With support from the Julia R. Brown Education and Research Fund, MAS Marine Biodiversity and Conservation student Nathan Huynh traveled to Hua Hin, Thailand, to attend the 5th World Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF) Congress as part of his capstone project at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. There, he supported interactive education activities with Coast 2 Coast Movement and gathered survey responses and conversations to better understand how climate change, economic pressures, and access to opportunity are shaping young people’s futures in small-scale fisheries. The experience deepened Nathan’s commitment to education, storytelling, and community-centered climate adaptation work.
As a kid, the Olympics were always “the big event” for me. There is nothing more glorious than watching the top athletes in the world compete for country pride, honor, and glory. Naturally, I dreamed of competing one day. Maybe I would break Usain Bolt’s running record, although my elementary school recess races proved that goal to be deeply unrealistic. Maybe Olympic tetherball? I probably had the best chance there, but unfortunately, it has yet to be included as an event.
My dreams of becoming a globally recognized athlete slowly faded until this past year. Never did I think I would find myself in an Olympic event of my own.
It was not the Olympics, but it felt like the Olympics of the small-scale fisheries world.
With support from the Julia R. Brown Education and Research Fund, I attended the 5th World Small-Scale Fisheries Congress in Hua Hin, Thailand, as part of my capstone project for the Master of Advanced Studies in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation program at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The Congress brought together fishers, researchers, educators, policymakers, organizers, artists, and community leaders from around the world to discuss the future of small-scale fisheries. This year’s themes, Just Harmony, Regenerative Wisdom, and Young Futures, are directly connected to my capstone research on youth engagement, climate adaptation, and small-scale fisheries education.
For the Master’s program, I am partnering with Coast 2 Coast Movement, an organization that uses ocean education, storytelling, and experiential learning to support youth and coastal communities. One of Coast 2 Coast’s major projects is the Small-Scale Fisheries Curriculum, which helps translate the FAO Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines into educational tools for fishing communities around the world. These Guidelines are important because they address core issues such as sustainable resource management, gender equity, food security, decent work, and climate resilience. However, this 500-page technical document can be quite intimidating. My role has been to think about how these ideas can become more accessible.
At the Congress, I supported Coast 2 Coast in showcasing several curriculum activities with participants. These included an activity comparing industrial and small-scale fishing, a “lines of communication” activity exploring relationships between actors in fisheries systems, and creative exercises that invited participants to move between imagination and reality when thinking about fisheries futures. These moments reminded me that education does not need to feel like a lecture to be meaningful. Sometimes learning happens simply through play and storytelling (and chocolate coins).
The Congress also served as the major research component for my capstone. I conducted surveys and informal conversations with people working across fisheries, conservation, education, policy, and community organizing. My goal was to understand how adults who work adjacent to youth are thinking about young people’s futures in small-scale fisheries. The responses helped me identify several recurring themes: youth are often not disengaged because they do not care, but because they may feel economically unstable, socially undervalued, politically inaccessible, or lacking visible pathways for the future. People named climate change, declining resources, limited decision-making power, lack of mentorship, and youth migration as major barriers.
This was one of the most striking parts of the experience for me. Across countries and contexts, many communities were facing similar questions: Who will continue this work? How do we make fisheries feel like a future, not just a past? How do young people stay connected to place when climate change and economic pressure are changing the conditions around them?
Before attending the Congress, I understood climate adaptation mostly as something tied to ecosystems, infrastructure, and policy. After attending, I see adaptation as deeply intergenerational. Climate change is not only shifting fish populations or intensifying environmental pressures, but it is also changing whether young people can imagine a life connected to fishing, food systems, and coastal or inland waters. My main takeaway is that adaptation is relational.
Professionally, this experience was a fully immersive introduction into the kind of work I want to keep pursuing. I want to live in the space between education and community connection. I want to help turn concepts into experiences that people can understand. Attending the Congress gave me the chance to meet some of the “Olympians” of small-scale fisheries: people who have spent decades fighting for recognition, rights, and sustainability in their communities. Hearing their stories reminded me that this work is not fast. It is built through relationships.
The survey data and conversations from the Congress will help inform a youth futures workshop for global educators in Lima, Peru, later this year. This workshop will focus on how educators and community partners can better support youth engagement across small-scale fisheries and related sectors like food systems, agriculture, conservation, and climate adaptation.
The “deliverables” connected to this funded activity include my World SSF Congress youth futures survey, two zine prototypes introducing small-scale fisheries themes to different audiences, and a developing workshop framework for the Peru conference.
I went to Thailand hoping to learn more about small-scale fisheries, and I left understanding that small-scale fisheries are not small at all. They hold family histories, climate realities, and future dreams all at once.
Blog content and images provided by Nathan Huynh – thank you!