Saving Seafood

Former Menhaden Vessel F/V Calcasieu Pass Begins Second Life as Artificial Reef Off Delaware

August 14, 2026 — The following was released by Ocean Harvesters:

The F/V Calcasieu Pass, a retired menhaden fishing vessel formerly operated by Ocean Harvesters, was intentionally sunk Wednesday, August 12, at Delaware Reef Site 13, approximately 26 miles off Indian River Inlet.

The Calcasieu Pass will now begin a second life as artificial reef habitat, adding structure for marine life and providing new opportunities for recreational fishing and diving off the Delaware coast.

Ocean Harvesters transferred the retired vessel to Coleen Marine for a nominal $1 purchase price in 2024, donating the Calcasieu Pass for conversion into an artificial reef. Coleen Marine subsequently prepared, towed and sank the vessel at the Delaware reef site.

“Retired working vessels can continue to provide value long after their fishing days are over,” said Monty Deihl, CEO of Ocean Harvesters. “We’re pleased to see the Calcasieu Pass begin a new chapter as marine habitat, supporting the ecosystem while creating new opportunities for anglers and divers.”

Menhaden vessels have a long history of being repurposed as artificial habitats. In 2023, the former F/V Mermentau and F/V G.P. Chauvin were intentionally sunk off the Mississippi coast as part of that state’s artificial reef program. Other retired vessels associated with the menhaden fishery have been deployed as artificial reefs in Louisiana, Delaware and Mississippi.

Another former menhaden vessel, the Reedville, was sunk off Delaware in 2020. Like the Calcasieu Pass, the vessel was prepared and deployed by Coleen Marine as part of Delaware’s artificial reef system.

Artificial reefs provide hard structure on otherwise largely featureless ocean bottom, creating habitat for marine organisms and attracting fish while expanding recreational fishing and diving opportunities. Delaware has developed a network of artificial reef sites along the Atlantic Coast and in Delaware Bay using retired vessels and other cleaned, stable materials.

The Calcasieu Pass deployment adds another retired working vessel to that network and extends a practice that allows vessels which spent decades supporting coastal fishing communities to continue serving the marine environment after their working lives have ended.

Video
Video of the F/V Calcasieu Pass being sunk at Delaware Reef Site 13 is available here.

About Ocean Harvesters
Ocean Harvesters owns and operates a fleet of more than 30 fishing vessels in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of America. The company’s purse-seine fishing operation is exclusively engaged in the harvest of menhaden, a small, nutrient-dense fish used to produce fish meal, fish oil, and fish solubles. Both its Atlantic and Gulf Menhaden fisheries are certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council. Committed to responsible fishing operations, Ocean Harvesters is proud to be heir to a fishing legacy that extends nearly 150 years.

Trump admin to reconsider permits for Atlantic Shores wind project

August 13, 2026 — In the latest blow to the offshore wind industry, a federal court has cleared the way for the Trump administration to reconsider permits for the Atlantic Shores project off the coast of New Jersey.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled Monday that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management could review the construction permits it issued to the project. The permits were issued under the Biden administration.

“Remand is appropriate here in the interest of judicial economy and in light of the lack of prejudice to Atlantic Shores,” the order read.

Read the full article at E&E News

VIRGINIA: Coastal Virginia communities push back against proposed offshore seabed mining

August 12, 2026 — Chincoteague resident Jim Dawson has been fishing the waters off the Eastern Shore for more than four decades, catching species including black sea bass and Atlantic lobster.

During his many hours out at sea, Dawson said he’s come to appreciate the tiniest creatures that dwell on and around the seafloor.

“The microscopic world is just phenomenal, that you would never know is there,” he said. “What lives in that water, we don’t know anything about. And everything is vital.”

Dawson worries a new federal proposal to dig up huge portions of the seabed could threaten the ecosystem that supports his livelihood.

“Once you knock one thing off balance, it really impacts all of it,” he said.

The Trump administration announced in June that it is considering issuing an ocean lease to allow mineral mining within a 2,700-square-mile area flanking the Eastern Shore, stretching from 3 to 63 miles off the coast.

The move was prompted by an unsolicited request from a Florida company late last year.

Administration officials say the industry, which mines the seabed to extract valuable minerals, could reduce U.S. reliance on foreign suppliers.

But many community leaders and residents along the Virginia coast are strongly opposing the proposal, particularly on the Shore.

The counties of Accomack and Northampton sent the government formal notices against it.

Read the full article at WHRO

American Icons: Reviving the River Herring

July 31, 2026 — As he watched the British bombarding Fort McHenry from a truce ship on the Patapsco River, inspiration struck Francis Scott Key. When the American flag was raised after 24 hours of explosive assault, Key wrote what would become “The Star Spangled Banner.” Our national anthem was born, along with our country’s obsession with fireworks.

But long before there were red rockets glaring in the sky, the Patapsco River had an equally impressive natural spectacle of its own. Every spring, it would turn silver with millions of river herring. The annual migration of these fish was a sight to behold in rivers up and down the East Coast of North America. In fact, here at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Maryland, Muddy Creek used to be called Herring Creek.

Emphasis on “used to.” In less than a century, river herring populations have dwindled by well over 90 percent. These fish have certainly seen better days, but recovery efforts are well underway. Scientists are fighting an upstream battle to protect what remains, using cutting-edge research and… bombs bursting in air?

