“Rafaela Paulo Teixeira is a marine biologist, oceanographer and geospatial analyst. She is a young “Tirsense” who founded the Fish4Me Project when she was only 19 years old.
Fish4Me is a project responsible for raising awareness of marine sustainability, whose mission is to contribute to the minimization of the effects of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. This issue is addressed through education and by giving the necessary information to final consumers for a sustainable fish purchase in a fast and effective way through the Progressive Web App (PWA). Such information includes: minimum catch size, stock status, common and scientific name and image of the respective organism.
The project was initially funded by fhi360 and has partnerships with the Fulbright Commission – Portugal, the US Department of State and APPBIZ.PT from Santo Tirso.
Fish4Me has become a collaborative supporter of the initiative “It’s Bluedy Time Europe!” created by the Surfrider Foundation in which, a few months ago, a large European-wide citizen consultation took place. Rafaela Paulo Teixeira, as Founder/CEO of Fish4Me, participated in it, elaborating several ideas on the topic of ocean sustainability. Thus, for the 2024 European elections, 10 important policy proposals were selected from more than 400 contributions during the consultation, where they could be supported by citizens at https://www.oceanvoice.eu/ until May 8, 2023.
On June 8, 2023, on World Oceans Day and less than a year before the European elections, the top 10 demands and the nearly 400 contributions received, including that of Fish4Me, will be delivered to the European Parliament and representatives of European political parties in Brussels. This will be followed by meetings with the parties so that the ideas can be heard and taken into account by the candidates until the elections are called in May 2024. At the same time, Rafaela will attend the fifth edition of the European Youth Event (EYE2023) right in the heart of European democracy: the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
The participation in EYE2023 is free of costs, however each participant must organize and cover their own accommodation, travel and food expenses in Strasbourg. As such, Rafaela is looking for support from stakeholders who can help her with these expenses and ensure her presence at the event. For this same purpose, those interested can contact her at the email address rafaelapt@fish4me.pt .”
