August 28, 2025 — While Rhode Island has spent decades and millions of dollars erecting fish ladders, removing dams, and cleaning up its rivers to shore up dwindling herring populations, it’s a different case when the fish are in the ocean.
River herring, both the blueback and alewife species found in Rhode Island, are diadromous fish, meaning they spawn in freshwater but live their adult lives in the ocean.
August 27, 2025 — Despite encouragement from Trump administration officials, the company behind the controversial Pebble mine in Southwest Alaska hasn’t yet submitted a revised proposal that could unblock the stalled copper-gold project.
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. hasn’t advanced an “updated submission” for its proposed Pebble mine, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a status update posted online Monday, adding that “there is nothing currently before the agency to that effect.”
The EPA update follows last month’s decision by the U.S. Justice Department to effectively uphold a veto on the project, dashing hopes that the Trump administration would roll back regulatory hurdles. The absence of a revamped proposal comes despite government officials advising Northern Dynasty that project changes could prompt the government to reconsider. An EPA spokesperson said there were discussions with agency leadership about a potential further submission that would inform any reconsideration.
August 27, 2025 — While Gov. Dan McKee and state elected leaders have roundly criticized the Trump administration’s order to stop work on Revolution Wind, members of the Rhode Island fishing industry are applauding the decision to halt construction of the 65-turbine offshore wind farm.
A handful of industry representatives gathered Tuesday, Aug. 26 on the Galilee waterfront to thank the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for the stop-work order, and to urge the administration to take similar action against other offshore wind projects proposed or being built in Atlantic Ocean waters in the region.
“I have one thing to say to the U.S. government,” said Meghan Lapp, fisheries liaison for North Kingstown-based seafood distributor Seafreeze. “Save our fishing grounds from offshore wind. All of them. You’ve started with Revolution Wind, and for that we are grateful. Now, go down the list because it’s long, and you are our only chance.”
August 27, 2025 — Nearly four decades of research ended this year because a dwindling budget in the state Division of Marine Fisheries left its research boat out of commission.
Scientists have trawled the Pamlico Sound netting fish and crustaceans since 1987.
But the boat, named the Carolina Coast, won’t go out in 2025.
“This is the end of the data set. There’s nothing we can do about that. It’s over,” said Kathy Rawls, who directs the Division of Marine Fisheries.
Rawls broke the news about the rotting and leaking 41-year-old boat last week to the Marine Fisheries Commission, a policy-setting board appointed by the governor.
“We lack the resources to repair or replace the vessel,” she said. “As you can imagine, that is a huge blow.”
Doug Rader, an oceans scientist serving on the commission, said the news is “close to catastrophic.”
August 27, 2025 — Joel Kawahara’s fishing boat, the Karolee, traveled down the coast from Washington toward California waters, keeping a steady course that offered no hint that something had gone terribly wrong.
But when Coast Guard crews boarded the boat this month in Northern California, officials found no one on board. Its captain was nowhere to be seen. Somewhere along the roughly 400-mile journey, the 70-year-old Kawahara was lost.
“It’s a strange case,” said U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Steven Strohmaier. “There were no signs of distress, no signs of debris.”
August 27, 2025 — After the Trump administration has ordered a halt to construction of a nearly complete $4 billion offshore wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut, it’s reasonable to wonder whether Dominion Energy’s $10.9 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project off the coast of Virginia Beach could be in similar peril.
On Aug. 22, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management stopped Orsted’s Revolution Wind project, which already has 45 of 65 turbines installed, along with all underwater foundations. Citing a January memorandum by President Donald Trump, BOEM told Orsted North America to “halt all ongoing activities related to the Revolution Wind Project” while the federal government reviews potential national security concerns.
August 26, 2025 — An official in the U.S. state of Louisiana has renewed his calls for there to be a national inspection fee on imported seafood in the wake of recalls of frozen shrimp contaminated by radiation.
On 14 August, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that U.S. Customs and Border Protection had detected a radioactive isotope called Caesium-137 (Cs-137) in shipping containers at the ports of Los Angeles, Houston, Savannah, and Miami.
August 25, 2025 — Duke Energy is not moving forward with wind energy off North Carolina’s coast after determining proposals from three developers are more expensive than solar panels and battery storage that result in the same amount of energy.
The N.C. Utilities Commission’s carbon and resource plan finalized last fall directed Duke to ask the three companies who have North Carolina offshore wind leases how much building those wind farms would cost. If those proposals were cost-competitive, the Commission ordered, Duke should proceed with a binding request for proposals.
August 25, 2025 — Amid the hubbub of President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Alaska summit last week, Gov. Mike Dunleavy, posting on social media, posed a provocative question.
“Alaska is a leader in fresh caught wild salmon. We could also be a leader in the farmed salmon industry. Why not do both instead of importing farmed salmon from Scotland?,” he wrote, sharing an article about the value of fish farming in Scotland, where Atlantic salmon are raised in net pens in the ocean. “This would be a great opportunity for Alaska.”
The answer from scientists, wild salmon advocates, restaurant people and regular salmon-eating Alaskans has come swiftly, full of alarm and often along the lines of one of the early commenters on his post, who wrote, “Are you insane?”
August 26, 2025 — Despite a strong desire to install a massive offshore wind farm, New Jersey is hitting pause on future wind energy projects.
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has decided to delay the implementation of certain offshore wind energy infrastructure projects due to “significant uncertainty” stemming from federal policy changes. This decision also included canceling the Atlantic Shores wind project, an offshore wind energy initiative aimed at generating renewable energy for New Jersey.
“The Board finds that, due to the significant federal uncertainty in the offshore wind market, and Atlantic Shores inability to complete Project under the terms of the OREC Order, it is in the public interest to vacate the OREC Order and the Project’s status as a [Qualified Offshore Wind Project],” the board’s ruling reads.
In January 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that would effectively pave the way to cancel plans for new offshore wind energy development. The move also rescinded previously designated areas for offshore wind farms. The Trump administration then froze new or renewed permits, approvals, and loans for wind projects.