2025 Year in Review: Feeding Community, Strengthening Hope

By Melissa Mahoney, December 8, 2025

Get Hooked Dinner at Madson Wines

As 2025 comes to a close, we find ourselves reflecting on a year marked by challenges, resilience, and perseverance across our Monterey Bay fishing community. This has been a year when the strength of our fishermen, families, local businesses, and partners was tested—and a year when we showed what it means to care for one another through celebrating and sharing local bounty with each other and our neighbors facing food insecurity. If you donated to our Week of Seafood Giving or joined us for one of our Get Hooked dinners, you definitely showed up for this community!

Keeping Local Fish on Local Plates.
Through the Community Seafood Program, together with our partners we delivered nearly 10 thousand pounds of sustainably harvested local seafood - over 25,000 seafood meals - to food banks across Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. This small but important local supply chain directly supports Monterey Bay fishermen and seafood businesses while providing nutritious local food to our neighbors. We welcomed Grey Bears, a nonprofit serving seniors in Santa Cruz county, to the program. With your support, we will continue to grow our impact!

MBFT and fishermen meeting with Congressman Jimmy Panetta

Lifting Up Fishermen’s Voices.
We convened community meetings with local, state, and federal leaders, like US Congressman Jimmy Panetta—creating space for fishermen to speak directly about challenges and solutions, such as funding for required gear modifications. Fishermen connected directly with seafood lovers over six Get Hooked dinners, aimed at bringing them closer together with chefs and the people in our region who love and appreciate local seafood. 

Strengthening our Working Waterfronts.
From Future of Blue planning to collaborative problem-solving with harbor partners, we made real strides by engaging stakeholders and county leaders to consider what a thriving fishing community could look like. With support from various funders, we developed an in-depth socioeconomic research project to better understand key trends in our fishery. The upcoming report, expected to be completed in spring 2026, will help the community create a vision for a more resilient local seafood economy. This includes ensuring that small-boat fishermen can thrive, expanding workforce and economic development, and positioning our region as a national model for community-led fishery stewardship. 

Graphic created from Future of Blue roundtable discussion by Trent Wakenight of markerninja.com

Chef Jonny Black and Adam Alioti from Chez Noir

Supporting Innovation and Education.
Workshops, trainings, and science updates helped fishermen navigate the myriad of state and federal regulations, conservation policies (such as 30x30 California), and evolving market conditions. We forged new connections among fishermen, chefs, educators, and consumers, ensuring the story of Monterey Bay’s seafood and fishing heritage remains vibrant and compelling. Additionally, we provided a $1,000 scholarship for one individual to attend the MREP workshop in La Jolla. 

Challenges We Faced—Together

Our fishing community continues to shoulder heavy burdens:

• Unpredictable seasons and closures of key species like salmon and Dungeness crab, driven by unfavorable state river policy and climate change, respectively.

• Shifting and shrinking markets, as often unregulated global seafood imports undercut local prices.

• Rising costs for fuel, gear, insurance, and dock space, making it harder for small businesses to stay afloat.

Despite these pressures, our community refused to give in. We adapted, we shared, we leaned on one another—and we kept going. Together, we met our goal of providing at least 25,000 seafood meals to our community!

We’re Creating Hope, One Meal at a Time

Increased demand on local food banks, where more families than ever needed help putting fresh, healthy food on the table, while federal relief funding has declined. If there’s one lesson from 2025, it’s that feeding each other builds more than nourishment. It builds trust. It builds resilience. It builds hope.

We strengthen the fabric of a working waterfront that has sustained Monterey Bay for generations…

Every time a fisherman offloads sustainably caught rockfish, blackcod, or grenadier, that becomes a meal for a family in need.

Every time a donor gives to help keep local seafood programs strong.

MBFT Team

Every time a community member chooses local over imported seafood.
The path ahead won’t be easy—but it is possible. And with this community, it’s something to look forward to.

Thank you for being part of this year’s journey—your partnership, generosity, sponsorship, and heart are what make the Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust more than an organization. You make us a community powered by purpose, possibility, and hope.

Here’s to a bright and resilient 2026.