Date of Award

Summer 8-5-2025

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Open-Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Marine Policy

First Committee Advisor

Hillary Smith

Second Committee Member

Joshua Stoll

Third Committee Member

Caroline Ferguson Irlanda

Abstract

Access has long been understood as a critical component of seafood systems in the United States (U.S.), affecting harvesters’ ability to catch and land seafood, supply chain actors’ ability to process, store, distribute, and market seafood, and consumers’ ability to acquire, prepare, and consume seafood. However, much of the focus on access has centered around harvesters’ formal fishing privileges on the water, as opposed to other mechanisms that enable people to maintain, control, or lose access to seafood throughout the food system. In contrast to this, recent food systems approaches acknowledge the influence of various environmental, political, and social factors on the ability to access food at various points in the supply chain, from production to consumption (HLPE, 2017). To address this gap, I investigated access issues in U.S. seafood systems at both a national and local scale, from harvest to consumption. First, I conducted a systematic review of fisheries literature related to access issues in the U.S using the theory of access (2003), a social science theory developed by Nancy Peluso and Jesse Ribot that brings attention to the diverse mechanisms that shape people's connections to natural resources and the benefits they derive from them. Drawing on Ribot and Peluso’s theory of access (2003), I characterized common mechanisms enabling or constraining access, as well as they types of access (e.g., gaining, maintaining, controlling, marginalized), and who benefitted at different stages of the food system (e.g., in harvest, post-harvest, consumption). My results demonstrated that access issues occur across all points in the seafood system among a wide range of actors and access mechanisms, yet explicit engagement with the theory of access was rare, demonstrating that future research on access in U.S. seafood systems would benefit from interdisciplinary approaches.

To examine access at a local scale, I then conducted a case study of seafood access for food insecure people in southern Maine. Maine provided an ideal context for examining seafood access due to the state’s high seafood production rates, established seafood sector, and high rates of food insecurity. Given the multiple nutritional benefits of seafood, including protein, omega-3 fatty acids, and essential vitamins and minerals (Bennett et al., 2018), food insecure consumers could benefit greatly from increased access to seafood, but despite this potential benefit, seafood is understudied in food security research (Simmance et al., 2022). I utilized diverse economies (Gibson-Graham, 1996; 2008) an approach rooted in economic geography, to examine seafood access through a semi-structured survey of 16 food assistance programs. Seafood was distributed through two primary routes: a federal surplus commodity program that sourced domestic seafood and a non-profit run seafood donation program that sourced local seafood in partnership with Maine fishermen. A diverse range of economic enterprises and practices formed a network of support in this system, suggesting that food assistance programs within the so-called “charitable food system” are composed of diverse enterprises, transactions, property, and finance mechanisms that overlap with the conventional for-profit food system. The results of these two projects suggest that the ability to benefit from seafood, both as a harvester and after harvest, depends on a wide variety of access mechanisms, including knowledge, social relations, cultural identity, and access to capital. Furthermore, the ability of food insecure consumers to benefit from seafood is enabled by a diverse range of food assistance programs and other enterprises utilizing diverse transactions, notions of property, and finance schemes to facilitate access. The diverse economic practices in this food assistance network also pose unique barriers to access however, including access to consistent sources of funding. Future research should examine more closely barriers and pathways to food insecure and marginalized consumers accessing seafood, such as unhoused consumers who may benefit greatly from access to nutrient-dense and protein-rich seafoods, as well as strategies for addressing seafood waste and loss simultaneously with food security. Finally, in light of recent federal funding cuts and administrative priority changes, future research should highlight success stories of networks and initiatives enabling access to seafood in order to document the positive impacts of policies or programs that support increased consumption of U.S.-produced seafood to strengthen local seafood economies and livelihoods, increase consistent and equitable access to seafood for all, and increase food security nationwide.

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