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CFCRI
  • Home
  • About
  • Initiatives
    • Apprenticeship
    • Fish Forward
    • Offshore Wind
    • Seafood Donation Program
    • COVID-19 Resources
    • Industry List-serv
  • Blog
  • Videos
  • Calendar
  • Industry Updates

Fish Forward

Free one-on-one business support to help your business thrive

Are you a fisherman/business in the Fishing Industry?  
Do you have questions about:  
  • Financial Planning 
    • ​​capitol construction
  • ​Loan Application Preparation
  • Accounting & Bookkeeping
  • Tax and Retirement Planning
  • Vessel Insurance
  • Electronic and Integrated Monitoring
  • Licensing & Permitting
  • Legal Clinic
    • Corporate Structuring
  • Expanding Access to Markets
  • Marketing
    • Social Media
    • Website Building 
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Are you a business in the seafood restaurant/retail industry? 
​Do you have questions about:  
  • Seafood sustainability
  • Local seafood seasonality
  • Rhode Island seafood and fisheries
  • Local seafood focused staff training
  • Diversifying menus/ markets
  • Marketing of local seafood species
  • Creating an educational dining or shopping experience for your customers (local seafood focused)
  • Sourcing local seafood
  • Underutilized species
  • Maintaining quality in seafood
If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, now is the time to take advantage of the free and confidential business support offered through the Fish Forward Project.   
Request Business Support
Clicking the "Request Business Support" button above will take you to the Rhode Island Small Business Development Center website to register for business support. 

About the Project

Rhode Island’s seafood sector has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. But this crisis has also opened new innovations and opportunities. The Commercial Fisheries Center of Rhode Island (CFCRI) has partnered with the Rhode Island Small Business Development Center (RISBDC) to provide free consulting to fishermen and seafood businesses. Known as “Fish Forward”, this new program has been established to help the community recover and then thrive in the long-term.  All services being offered are free and confidential and are informed by the needs of the sector. They include monthly webinars; a free legal clinic; a blog about the latest goings-on; and one-on-one counseling that can cover a range of needs, like identifying and connecting with new markets, building a web presence, accounting advice, and licensing, permitting, insurance assistance, and a host of other things. These services are available until September 2021, so take advantage now! If you have any further questions feel free to contact fredmattera@cfcri.org or shayerooney@cfcri.org. 

This project is funded through the CARES Act and the U.S. Small Business Administration. 
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We Want to Hear from You! We want to understand how your business has been impacted by the pandemic and your specific business needs. Fill out this survey to tell us how we can better support you and your business. 

Past Webinars

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Hindsight is 2020: an informal discussion for RI seafood dealers and restaurants to collaborate on new opportunities

When:
Monday, December 14th from 2:00-3:00pm 
About: Join us December 14th from 2:00-3:00pm for shared conversations between retail markets, dealers, and restaurants: how have you been impacted? How can we support each other? Looking back on a crazy year and looking forward to explore new opportunities and collaborations within the RI seafood industry.
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 Direct Seafood Sales: Moving Forward Tuesday, October 13th 4:00-5:30pm 
During this webinar we discussed opportunities to move forward on direct sales of seafood and alternative avenues with the RI Department of Environmental Management and RI Department of Health. You can view the webinar materials using the links below.  

Webinar Recording

Webinar Slides 

Webinar Notes 









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Tax Planning Basics for Small Businesses​
March 31st from 3:00-4:00pm Fish Forward hosted a webinar focused on taxes to learn about tax planning vs. tax preparation, tax requirements based on business structure, and to provide access to resources and tools to help you this tax season. 
Webinar Recording 
Webinar Slides

Videos

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Attention all chefs, restaurants, markets, and seafood lovers: check out this video on our favorite way to prepare one of our favorite local fish, Salt Cured Rhode Island Butterfish! Quick, simple, and delicious! 

​Black sea bass is one of the fisheries that has been most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic with reduced markets, support your local fishermen and businesses take, home some Rhode Island black sea bass today!
As we all know the restaurant industry has been hammered by the pandemic. The whole oyster industry has been dependent on that market. This winter will not be easy for our local oyster growers. Support your local community, get out there and eat some oysters this holiday season!
Whiting, a relative of the codfish, have been an important fishery resource to Rhode Island for as long as Rhode Islanders have gone fishing. There's a lot of history in it. This is a two-part video, and close to 8 minutes long, so be sure to make some popcorn. The first part is about the fishery, history, and its importance to Rhode Island. The second part, after the red buoy, is about the markets, and how people eat them. We hope you enjoy it.

Project Partners

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Location

Office Address: 
East Farm Campus Building 61B 
University of Rhode Island,
Kingston, RI 02881  
​
Mailing Address:  
​Commercial Fisheries Center of RI
P.O. Box 5161   
Wakefield, RI 02880 

Social Media

CFCRI STAFF
​​MAIN: (401) 874-4568 

Fred Mattera - Exec. Director
fredmattera@cfcri.org
​(401) 741-4178
​
Shaye Rooney - Asst. Director
shayerooney@cfcri.org
(401) 316-0081
  • Home
  • About
  • Initiatives
    • Apprenticeship
    • Fish Forward
    • Offshore Wind
    • Seafood Donation Program
    • COVID-19 Resources
    • Industry List-serv
  • Blog
  • Videos
  • Calendar
  • Industry Updates