Bren Smith

Oceans

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• http://www.thimbleislandoysters.com/

Overview

Bren Smith is the owner of Long Island Sound’s first vertical ocean farm. Called a “visionary” by Barton Seaver, Director of Harvard’s Healthy and Sustainable Food Program, Bren has pioneered the development of sustainable ocean 3-D farming – the vertical cultivation of seaweed and shellfish in local waters. Smith’s farm is designed to restore ocean ecosystems, mitigate climate change, and create blue-green jobs for fishermen — while ensuring healthy, local food for communities. In 2013, Smith was chosen as one of six “Ocean Heroes” by Oceana and Future of Fish’s “Ocean Entrepreneur” of the year. [To learn more about the future of ocean farming, read Smith's oped published in National Geographic’s Ocean Voices series or the New Yorker Magazine profile.] Over the years, Smith has worked a wide array of jobs in the commercial fisheries, ranging from longlining for McDonald’s on the Bering Sea and “sliming” in the canneries of Bristol Bay, Alaska to lobstering in Lynn, Massachusetts and aquaculture farming in Newfoundland, Canada. [Read Bren's reflections on his work or a Fish Choice's profile of Bren] In 2012 Smith was asked to join the Young Climate Leaders Network, a program supporting 25 young “innovative leaders and visionaries, including many who operate largely outside of the traditional environmental community working for climate solutions.”