Waterside Chat
The Marine Fish Conservation Network's Waterside Chat series connects people who depend on healthy oceans and fisheries with the issues that directly affect them and their communities. Each episode, the Network's Deputy Director Tom Sadler talks with different guests about ocean policy and fisheries management topics. He engages them in genuine and thoughtful conversations about what policy decisions mean for people’s livelihoods, communities, recreation and coastal ways of life.
Waterside Chat
Waterside Chat with Linda Behnken
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Marine Fish Conservation Network
[Recorded January 21, 2022]
Our first Waterside Chat guest, Linda Behnken, has fished the waters off Alaska her entire adult life. She is executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) and co-chair of the Marine Fish Conservation Network’s Policy Council. The Network’s Deputy Director Tom Sadler talked with Linda about her experience fishing in Alaska, her work with ALFA and her thoughts on the impact of climate change on fisheries management and fishing communities.
Watch the video to learn:
- Why policy discussions should not be climate vs. jobs, but instead about climate AND jobs.
- Why Alaska is ground zero for climate change, and what Linda recommends the Biden administration do to ensure climate policy keeps pace with the changes she sees all around her.
- How shifting fish stocks are impacting Alaska’s Indigenous cultures and economies.
- How Linda’s sons are becoming part of the next generation of fishermen, and what ALFA and others are doing to ensure they carry the conservation torch and have a prosperous commercial fishing future.
- And much more.
