Adapting to the Next Generation Working Waterfront: The Ventura Shellfish Enterprise Project with Ev Ashworth

July 21, 2021

VSE and the future of the American Shoreline

On this episode, hosts Peter Ravella and Tyler Buckingham explore Ventura Harbor, a small working harbor in Southern California. Joining the show is Ev Ashworth, a local leader who serves on the Harbor Board and has championed the Ventura Shellfish Enterprise (VSE) project, a comprehensive effort to bring long line mussel aquaculture to the Santa Barbara Channel. Come along as we explore the vision of this project and discuss the obstacles that are currently standing in the way of it moving forward. Are projects like the VSE a part of the future of the American Shoreline's small ports and harbors? Find out, only on ASPN!


Show Transcription
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Peter Ravella & Tyler Buckingham

Peter and Tyler joined forces in 2015 and from the first meeting began discussing a project that would become Coastal News Today and the American Shoreline Podcast Network. At the time, Peter and Tyler were coastal consultants for Pete’s firm, PAR Consulting, LLC. In that role, they worked with coastal communities in Texas, Florida, and North Carolina, engaged in grant writing, coastal project development, shoreline erosion and land use planning, permitting, and financial planning for communities undertaking big beach restoration projects. Between and among their consulting tasks, they kept talking and kept building the idea of CNT & ASPN. In almost every arena they worked, public engagement played a central role. They spent thousands of hours talking with coastal stakeholders, like business owners, hotel operators, condo managers, watermen, property owners, enviros, surfers, and fishermen. They dived deep into the value, meaning, and responsibility for the American shoreline, segment-by-segment. Common threads emerged, themes were revealed, differences uncovered. There was a big conversation going on along the American shoreline! But, no place to have it. That's where CNT and ASPN were born.