Provocative conversation, delicious food

Niaz moved to Gloucester, Massachusetts – the oldest settled fishing port in the U.S. – in 1994 when she decided to work on fisheries issues. At the time, she was an ocean and fisheries campaigner for Greenpeace. She took on fisheries issues following her work on environmental justice issues as a Greenpeace toxics campaigner, and has been hooked ever since. She has been working with small-scale, traditional, and indigenous fishing communities in the U.S. and from around the globe ever since, advancing the rights and ecological benefits of the small-scale fishing communities as a means of protecting global marine biodiversity.

Time Magazine named Niaz as a Hero For The Planet for this work. Niaz’ work and approach have been noted in a number of books including Against the Tide; Deeper Shade of Green; The Spirit’s Terrain; Vanishing Species; The Great Gulf; Swimming in Circles; A Troublemaker’s Teaparty; Zugunruhe: The Inner Migration To Profound Environmental Change; Raising Dough: Public History and the Food Movement; The Complete Guide to Financing a Socially Responsible Food Business; Blue Urbanism: Exploring Connections Between Cities and Oceans; and, The Doryman’s Reflection.

Paul Greenberg is the New York Times bestselling author of Four Fish, American Catch, and The Omega Principle. A regular contributor to the Times and many other publications, Mr. Greenberg is the winner of a James Beard Award for Writing and Literature, a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation and the writer-in-residence at the Safina Center. He has been featured on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, TED and PBS’s Frontline.

Corey Hendricks of the Mashpee Wampanoag brings over 7 years of aquaculture experience to the Tribe’s First Light Shellfish Farm. His first experiences with shellfish farming began with his family owned and operated business which he helped grow into one of the top quality oyster growers in the Cape Cod area
beginning at age 18.

In 2013, Corey gained more experience working for the Aquacultural Research Corporation (ARC) where he worked as a field-technician for one year, quickly moving into the position of Farm Manager in 2014. In addition, he has worked throughout the Cape Cod area in various wild oyster and quahog markets giving him shellfish management experience in different aquatic environments.

Corey has a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Safety and Environmental Protection including a concentration in Marine Biology from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and certifications in Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points management (HACCP) and ServSafe.

Dr. Jensen is an Associate Professor at the Rutgers University Department of Marine & Coastal Sciences and Director of the Center for Fisheries & Ocean Sustainability. His research focuses on understanding the combination of human and ecological factors that contribute to sustainability of marine and freshwater fisheries. Dr. Jensen has conducted field research on fisheries around the U.S. and has ongoing projects in Mexico and Mongolia. He has published more than 90 peer-reviewed studies in scientific journals. Recent work in Dr. Jensen’s lab has demonstrated that ocean warming has already reduced the capacity of the world’s marine fisheries to support sustainable harvest. He obtained his Ph.D. in 2007 from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Karen was inspired to be a Marine Biologist while watching the “Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau” on television when she was twelve. She graduated from Southampton College. LIU in 1981 with a degree in Marine Science.

She began working at the Shinnecock Tribe Oyster Project in 1983 as a Research Technician for Dr. Robert Malouf, MSRC, SUNY Stony Brook. That is where Karen fell in love with shellfish farming. She has worked in commercial hatcheries, including the Bluepoints Company hatchery, in West Sayville as well as the Shinnecock hatchery.

She is president of Aeros Cultured Oyster Company, Inc., a company she and her business partner, Jim Markow began in 1994 as a hatchery in the basement of his house. She moved the hatchery to Shellfisher Preserve, a Peconic Land Trust property, in Southold in 2004 after setting up the Noank Cooperative hatchery in Noank, CT.

She is a founding member of the Noank Aquaculture Cooperative (2000), East End Marine Farmers Association (2001) and the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association (2002). She is the current president of the Long Island Farm Bureau.

She was drawn to shellfish mariculture because it is very satisfying to produce something she has grown from a fertilized egg. She also hopes that this work will help make the Long Island Estuaries she works in more productive.