Read the full article at the Smithsonian Magazine

Baby sharks grow up in New Jersey’s back bays. Climate change could threaten the nurseries

July 31, 2026 — New Jersey’s back bays, those lush wetlands that sit between the barrier island beach towns and the mainland, are home to unknown numbers of baby sharks that feast on the American eel, crabs and small fish that thrive in the coastal salt marshes. Giving birth to litters in those food-rich shallow waters like Little Egg Harbor is just about all the maternal care given to the shark pups by their mothers, who swim back out to the Atlantic Ocean soon afterwards.

The tiger shark, the sandbar shark and the smooth dogfish return each summer to the Jersey coast to give birth between June and July, utilizing the safety of shallow waters that are free from predators that would devour their newborns. Although the smooth dogfish can grow to 3 feet long, the babies are no larger than 12 inches at birth and litters range in size from four to 20 pups. The dogfish are benthic feeders, meaning they forage along the bottom of the marsh.

“We all have our favorite shore towns,” said Adrianna Zito-Livingston, an ecologist who works as the climate adaptation project manager for the New Jersey Nature Conservancy. “We come back year after year. The sharks are doing the same thing.”

The Nature Conservancy is working with Monmouth University to research the health of the salt marshes that have become eroded due to the impacts of climate change. As part of that work, researchers like Zito-Livingston are tagging the sharks with acoustic trackers that are then monitored by listening stations placed along the Jersey coast. She said the sharks provide a good indication of the health of the salt marshes.

“In a lot of ways, sharks are a canary in the coal mine,” she said. “They’re top predators and healthy sharks with a good distribution are indicative of healthy, diverse ecosystems.”

Read the full article at WHYY

NOAA holds first-ever international cooperative research gathering

July 28, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries recently held what it is describing as its first-ever international cooperative research knowledge exchange with Scotland.

NOAA hosted 16 members of the Scottish Fishermen’s Association in a three-day event which involved tours of multiple ports, fishing vessels, and seafood processing facilities. The goal of the exchange was to share fisheries knowledge between the two organizations, which share management of multiple fisheries species in the Atlanic including Atlantic cod, Atlantic pollock, haddock, Atlantic mackerel, and Atlantic herring.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Fishermen could soon be allowed to hunt more sharks under Trump team proposal

May 20, 2026 — Atlantic fishermen could be allowed to catch even more sharks, if the Trump administration’s newly proposed updates to fishing regulations are approved.

The regulations would impact protections for the endangered blacknose shark, which has seen its population cut by more than half over the last quarter of a century. They would also raise the number of sharks recreational fishermen can catch per species and alter how big the sharks that are caught need to be.

The proposed changes are necessary to make it easier for recreational and commercial fishermen in the Atlantic Ocean by reducing the shark population, the administration says.

Read the full article at The Independent

MARYLAND: Maryland loosens striped bass rules, boosts quota flexibility

March 18, 2026 — Maryland officials have rolled out a set of updates to commercial striped bass regulations aimed at improving flexibility for fishermen while keeping overall harvest limits intact.

According to a report by Coast TV, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced the changes to address long-standing challenges with quota access and permit transfers in both the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean striped bass fisheries.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Fishing crews in the Atlantic keep accidentally dredging up chemical weapons

March 9, 2026 — Until 1970, the US dumped an estimated 17,000 tons of unspent chemical weapons from World War I and II off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean—and that disposal decision continues to haunt commercial fishing operations.

In an article published this week in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, health officials from New Jersey and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that there were at least three incidents of commercial fishing crews dredging up dangerous chemical warfare munitions (CWMs) off the coast of New Jersey between 2016 and 2023.

The three incidents exposed at least six crew members to mustard agent, which causes blistering chemical burns on skin and mucous membranes. (An example of these types of burns can be seen here, but be warned, the image is graphic.) One crew member required overnight treatment in an emergency department for respiratory distress and second-degree blistering burns. Another was burned so badly that they were hospitalized in a burn center and required skin grafting and physical therapy.

Read the full article at Ars Technica 

Scary Problem: Ghost Gear Haunts New England’s Salt Waters

February 23, 2026 — Commercial fishing for shellfish, lobster, and finfish is an economic driver for many coastal communities along the Atlantic Coast, including ports in southern New England. Much of the gear now used in these fisheries is made of plastic, and lots of it is lost at sea every year.

It has been estimated, for example, that between 5% and 15% of lobster gear is lost annually to storms, propellers, and accidents. Since commercial fishing gear is used in harsh conditions it requires frequent replacement and is expensive to dispose of, some of it is deliberately dumped. Either way, all the fisheries are represented in the world’s stock of derelict fishing gear, more commonly called ghost gear.

Some 500,000 to a million tons of fishing gear is estimated to be lost at sea every year, and this ghost gear makes up 10% of all marine debris. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program has collected 2,000 tons (4 million pounds) of gear from 56 locations in U.S. waters.

This lost gear ranges from monofilament and braided fishing lines to ropes and nets to pots and traps. This jumble of commercial fishing equipment can be catastrophic for ocean life, ensnaring fish and marine mammals and endangering sea turtles.

Read the full article at ecoRI