‘We’re doing this work for each other’

Amid the difficult days of the coronavirus pandemic, as Fort Bragg’s tourism-centric economy took a sudden hit, a group of locals came up with an idea for a brighter future. This small town of 7,000 sits along Northern California’s rugged coastline, a location that has yielded a long and intimate relationship with the ocean. That relationship, locals realized, could be the key to the city’s future, too: Smart investments might bring sustainable, ocean-focused industries to town.

California Sea Grant helped the city organize a two-day symposium focused on the “blue economy.” That event yielded the Noyo Ocean Collective, a collaboration between several organizations aiming to foster economic innovation around Fort Bragg. Soon ideas and questions piled up: Can the harbor be made more accessible? What small investments, like an ice machine, might improve the prospects of local commercial fishermen?

It became clear that the collective could use help making these ambitious ideas a reality. So locals again partnered with California Sea Grant to appoint a Coastal Mendocino Extension Fellow — a paid fellowship funded by both the city and California Sea Grant’s extension team. 

Setting the baseline

Jami Miller arrived in Fort Bragg in late 2023, soon after completing her master’s degree in marine affairs at the University of Rhode Island. Almost immediately, she dove into the technical research crucial for finalizing the city's plan for its future economy.

That’s meant gathering lots of baseline information about the region, “whether it’s environmental, social, economic, cultural — all of it,” Miller says. Working with the same consultants as the surrounding county, for example, the collective is completing a sea-level rise analysis that will help clarify where along the coastline it makes sense to invest in revitalization. The findings will inform the Noyo Harbor Blue Economy Visioning, Resiliency and Implementation Plan, a comprehensive blueprint, which should be completed by the end of this year.

Miller explains that the collective is exploring initiatives in several key categories like supporting sustainable fisheries and the existing commercial fleet, exploring blue tech innovations like technologies for carbon sequestration and water quality improvement, preserving public coastal access and building climate resiliency through projects like local dune restoration. 

Exploring aquaculture

She is particularly focused on aquaculture and its economic promise. To test the industry's local feasibility, in January Miller placed four cages into the Noyo River. One basket holds purple urchins, one contains red abalone and two feature Pacific oysters. The idea is to test how suited these species are for local production.

These candidates were carefully considered. Oysters are perhaps the best-established aquaculture species in California; there are potential markets for both full-grown oysters, sold for consumption, and seed oysters sold to other aquaculture farms. Recreational harvest of abalone, meanwhile, once thrived in Fort Bragg, before it was shut down over concerns about population declines. Farmed abalone could provide an alternate supply. And California Sea Grant is already working with the Noyo Center for Marine Science to develop an urchin “ranching” program meant to develop uni, the edible portion of the spiny sea urchin that can sell for as much as $450 a pound. Because the ranched urchins are pulled from the wild, the program also addresses overpopulation issues.

The baskets are hitched to a floating dock owned by the Noyo Center, an educational nonprofit that opened in 2015. Miller is already tracking water quality data — water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH and chlorophyll-a — using sensors from the water resources management firm Lake Tech, which is partnering with the city and managing the equipment. Miller plans to monitor the baskets for ten months to see how each species fares. The sensors, meanwhile, will help reveal where in the harbor aquaculture might fare best. "All that information will allow us to flesh out what the operational aspects of local aquaculture would look like," Miller says.

The city of Fort Bragg and the Noyo Center have also purchased some sensors of their own, which have been placed at three other sites — providing information that could allow aquaculture to expand. The data, updated hourly, is publicly accessible online. These sensors are also helping build local capacity: Rather than relying on LakeTech to install and maintain the equipment, as at the floating dock, it’s the project team members — Miller and staff at the Noyo Center — who are taking charge at these sites. The team is encouraging interested community members to get involved with this data-collection process, too.

Connecting with community

This fits Miller’s second major focus in the role: community engagement.

“It’s important we not only understand what’s possible technically but also what the community wants to prioritize,” Miller notes. To find out, Miller worked with the city, and in particular economic development manager Sarah McCormick, to host a summertime screening of Jaws in collaboration with the Larry Spring Museum; before the film began, the pair briefly explained the projects. The impressive turnout inspired a trivia night at a local brewery. “It’s about just being there, in community, and answering questions,” Miller says.

The collective's outreach extends into education as well. Miller is helping develop internship programs and organizing high school field trips to connect local students with marine science opportunities in their backyard. “That's a big aspect of the blue economy,” Miller notes, highlighting how building local capacity and expertise are crucial for the initiative's long-term success.

That close-knit community spirit extends to Miller's personal life as well. She's taken up diving, joining the ranks of Fort Bragg residents who regularly explore the rich marine environment they're working to sustain. After a year in Fort Bragg, what stands out most to her isn't just the technical achievements, but the relationships being built.

"You see everyone at the grocery store, at the gym," she says. "We're doing this work for each other, which makes it extra special." It's a sentiment that captures the essence of Fort Bragg's blue economy initiative – a future built not just on sustainable ocean industries, but on the connections between the people working to create them.