MEET OUR P.O.S.S.E!

PORT ORFORD SUSTAINABLE SEAFOOD EMPLOYEES

Co-Founder
Aaron Longton
Aaron Longton was born and raised in Roseburg Oregon, the son of a river boat manufacturer. He started fishing as soon as he could hold a rod and reel, his first commercial experience was aboard a 1925 double-ender in 1992 named the Donna Rae. He purchased his first commercial boat in 2000, and the f/v Golden Eye in 2003. Aaron trolls for salmon and tuna, longlines for groundfish including sablefish, halibut and slope rockfish species, and uses rod and reel in the nearshore for lingcod, cabezon, kelp greenling and other nearshore rockfish species. He believes that our local fishing livelihood depends on a mix of conservation, maintaining access to the resource, and a durable and direct fisher-to-consumer market strategy.

Co-Founder
Leesa Cobb
Leesa Cobb is a fisherman’s wife at Port Orford, Oregon. She is the Executive Director for the Port Orford Ocean Resource Team (POORT) a fishermen led organization. POORT Is the nonprofit that owns the for-profit Port Orford Sustainable Seafood. POORT’s work combines ocean education, conservation, local knowledge, and science into programs to help the community thrive. Leesa is passionate about the social and economic problems of her community has faced since the collapse of the timber industry in the 1980’s. She believes no one is coming to bail out Port Orford; that successful economic and social ideas have to come from the community. Leesa’s motto is “let your faith be bigger than your fear”.

CSF Co-Manager
Mike Baran
Originally from Savannah, GA, Mike Barran moved to Port Orford in 2012 to work as a fisheries observer with the Port Orford fleet. After a few years of connecting with the local community, he began working in the processing facility for POSS, eventually working his way up to co-managing the CSF. He is the voice you hear when you call the company and hand that guides you throughout your seafood experience.

CSF Co-Manager
Kean Fleming
Kean Fleming is fourth generation Oregonian working on his fourth year at POSS. He has worked in all aspects of the company, from delivery driver to fish processor to customer support to CSF program designer and manager. Kean’s background is in Cultural Anthropology. He believes that the Port Orford identity is fundamentally linked to a community-based fishing lifestyle and that it is the attachments to particular places and particular ways-of-life that help us make meanings and find coherence in our lives and our work.