Celebrating WATCH with Safe Shellfish Solutions – FNHA
February 19, 2025
Participants at Deep Bay were treated to a pit cook and a wealth of traditional foods.
Over 100 people gathered at Vancouver Island University’s Deep Bay Marine Field Station in late November 2024 to celebrate the conclusion of the We All Take Care of the Harvest (WATCH) pilot project and consider next steps.
The WATCH project began in early 2021 when four First Nations communities, in collaboration with the FNHA, began designing the seafood and climate change pilot project.
WATCH focused on two areas:
- creation of monitoring programs to protect communities from toxins in shellfish from harmful algae/phytoplankton; and,
- learn about climate-related risks to marine foods and the coastal communities that harvest them.
By Spring 2023, a second cohort of communities had joined the project, and the WATCH network grew to more than 100 people representing at least 75 First Nations, federal, provincial, local government, academic, non-profit, international, and partnership groups.
