Our Approach
Our Mission
We empower rural and Native fishermen in Southeast Alaska to access, use, steward, and invest in fisheries resources that benefit their communities.
Our Vision
The lands and waters of Southeast Alaska are healthy and abundant, stewarded by the people who know them best. Customary and traditional relationships with fish, forest, and sea are central to who we are. Tribes hold sovereignty over the data, decisions, and future of their ancestral territories. Our economy is circular and regenerative: the value of our harvest stays home, renewable energy powers every village, and seafood feeds our communities before it feeds anyone else. We measure success on our own terms, with future generations in mind.
Our Values
❋ Collective strength
We, not me
We believe that our power lies in being together. By acting collectively, sharing ownership, and making decisions by consensus, we create something none of us could achieve alone.
❋ ResilienceLike water — yielding, enduring, shaping
We persist. Challenges are met with humility and humor, knowing that our existence and continuity matter. Like water, we do not force — we adapt, find the path forward, and keep going. Resilience is not just toughness; it is the wisdom to bend without breaking.
❋ Governance at every scale
Power distributed, voices heard
Good governance lives at multiple levels — from the bioregion to the community to the individual fisherman. Those who live with the consequences of decisions must have a say in making them. We honour Indigenous knowledge and sovereignty, and actively create the conditions for local voices, including fishermen themselves, to shape the systems they depend on.
❋ Cultural reverence
Fish and fishing mean more than markets
Fish and fishing carry meaning far beyond economic value — they are identity, tradition, memory, and livelihood. We recognise and protect the diverse ways communities understand and relate to fish. Preserving culture is not nostalgia; it is an act of justice and a foundation for the future.
❋ Care and responsibility
Stewards of people and place
We are committed to the wellbeing of our communities, our waters, and the fish themselves — not as separate concerns but as one. Stewardship means showing up with care and accountability over the long haul. Food sovereignty, sustainability, and deep commitment to place are how that care becomes action.
Our Strategy: Create the first Regional Community Quota Entity
Our main strategy to advance our mission is to move Pacific halibut Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) into rural and Native communities through the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Community Quota Entity (CQE) program. This program was introduced in 2003 to allow 42 eligible communities in the Gulf of Alaska (under 1,500 people, not connected by road to a community over 1,500, and dependent on fisheries) to form a non-profit (a CQE) that, if approved, can purchase halibut IFQ for permanent and exclusive use by full-time residents. While the CQE program was designed to create greater access for communities, over the past two decades, the high cost of halibut IFQ and administrative burden of setting up and running a nonprofit has limited its success. In order to overcome these barriers, SVFC adapted the model to a Regional CQE, in which four Regional Partners (Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust, Spruce Root, Sealaska Corporation, and the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska) collaborate with participating communities to share the administrative burden and advance collective goals. In December 2025, NMFS approved SVFC as the first Regional CQE signalling their confidence in the model.