Empowering Fishermen: Bridging Grassroots Knowledge and Scientific Data Collection for Sustainable Fisheries

Acerca de la Comunidad

The community is working with six chairpeople of The Fisherfamily Advisory Council for Tradition & Stewardship (The FACTS), under 501c3 nonprofit, Habitat Recovery Project. The chairpeople are part of a community living along the coast of Louisiana, and it is considered as a disadvantaged community according to Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST). It is currently an environmental justice zone due to the recent hotspot of industrial Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export plants and similar pollutive industries. Once known to be the seafood capital of the USA,  it faces significant challenges including declining fish stocks, habitat destruction, and the adverse effects of LNG projects. The community has multi-generational fishermen who have been on the water, learning the ecosystem intimately their whole lives.

Sobre el proyecto

The project aims to provide the FACTS  with skills necessary for qualitative questioning to produce a scientific data collection and interpretation of the BioAcoustics findings from the hydrophone data. This data is to be analyzed for an investigation of the habitat’s wellness and subsequent changes due to noise pollution. 

We are in search of a project scientist to work with the project manager and community leads to design a community report on the hydrophone findings and possible effects. 

In collaboration with Habitat Recovery Project (HRP) and The Fisherfamily Advisory Council for Tradition & Stewardship (The FACTS), the project scientist will host a virtual or in person workshop to optimize our data collection through training to the community members. These workshops will provide a background of scientific data interpretation, enhance our data collection methods, and help us hone in on our experiment’s questions and hypotheses. 

Building on their deep ecology knowledge and the co-created science data collection plan, the fishermen will collect valuable scientific data via hydrophones to investigate their concerns, namely, underwater noise pollution from industrial buildout impacting migrations and habitats of aquatic indicator species. The community scientist will assist the community members in data interpretation and in sharing the results. The project will focus on integrating their intrinsic knowledge with the practices of the scientific community. Results from the project will assist the community in communicating their findings with state authorities and federal agencies like the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

It will inform lawyers, policymakers, and regulatory bodies to form better regulations for the safety of community members’ fishing industry and heritage. Upon completion, the project will serve as a blueprint for members of the public, communities at risk, and other affected communities to empower themselves in the face of environmental changes. 

We have two hydrophones purchased to record and analyze underwater acoustic data in Cameron Parish to document the impacts of industrial noise (from LNG terminal operations, construction, and vessel traffic) and biological activity (fish, shrimp, marine mammals), utilizing traditional ecological knowledge to ensure strategic placement of the data collection tools. 

Equipment:
Aquarian A5 Hydrophone + Zoom H1essential (Community science use)

Aquarian S1e Hydrophone + Zoom F3 (High-fidelity scientific recording)

Goals:

• Detect patterns in biological activity related to shrimp and fish migration
• Correlate acoustic patterns with catch records, weather, LNG construction, and ship traffic
• Empower local fishers and youth to gather, interpret, and present data
• Have scientific reports that we can pass through to agencies and policymakers on our study

Calendario e hitos

Briefly describe any key dates or milestones (if applicable), and the intended duration of the project. Thriving Earth Exchange’s baseline is approximately 12 months. (6-18 months)

Pre-Phase (Oct 2024): Onboarding and defining project scope

Phase One: Match 

28th Dec – 15th June 2025: Call for applications for Community Scientists

June 15th  – June 30th, 2025: Interview and Matching

July 1, 2025 – Announcement of results 

Phase Two: Training and Alignment

July 1, 2025 – July 7, 2025: Project onboarding for Community Scientists and joint meeting with Community Leaders

July 7 – July 20, 2025: Planning and organizing logistics for data collection

July 20 – July 31, 2025: Hosting data collection workshops and training community members

• Designing experiments focused on water quality indicators  and monitoring the marine ecosystem
• Training focused on using certain equipment and best practices for collecting data.
• Establishing protocols for data storage and sharing

Phase Three: Data Collection

August 2025: Start collecting scientific data

August –  November 2025: Regular check-in meeting to monitor progress, 

Phase Four: Quantitative Analysis

Dec 2025: Data analysis and interpretation of results

Phase Five: Share

Throughout the project, the project team will share its updates with the community and members of the public. 

• Social media updates about the project and progress
• Interview and podcast with community scientists, community members and subject matter experts
• Report on data collection and data analysis

Project Note: 

Given the nature of this project’s facilitating organization and its community-based approach to data collection, the research is inherently hypothesis-driven, with specific anticipated outcomes. Because of this, we are seeking someone committed to upholding the highest standards of scientific integrity—someone who will ensure that the data speaks for itself. Applicants must be able to acknowledge and manage inherent biases to ensure objective analysis, rigorous science, and credible findings. Transparency will be prioritized throughout the entire research process. All collected data will be publicly accessible via a recognized repository. Additionally, all methodologies and reported findings will undergo rigorous peer review.

Contact

Líderes comunitarios

Ray and Stephney Mallet belong to a family of multigenerational fishermen and fisherwomen from Cameron, Louisiana, dedicated to preserving their fishing heritage as chairpeople of The Fisherfamily Advisory Council for Tradition & Stewardship (The FACTS) by Habitat Recovery Project. Ray highlights the challenges faced by local shrimp fishermen, stating, “Shrimp fishermen of Cameron are a dying breed.” The Mallets, like many small-scale commercial fisherfolk in Cameron, come from families with deep fishing legacies, often having little experience outside this lifestyle, and they continue to advocate for sustainable practices to protect their way of life.

