Dynamics of Change, Relationships, and Industry; Point Judith Pond Oyster Farmers’ Reflections | LSI '23

This post is part of Elizabeth Chiver’s 2023 Lazarus Summer Internship.

I grew up with four brothers in Rhode Island, where we were raised by two distinctively wise parents who loved teaching us. One central part of this education-rich upbringing was the way we explored and strengthened the capacity to sustain ourselves and others using the land and sea surrounding our home. We dug, weeded, raked, fed, harvested, and caught in the blooming backyard, shallow salt ponds, messy coops, and open ocean that I call home. It was a vein of my life that so wholly centered a meaningful ethos and community. Ths vein is even more present in the experiences of my father and many of his friends, who engage with these practices on an industry level. The understandings and ways of learning cultivated by growing up in this context have been deeply defining to my personhood and perspective. When I was offered the opportunity to delve into a food-related topic for my independent project, I knew I wanted to return to my home state and communities, centering the breadth of experience, knowledge, and sovereignty that food producers in the area possess. One industry that particularly interested me was the oyster aquaculture industry, which is blossoming, sustainable, and local in ways inherent to its product and contexts. I decided to conduct interviews with oyster farmers who work in the Point Judith Salt Pond and ended up centering three–Chris Morris, Harvey Cataldo, and Mick Chivers–who all share common connections. I wanted this to be guided by their voices and reflections, rather than preconceived vision, so my research question was loose, asking “what are the defining practices and economics of Southern Rhode Island’s oyster aquaculture?” 

I headed to the salt pond a few times, each day with a list of questions and an open mind. Standing on the docks, we looked over the gear and bags as each of the interviewees reflected broadly on their skills, contexts, and work. The focus shifted; as I conducted my interviews with these farmers, I noticed the topics that kept cropping up and the threads that connected them to one another. I was left with hours of recorded interviews rich with parallels and intersections going far deeper and beyond just “defining practices and economics.” Those were certainly central aspects of the conversation, but I noticed that the reflections and memories shared in the interviews were defined by three core dynamics – change, relationships, and industry. Further, one relationship in particular stuck out as a root for each person’s connection to the work – that with brother, fisherman, mentor, and lifelong Rhode Islander Tom Hoxsie, who passed away in 2021. With this in mind, I opted to write an account of what was pertinent and omnipresent throughout these interviews, with the aim of highlighting the knowledge and recollections of these three different individuals, with their varied positionalities and perspectives.

My final project takes the form of a written piece. On an academic level, it provided me an opportunity to attempt new ways of learning and sharing information in a way that was true to the interviewees that first held and shared it. The project involved learning to utilize new technology, conducting dynamic interviews, responding to a depth of information, and synthesizing different but overlapping voices into an informative, truthful piece. The material and experience garnered throughout this project is thanks to the farmers who shared their labor and minds with me and my Sony recorder. The gift of their rich voices enables so much further thought on what the food and fishing industry looks like, particularly at this personal scale. It is clear that relationships to land and sustenance (of self, of community, of climate) are vital ones, as seen in their experiences, in my childhood, and wherever people grow and eat. 

This writing is linked here (in progress). It centers the knowledge and memory expressed by these farmers, with the aim of accurately recording these practitioners' reflections on their defining practices and experiences of the industry, one which lends itself well to sustainability, growth, and small-scale ownership.

Additionally, the slides I used for my presentation are linked here.

GFF Grace Cajski Explains Her Project that Explores Hawaiian Fishpond Aquaculture

Grace Cajski was a 2021 Global Food Fellow. To learn more about the Yale Sustainable Food Program’s Global Food Fellowships, please visit this page.

Growing up in New Orleans, I loved going to the water with my father. We’d kayak. We walked along the bayous and boated across the lake. My father is from Oʻahu, and, in the summer, we’d go back to his childhood home. There, we sailed, explored, and visited with family and friends. One of whom was Vernon Sato, my father’s old neighbor. He was a phycologist and aquaculturist. In his retirement, he wrote a book about Moliʻi fishpond, an ancient Hawaiian fishpond. Sometimes, he’d take us there. 

Nine hundred years ago, the Hawaiian population was growing into the hundreds of thousands. They invented fishponds, loko iʻa, to feed their community. It was the first aquaculture system in the Pacific Rim. Chiefs, or aliʻi, designated a kiaʻi loko to care for and operate the fishpond. Caring for a fishpond was an art, and the knowledge it took to understand the pond and its creatures required years of apprenticeship. When the West colonized, when it forbade most Hawaiian practices and converted communal land into private property, this artistry was lost. 

In the past fifty years, nonprofits and community groups have been working to revive fishponds. They have removed invasive mangroves and rebuilt the kuapā. Now, they are contending with problems like pollution and invasive species. Additionally, the aquaculturists who operated the ponds a generation ago are aging, and their knowledge will soon be lost.

If these problems can be resolved, fishponds could salvage Hawaii’s ecosystems. And, they could help solve the anthropocene's defining problems: resource scarcity, ecosystem decay, and climate change. 

During my gap year, I became fascinated with fishponds. Particularly, I reflected on how humans know the natural world: I realized that we know it through work, and that the food chain is what fundamentally connects us to the ecosystem. Beyond observing nature, sustainable food systems are how humans play a role within the environment and are part of natural ecosystems. 

I wondered, how are ancient Hawaiian aquaculture practices relevant to solving the environmental and social issues associated with the anthropocene today? Who are the figures behind this movement? And, can these revived practices inform other aquaculture projects? 

During April of 2021, I received a Global Food Fellowship from the Yale Sustainable Food Program to write about the fishponds and the community around them. I hoped to delve into the aquaculturists' stories and their work. I planned to bring their philosophies and knowledge to a wide audience with my writing. Through my project, I also planned to explore solutions, illuminate challenges, and celebrate Hawaiian culture. 

I embarked on my project in June of 2021: I spent thirty-five days on Oʻahu and spoke with more than forty fishpond caretakers, scientists, nonprofit leaders, civil servants, community members, conservationists, and educators. I visited fishponds, aquaculture facilities, and nonprofit offices. I snorkeled in search of seaweed, and I removed mangroves from a fishpond. I typed transcripts of my interviews with elders and fishpond leaders, and sent them to the University of Hawaii's Center for Oral History. 

​​I am grateful to have had the opportunity to witness and take part in such work, as well as to have connected with so many inspiring figures. I am humbled by the privilege of hearing their stories, and telling them.

To learn more about my research, you can read my article about fishpond aquaculture for ECO Magazine here, and you can read my blog post for the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication about how climate change is threatening fishponds here. I have work forthcoming in Oceanographic Magazine, and I will be presenting the project at the American Geophysical Union Fall 2021 Conference. 

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This project was also supported by the Yale Law School’s Law, Ethics & Animals Program (LEAP), the Yale Environmental Humanities Program, and the Yale Summer Journalism Fellowship.