Saving Seafood

Council Actions

ASMFC 2026 Spring Meeting Press Releases, Meeting Summaries, Motions, and Audio Files Now Available

May 8, 2026 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The press releases, meeting summaries, and motions from the Commission’s 2026 Spring Meeting are now available at

https://asmfc.org/resources/management-quarterly-meetings/2026-spring-meeting-summary-may-2026/. Board recordings are also available at https://asmfc.org/events/2026-spring-meeting/. These can be found at the bottom of each Board’s agenda (click on Audio link) and can also be found on the Commission’s YouTube channel athttps://www.youtube.com/ASMFCvideos.
 
Most of this week’s presentations will be available either today or by Monday, May 11. Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and Happy Mother’s Day. Best. – Tina

MASSACHUSETTS: Nearly Two Years Later, Broken Blade Investigation Continues

May 7, 2026 — As Vineyard Wind and its turbine manufacturer duke it out in court over hundreds of millions owed to both parties, a federal investigation into what caused the blade failure at the heart of the case remains ongoing nearly two years later.

Last month a Massachusetts superior court judge issued a preliminary injunction that prevented GE Vernova, the company that built and installed several dozen faulty turbine blades at the offshore wind energy project off Martha’s Vineyard, from walking away from its work at the wind farm.

The case hinges on contract language related to who owes who money. GE Vernova said it wanted to exit from its contracts because it was owed more than $300 million. Vineyard Wind said that it didn’t have to pay any money to GE, because the GE owed Vineyard Wind nearly $800 million because of the delays from the shoddy work.

While that continues to play out in court, the long-awaited investigation into the 2024 blade break at Vineyard Wind by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the agency that oversees offshore energy production, continues on with no clear end date.

The bureau itself has been tight-lipped and declined to give a progress report on its work and any of the environmental monitoring that the bureau required of Vineyard Wind.

Read the full article at Vineyard Gazzette

Scientists are tracking 2 marine heat waves off the Pacific coast. Will they merge?

May 7, 2026 — From a small building at the end of the Ellen Browning Scripps Memorial Pier in La Jolla, aquarist Melissa Torres reels in a bucket with ocean surface water and looks at a digital thermometer — the same way researchers have taken daily measurements of ocean temperatures from the pier over the past 100 years.

On this recent Monday, the temperature is 18.95 degrees Celsius, or 66 degrees Fahrenheit.

“That’s warm,” said Torres. “Yesterday was 17.97 (degrees Celsius). But, yes, usually, we like to see around 16.” 

Torres said the average ocean surface temperature off the La Jolla coast is about 61 degrees Fahrenheit. But for months, temperatures all along the West Coast have risen 3 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. They’ve also been warmer deep below the surface.

Now, scientists are monitoring a separate heat wave that is forming hundreds of miles off the Pacific coast. That one is part of a pattern observed over the last decade.

“Every year we seem to be getting these heat waves that start way offshore about this time of year, get bigger and get to the coast and impact us, typically get us in the late summer and fall,” said Leising. “That does seem to be something that is kind of the new normal ever since the blob.”

He’s monitoring whether the two marine heat waves will merge in the late summer or fall.

Read the full article at KPBS

Trump proposes 41 percent cut to NOAA Fisheries budget, transferring ESA and MMPA responsibilities

May 7, 2026 — The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has proposed a 41 percent budget cut to NOAA Fisheries, which includes the removal of effectively all protected species and habitat conservation functions.

“Funding cuts for NOAA could not come at a worse time when you consider just how vulnerable American fisheries and fishermen are right now,” Jeff Watters, vice president of external affairs at NGO Ocean Conservancy, said in a release. “We are essentially putting blindfolds on and hoping for the best.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NOAA Fisheries wants to ditch Atlantic herring monitors

May 7, 2026 — The Trump administration is pressuring regional officials to roll back a monitoring program for Atlantic herring fisheries, reversing course on regulations that sparked the legal battle that upended the Chevron doctrine.

NOAA Fisheries chief Eugenio Piñeiro Soler outlined the directive in a May 1 letter to the New England Fishery Management Council, the regional agency charged with creating management plans and setting catch limits.

Pointing to an executive order on “seafood competitiveness” issued by President Donald Trump in 2025, Soler directed the council to reverse an earlier decision to leave the monitoring program in place. He warned that failing to do so might spur involvement by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Read the full article at E&E News

Environmental groups sue over reopening of Northeast marine monument

May 7, 2026 — A coalition of environmental groups has filed suit against the Trump administration over its move to reopen the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument to commercial fishing, reigniting a long-running battle over access to the protected Atlantic waters.

The lawsuit, filed Monday by the Conservation Law Foundation, Natural Resources Defense Council and the Center for Biological Diversity, along with whale-watch naturalist Zack Klyver, challenged President Trump’s February proclamation allowing commercial fishing within the monument boundaries

Read the full article at National Fisherman

MARYLAND: Eastern Shore seafood companies say potential crab import bans could threaten jobs, supply chains

May 7, 2026 — A coalition of seafood companies including several local businesses filed a federal lawsuit challenging new federal seafood import restrictions that they say could devastate crab processing operations on the Eastern Shore and disrupt the nation’s crab supply chain.

While the companies have been successful in delaying those restrictions, the federal government could reintroduce them this month.

The original lawsuit, acquired by WBOC, was filed in October of 2025 in the United States Court of International Trade by the National Fisheries Institute, Restaurant Law Center, and several seafood importers and processors. Those businesses included Baltimore-based Phillips Foods and Salisbury-based Handy Seafood, Cebu Pacific LLC, and Byrd International Inc.

Read the full article at WBOC

SOUTH CAROLINA: South Carolina legislature approves two versions of shrimp labeling law

May 7, 2026 — Both bodies of the South Carolina state legislature have passed a bill requiring country-of-origin labeling for all shrimp sales in the state, though differences between the two versions will need to be sorted out before the bill becomes law.

On 14 April, the South Carolina House of Representatives passed HB4248, legislation requiring all shrimp sold in the state to have a clear label noting its country of origin.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Menhaden group claims ASMFC applied a double standard on economic impacts

May 6, 2026 — An analysis released by the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition argues that federal fisheries managers treated economic concerns differently when weighing striped bass and menhaden management decisions at last year’s annual meeting of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC).

The report titled “When Jobs Count, and When They Don’t,” compares discussions from the Atlantic Striped Bass and Atlantic Menhaden management board meetings held during the ASMFC’s 2025 Annual Meeting.

According to the analysis, socio-economic impacts were a central factor in the striped bass debate, where commissioners ultimately opted for a proposed 12 percent reduction in harvest despite the stock being below target levels. Instead, the board maintained the status quo and formed a work group with representation from multiple sectors.

During that meeting, speakers and board members repeatedly cited the potential impacts on charter operators, recreational businesses, tackle manufacturers, and coastal economies.

In contrast, the report says similar concerns raised during the menhaden discussion, particularly those tied to industrial fishing jobs, did not carry the same weight in the final decision.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

A federal probe could change the status of Rice’s whales

May 6, 2026 — The National Marine Fisheries Service has started a review that could remove the endangered status from Rice’s whales as the federal government has increased efforts to promote oil drilling of U.S. shores.

A Federal Register notice published Monday states a status review has been initiated to determine if Rice’s whales are accurately listed or part of a broader species, which could result in them being delisted or downlisted to a threatened species.

The action follows a March 31 federal order that exempted all oil and gas activities from following rules regarding the protection of endangered species in Gulf waters.

Read the full article at WLRN