There’s something about a “round” number in a year that makes you look backwards with a little more reflection or need to encapsulate a certain period of time. Not that 2025 is a major turn in a century or even a decade. But now that I have had a moment to pause after the lineup of events and visitors over the holidays, I have been thinking back over recent years and some of the things I hope we will either leave behind or carry forward.

The COVID-19 pandemic obviously has had a significant impact over the past several years and it continues to shape our daily lives.

One of the things that I hope we will carry forward is the ways in which we took advantage of resources closer to home in the absence of the availability and accessibility to those beyond our local circles. For me, personally and professionally, much of this centered around and continues to center around food.

Sometimes, the necessity to shift gears leads to new discoveries and patterns, and I am hopeful that the interest in local food will continue as we emerge from its necessity. Along with the local fruits and vegetables that are more often readily available to consumers through places like farmers markets, seafood began to emerge more on the local food scene and even included some direct to consumer options. This has its benefits and its challenges both for the consumer, who doesn’t always know what will be available, and the producer, who doesn’t have a guaranteed market share.

In many parts of the world, the only way to find fresh seafood is to buy it right off the boat. Having lived overseas and traveled to many small coastal communities in different climates, I have been amazed at how hard it is to find fish at a grocery store. There might be frozen blocks of shrimp farmed in Vietnam rather than local finfish. Much of a trip of any length is spent watching the patterns on the waterfront to see when and where boats go in and out and trying to catch just the right time on the right day to buy some fish.

Often, that has resulted in leaving with a plastic bag full of a handful of whole fish of a variety of species — always, I end up with more than I’ve asked for (a bonus fish or two thrown in at the last moment). The best part of it is to meet the fishermen and learn about what they’re catching and how — a necessary part of building a relationship such that I can learn when to show up to buy fish from the next boat coming in. The hardest part, however, is that these factors sometimes never align.

Back in the United States, while I sometimes am able to get seafood directly from the person who cultivated or caught it, most of the time I rely on a local market to buy what I’m looking for. After not having this option while traveling, it seems like an amazing thing to just show up at a store when it is open and find what I’d like.

It is a good reminder of the myriad challenges that make having fresh seafood readily available in markets very difficult from the necessity for cold transport, storage and display to its short “shelf life.” There is an obvious disconnect from the person harvesting the catch, which I very much value and enjoy, but a benefit to being able to procure it more readily and frequently.

What I hope for going forward into this new year and the period to follow is that the appreciation developed for finding connections to local foods as well as to the people who both grow and sell them will continue. It is an opportunity to appreciate resources closer to home that are important for community and culture — and sometimes it takes leaving that “home” to have a fresh perspective when returning.

Susan Olcott is the director of strategic partnerships at Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association.