Alyssa Portaro is a passionate environmental advocate and community leader. As the granddaughter of immigrants who settled in Paterson, NJ, the first planned industrial city in the USA, she is deeply connected to her roots and committed to environmental justice. Raised in a community affected by DuPont contamination, Alyssa’s journey began early in her career when she became the youngest appointed member of the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissioners. She successfully secured $300,000 in open space funds from Tennessee Gas Pipeline for her community and founded the Habitat Recovery Project (HRP) in 2018, achieving 501(c)(3) status in 2021. Her notable accomplishments include transforming a 23-acre abandoned junkyard into a wildlife sanctuary along the Delaware River, writing a comprehensive 2.2 Million Acre Conservation Plan for the Kenyan government, and establishing a sustainable trades college in Kenya. A regenerative farmer and wildlife rehabber, Alyssa has mentored over 100 beginner farmers through WWOOF and has more than 10 years of experience in renewable energy.

Iffy Roma is a dedicated project manager and production coordinator known for her holistic approach to bringing creative visions to life. With a background in social justice, theater-making, and trauma-informed embodiment facilitation, she focuses on equity, inclusion, empowerment, and sustainability. Iffy has successfully managed a variety of events, from local community gatherings to international conferences, and serves as a UN ambassador for girls’ access to education. She has over seven years of experience with Girl Be Heard, advocating for global education and empowerment. As a political theater educator, she uses storytelling to inspire social change and is involved with Little Herds, promoting the sustainability of edible insects. Iffy also serves as a curriculum consultant for the EcoSchool Kenya summer program and has experience managing the SXSW Future of Food event. She holds multiple certifications in emotional freedom techniques and youth mental health first aid.

Misha Mayeur, a New Orleans native, is a committed advocate for social and environmental justice. With deep family ties to Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, she catalogs climate and social issues through her podcast, Gulf Rising. A graduate of the University of Miami’s Communications School, Misha spent nearly a decade working in event production in Brooklyn, specializing in transmutation art, and the frontier of psychedelic medicines. In 2021, Misha’s passion for activism was ignited by the sudden and horrific loss of her father, an oil industry executive, to metastatic kidney cancer. The familiarity and commonality of this tragedy drive her to investigate and educate about Industrial Pollution in Louisiana. She looks forward to building a deeper understanding of the health of Louisiana’s systems and leading us into a more sustainable future.

Becario científico comunitario

Ananyo Bhattacharya is a Ph.D. candidate at Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is originally from the city of Vadodara, India. His primary research focuses on investigating the physical and chemical process governing planetary atmospheres, and their space environment. He has been a fellow of Entrepreneurs Leadership Program at U-M Center for Entrepreneurship where he worked on development of infant warming solutions for low resource communities. He has represented the university as a delegate to UNFCCC COP 28. As a graduate student and scientist in-training, he is interested in development of technical solutions for social impact. Through the Thriving Earth Exchange program, he seeks to learn from the community and partner with professionals to integrate scientific research into solutions for positive change. He likes reading, poetry and exploring new places.

Función científica

We are looking for an environmental scientist or bioacoustics expert to join as a Community Scientist through the American Geophysical Union Thriving Earth Exchange Program. The Community Scientist will actively engage with the Community Science Fellow, Community Leaders, and members of the Community residing in Cameron Parish, LA. The Scientist will jointly work with the Community Science Fellow and Community Leads to design a community-driven data collection plan. Throughout the project, they will assist community members in data collection and its scientific analysis and interpretation, with an end-of-project data analysis report.

We welcome applications from experienced professionals with an educational or work background related to water quality monitoring, environmental science, climate science, water pollution, marine biology, oceanography, carcinology, and large data-set analysis and interpretation. Experience with community science projects and data analysis will be strongly preferred. Due to the nature of this project, we prefer scientists who have knowledge of the local environmental challenges. Community Scientists are expected to process and analyze bioacoustic data remotely and participate in team meetings with Community Science Fellow and Community Leads.

Role and Responsibilities:

• Assist Community Leads in planning programs for participatory science training and capacity building focused on bioacoustics
• Assist Community Leads in running data collection programs and build effective pathways for communication with key stakeholders
• Inform bioacoustic data collection experiment and analyze collected data 
• Approximate time commitment: 3 hours per week

Competencias y cualificaciones deseadas:

• • Formal education and experience in one of the following areas: Environmental science, climate science, water pollution, marine biology, oceanography, carcinology, bioacoustics
  • Open-minded, dynamic, and open to building strong relationships with community members and community leaders
  • Experience with community or participatory science
  • Experience in training and capacity building
  • Understanding of and respect for the challenges that environmental justice communities encounter
  • Experience with quantitative data analysis and visualization
  • Strong collaboration skills and ability to work with diverse teams
  • Experience with BioAcoustics research and communications is a +++

Thriving Earth Exchange pide a todos los socios científicos que trabajen con la comunidad para ayudar a definir un proyecto con impacto local concreto al que puedan contribuir como voluntarios y colaboradores pro-bono. Este trabajo también puede posicionar a los científicos y las comunidades para buscar financiación adicional, juntos, para la siguiente fase.

¿Le interesa trabajar como científico voluntario? ¡Inscríbete ya!

Habitat Recovery Project (HRP) works to learn about the waters they are fishing and the life within that water.  HRP brings its focus on habitat recording and restoration to the Fishermen of Cameron Parish, LA, who will use their innate knowledge of the land to understand the quality of life for the water,  and fisheries.

The FACTS is HRP’s Fisherfamily Advisory Council for Tradition & Stewardship brings together coastal families, seafood workers, and cultural stewards to guide Habitat Recovery Project’s programs, legal strategies, and organizational practices regarding the preservation of our waters