People We Adore: Sarah Ecolano

A: Copper River Fish Market is a fisher(wo)man founded, mission-driven seafood boutique located in remote Alaska and a trusted direct-source for professional chefs and home cooks across the nation seeking premium-grade, origin-guaranteed seafood that has been produced in alignment with their ideals.

Having been raised in a generational small-boat fishing family, I was growing increasingly disappointed in the many falsehoods in markets and on menus that I witnessed and the general confusion and shady tactics of the industrial food system that was doing an injustice to both fishers and seafood lovers.

Happily, with the founding of CRFM I am working to mend a broken system. We bridge the gap between boat and plate by taking out the middle man, providing a direct connection to the ocean, and responsibly managing every part of the process.

We promote coastal resilience and the empowerment of independent small-boat fishing families who harvest fish with eco-aware catch methods.

Seafood is one of the last wild-sourced proteins regularly eaten on our planet. Wild fish populations have the important distinction of not being owned or controlled by just a few powerful corporations- unlike most of the other food sources we rely on today.

A healthy ocean that is filled with fish is like a seed bank for the future. Preserving the genetic diversity of wild fish populations is vitally important to food security and enables our oceans to continue to be an abundant source of food even as environmental change accelerates.

Many of the same issues that have resulted in the loss of independent family farms across the US are now affecting independent small-boat fishing families. Understanding the story behind the seafood on your plate is now more important than ever.

Where and how seafood is produced has a huge impact on both the health of our planet and the health of the individual eating it. Purchasing seafood directly from a fishing family or as close to the source as possible casts a vote for the future health of our oceans.

A: My superpower? Perhaps resiliency. Perhaps determination. Perhaps not giving a F*ck at precisely the right time, either by chance or intent. Doing something differently seems to always be met with scepticism and dismissal.

Having a mission-driven, fisher(wo)man owned business amongst a marketplace dominated by male energy and corporate behemoths has presented some pretty big challenges through the years.

My determination and resolve has continued to serve me and even increased in recent years. Feeding people nutritious and pure food has and always will be very important to me and what keeps me going.

A: Not surprisingly, I go to the ocean. Crashing waves and windswept coastlines devoid of human footprints really calms and centers me. Alone time is my happy place. I walk, breathe and listen and afterwards always feel better than I did at the outset.

A: I feel like my perception of life is rooted in my third eye chakra. I tend to see the big picture overview of situations and be aware of how my personal and business actions impact both people and planet. Which keeps me doing good things.

But on the flip side I can also be a bit overly contemplative and idealistic in my approach to what should be a simple action to take. My throat chakra needs some strengthening. I'd like to speak out with less hesitation when I'm feeling fairly certain I have something of value to contribute to the conversation but still for some reason I hold back. For sure, I'm still a work in progress.

We can't wait to share Laura's live interview with Sarah- check it out here.