Without Working Waterfronts, There Is No Blue Food Economy
Saving coastal access is key to sustainable seafood, community livelihoods, and climate-smart food systems.
Photo Credit: Eric Wolfinger for Intuitive Content & Hope in the Water on PBS
Have you ever considered how our coastlines have changed? Oceanfront land that once framed bustling fishing docks, boatyards, and fishers’ homes are now dominated by luxury homes and vacation rentals.
Land ownership along the coast has quietly shifted into the hands of the wealthiest—those who can afford not just the soaring real estate prices but the high cost of insuring these properties (if insurance is even available). In many cases, only individuals with the means to rebuild without aid can live near the water, often unaware of the complex ecosystems and economies that their presence threatens.
What’s often missing from this picture-perfect waterfront is the working infrastructure that supports our blue food economy—a growing sector focused on sustainably harvesting food from the sea, including wild fisheries, aquaculture (like oysters, mussels, and kelp), and even marine restoration efforts. These are not just jobs. They are food systems, cultural heritage, and sustainable solutions for climate and food insecurity.
Photo Credit: Sam Johnson for Intuitive Content and Hope in the Water on PBS
The Displacement of Working Waterfronts
The quiet displacement of working docks and water farms isn’t always about physical removal. It happens through zoning restrictions, court challenges, and community opposition, often from well-meaning but misinformed neighbors. These legal and social pressures can result in costly litigation for small-scale water farmers, many of whom are already operating on razor-thin margins.
One common narrative used in opposition claims that bivalve or seaweed farms disrupt the environment. In truth, science has shown the opposite. Shellfish and seaweed farming can be regenerative, improving water quality, providing habitat for marine life, and absorbing carbon and nitrogen from coastal waters. These farms are feeding us, as well as cleaning our waters and protecting the ecosystems we all depend on.
What We Lose When Working Waterfronts Disappear
When a working dock is turned into a private marina or an oyster farm lease is blocked by litigation, we lose far more than a job site. We lose a point of access to the water for future generations of fishers, aquaculturists, and researchers. We lose the chance to grow a resilient, climate-smart food economy that doesn’t rely on trucking food across continents. We lose vital cultural and community identity, often linked for centuries to our coastal towns.
And perhaps most dangerously, we lose the understanding of the sea as a shared resource—something that should benefit all of us, not just those who can afford the view.
Photo Credit: Eric Wolfinger for Intuitive Content & Hope in the Water on PBS
How Can You Help Protect Working Waterfronts?
Learn and Listen: If you live near the coast (or vacation there!), learn about your local seafood systems. Visit working docks, buy directly from fishers or water farmers, and ask questions. Education is the first step toward advocacy. If you own a home on the coast or know people who do, help them get introduced to the fishers and water farmers. Odds are that the education materials about their local seafood harvesters didn’t end up in the newcomers’ baskets when they moved in! Encourage them to tour the farm or buy the products that are being produced.
Support Local Policy: Attend town meetings, zoning board hearings, and coastal development discussions. Many decisions that affect water access happen at the hyper-local level. Show up in support of sustainable aquaculture and working waterfront preservation.
Push Back on False Narratives: If you hear someone repeating misinformation about kelp farms destroying the seabed or oyster leases ruining the view, challenge it. Share the science. Support those in the community who are trying to correct the record.
Donate or Volunteer: Organizations focused on ocean conservation, working waterfront protection, and sustainable seafood systems are often underfunded. Your time or donations can help defend legal challenges, fund education, or even help build infrastructure that keeps working docks viable.
Vote With Your Fork: Purchase shellfish, kelp, and other blue foods from local, sustainable sources. Demand transparency around where your seafood comes from and how it’s harvested.
The Future of Our Coastlines
If we continue to treat the coastline as a luxury good rather than a working system, we risk severing a lifeline to food security, economic opportunity, and ecological restoration. But it’s not too late.
By recognizing the value of working waterfronts—and the people who rely on them—we can create a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable relationship with the sea. And that benefits all of us, whether we live on the water or simply depend on it (which we all do).
Photo Credit: Eric Wolfinger for Intuitive Content & Hope in the Water on PBS