Our partner: Chris Brown

Chris Brown was just eight years old when he first went to sea in the 1960s, fishing with his grandfather.

He was allowed to pilot the vessel home while his grandfather made sketches of the Rhode Island shoreline.

“It was a thrill to feel the power of the boat,” he says.

A fisherman's story

Now a commercial fisherman himself, Brown, 53, has witnessed the sharp decline in the New England fishery and the toll on coastal communities.

“Thirty years ago, we thought the resource was inexhaustible,” Brown says. “We fished in ways I’m not proud of. I’d like to make it right for the next generation.”

Working with scientists and other fishermen, Brown has been a leading advocate for a new management system called catch shares, which taps the market to give fishermen control of their destiny.

“I’m a businessman,” he says. “I’m concerned about my inventory. To heal the ocean, we all need to pull together and start acting like a community again.”