Our ability to predict when, where, and which fishing communities will be impacted by climate-driven disasters is limited, making insurance and other risk pooling techniques potential tools to help communities weather a crisis. Recent innovations in the climate insurance space – such as directly insuring nature – have spurred new thinking for applications in climate-ready fisheries, but there is much research and collaboration to be done before these ideas can be translated from theory to practice.
Ocean Science Trust aims to improve current policy, incubate new approaches, and advance thinking on fisheries insurance for the West Coast through innovative science and collaboration. Given OST’s positioning on the landscape – including trusted relationships with government entities, the nonprofit sector, and fisheries experts – and our organizational mission to serve as the connective tissue between science and policy, we have the opportunity to bring together a diverse audience to consider science and data needs, knowledge gaps, and barriers to insurance as a tool for coastal community resilience.
OST will convene an in-person symposium to gather experts (i.e., scientific researchers, fishing community members, and decision makers) to develop a shared understanding of how fisheries insurance may support fishers and local fishing economies into the future. We will collate recent findings and current thinking around these topics to determine the key knowledge gaps, barriers, and logistics required to launch a successful fisheries insurance program on the West Coast.
Last updated December 2024, please check this page for updates.
