meet folks we’d previously corresponded with over email, like Togue Brawn from Dayboat Blue in Maine, and Emily Miller from Fishful Futures in San Diego.
We went to sessions where we learned about boat-to-school programs, international guidelines for small-scale fisheries, community-based processing centers, creative ways to use the whole fish, seafood food pantry programs, Gulf futures, and more! Our conversations about our current pause and reflection period were thoughtful and inspiring. Many folks said they wished they were able to do the same; we hope that everyone who needs it is able to find a way to take a break.
One of the most inspiring and reassuring things about this conference was being reminded that we are part of a larger (and amazing) movement of community-based seafood. Ronnie says that it helped them realize that Fishadelphia is an arm of something larger. Sometimes we try to be the whole body, and we don’t have to do that; we need to be our own arm of the movement and do it well.
The food was mind-boggling. Many of the summit participants donated their own seafood and chefs at the lodge made delicious dishes with it: black cod, Alaskan salmon, surf clams, Gulf shrimp, and more. Some highlights included fried soft-shell shrimp, and muffaletta sandwiches with mortadella made from swordfish scraps.
None of us had ever been to the Gulf coast of Alabama before, and wow was it beautiful! Big wide fine white sand beaches with gently lapping turquoise waves. It was 35 degrees while we were there but it had been in the 70s right before we got there (and right after we left) so the water was warm, and the sun was bright. It’s apparently a vacation destination for the region as well as the Midwest, and we understand why now.
It was also really nice to get some in-person time with each other; almost all of our work time together is spent in virtual meetings, so getting to be together at the conference was great. It was fun to hang out and eat food with Ms. Val, whom we all love but don’t get enough time with. And it was lovely to re-connect with and get to update Victoria (since she left in Jan), who laid the groundwork for so much of the strategic planning we’ve been doing in the last few months.
Now that we’re back home, we’re excited to bring the inspiration and relationships from Alabama back to our work in Philly.
- Talia