CULTIVATING CHANGE
A new nonprofit seeks inclusivity in aquaculture
Story by Kate Livie for Chesapeake Bay Magazine | November 4, 2021
In the summer of 2020, as the pandemic surged across the country, many of us watched from lockdown isolation at the horror of George Floyd’s killing and the BLM protests that followed in its wake. In the months that followed, the aftermath hit home as individuals, companies, and organizations began to acknowledge the system of racism in our own communities and workplaces.
Watching the scenes unfold from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Imani Black was struck by the implications for her industry. Then an oyster hatchery manager at Hoopers Island Oyster Company, she’d long accepted that she would be the only woman working in the crews and labs on oyster farms.
As a recent graduate of Old Dominion University who’d played on their Division 1 women’s lacrosse team, Black often had to lift cages of oysters from the hands of well-meaning male coworkers that had taken them away from her for being “too heavy.”
Black quickly learned to stand her ground as the lone female presence on all-male oyster farms. But as the Black Lives Matter movement grew and pushed for change, Black realized her gender wasn’t the only thing that set her apart. In all of those grow-out locations, in all of those hatcheries, she hadn’t just been the only woman, but also the only woman of color. This was, she felt, deeply problematic. She decided to do something about it.