Saving Seafood

Revolution Wind fully operational, Ørsted reports

November 6, 2026 — Offshore wind developer Ørsted said Thursday its 704-megawatt turbine array Revolution Wind off southern New England has achieved full operation, exporting power to Connecticut and Rhode Island customers.

Located about 15 miles south of Rhode Island, the project’s 65 turbines were completed weeks before the Trump administration mounted another unsuccessful attempt in federal court to void Ørsted’s construction and operations permit.

Ørsted announced the news in a No. 5 earnings call. In a summary the Danish energy company said it “completed the installation of the remaining wind turbines at the 704 MW Revolution Wind offshore wind farm in the U.S. In October the project achieved commercial operations under its offtake contracts with utilities in the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island.”

Read the full article at WorkBoat

Tropical fish off the Massachusetts coast? Warming ocean temperatures changing the catch.

November 5, 2026 — When you think of tropical fish, Massachusetts probably isn’t the first place that comes to mind. But fishermen are finding some unexpected species in New England waters, and warming ocean temperatures may be playing a role.

Max Harvey has spent decades on the water, and he’s noticed some unusual catches.

“There was a cubera snapper caught on Nantucket like last week. And it’s happened before, but it’s very uncommon,” Harvey said.

The cubera snapper is typically associated with warmer waters farther south. But it’s not the only surprising fish to turn up off the Massachusetts coast.

“Four or five years ago there was a rush of king mackerel in Vineyard Sound. And you could go out and actually realistically catch one,” Harvey said.

Warm water species have occasionally made their way into New England waters for decades. Harvey says the Gulf Stream, which carries warm water north along the East Coast, has been getting closer to shore, allowing pockets of warmer water to break off and bring different species into the region.

Read the full article at CBS News

For many, striped bass fishing is a way of life. But the iconic species could face collapse

October 30, 2026 — Striped bass fishing has been Bill Jakob’s passion for more than 60 years, and he remembers an era when he’d spend all night casting his line into the crashing waves off Montauk and get eight or nine fish ranging up to 40 pounds (18 kilograms), a big catch by anyone’s standards.

Then, after years of heavy fishing, the big runs of stripers stopped.

“I’m part of the problem, back in the years. I ran party boats, we slayed fish with reckless abandon,” said Jakob, president of the Montauk Surfcasters Association on the easternmost tip of Long Island.

Increasingly, fishermen like Jakob fear the good days of catching striped bass are coming to an end. The fish aren’t showing up like they used to, and young stripers are becoming harder to find.

Scientists who study striped bass say anglers on the East Coast are right to be concerned, and they say years of overfishing are just part of the problem. The fish have experienced eight consecutive years of poor reproduction in their most critical habitat in the Chesapeake Bay, regulators said last week, and the population has declined along much of the Atlantic coast.

Read the full article at The Associated Press

Collaboration with Fishing Industry Contributes to Successful Longfin Squid Assessment

October 26, 2026 — Longfin squid is an economically important species that is challenging to study. Mostly caught from Rhode Island to New Jersey, it supports a commercial fishery worth approximately $32.5 million in 2024. It is often found on restaurant menus as calamari.

Longfin squid live less than a year, grow rapidly, and the number of young entering the population is highly variable. Their populations are influenced by dynamic ocean conditions, leading to shifts in abundance and distribution that are challenging to understand or predict. Longfin squid migrate with the seasons, generally moving south and offshore in the late fall and returning north and inshore during the spring. Scientific surveys capture seasonal snapshots of the population but they cannot provide specifics about the squid caught in the fishery.

Successful Research Track Peer Review

In August 2026, an independent panel of scientists completed the peer review for the Longfin Inshore Squid Research Track Assessment. The panel approved two new assessment models—both of which met all required Terms of Reference and were deemed suitable for management advice. These models mark a significant technical advancement over past index-based approaches. They are better able to capture the rapid growth, seasonal changes in abundance, and unique biology of this short-lived species.

This major accomplishment for a historically data-poor species was possible because of strong collaboration between scientists and commercial fishing industry partners. Having a better foundational understanding of longfin squid life history, as well as two distinct and credible models, gives managers greater flexibility and confidence in using the best available science. The review marks an important milestone in the multi-year effort to improve our understanding of longfin squid and develop better tools to assess the stock. The findings will be implemented during the upcoming Longfin Squid Management Track Assessment this fall.

We combined analytical expertise of scientists with on-the-water knowledge of fishermen who encounter this species throughout the year, making great strides together toward better understanding this economically important and enigmatic species.

“The foundation of trust and collaboration between the science and fishing communities was critical to the scientific progress made during the longfin squid assessment. From sharing ecological observations to collecting data to providing input on model assumptions and outputs, industry partners played a critical role in all phases of the assessment,” shared Dr. Anna Mercer, chief of the center’s Northeast Cooperative Research branch.

The goals of the collaboration are:

  • Better science for sustainable management
  • Better information to support decisions about how much seafood can make its way from the ocean to our tables

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Saildrone Wins Coast Guard Contract Extension to Monitor New England Fisheries

October 23, 2026 — Saildrone has announced that the US Coast Guard awarded the company an $8.5 million extension of its contract to continue providing maritime domain awareness around domestic fisheries off the coast of New England through spring 2027.

The extension builds on Saildrone Voyager unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) already operating in the Northeast United States. From June through August, the fleet sailed more than 19,000 nautical miles and generated thousands of contact detections while monitoring fishing grounds across the region.

Read the full article at ECO Magazine

Trump administration asks to reconsider Ocean City offshore wind permit

October 20, 2026 — Months after first threatening to do so, the Trump administration has officially filed a request to reconsider the construction permit it issued to an offshore wind project proposed off the coast of Ocean City, Maryland.

It’s just the latest episode in President Donald Trump’s battle against offshore turbines since returning to office last year. The Republican administration has halted coastal wind leasing, issued stop work orders to projects under construction and spent billions to buy back wind leases previously issued to developers.

When it comes to the Ocean City project, proposed by US Wind, the federal government is arguing that the project did not receive adequate consideration under a federal law known as the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.

In their filing, Department of Justice officials cited possible adverse impacts of the project on: the North Atlantic right whale, “scenic and visual resources, some commercial fisheries, and scientific research.”

The administration is requesting to remand the permit “without vacatur,” meaning it would remain in place while the Department of the Interior reconsiders it.

Read the full article at WTOP

Shark Depredation Tripled in 20 Years of Longline Survey

October 20, 2026 — Depredation, the removal of or damage to hooked fish or gear by sharks or other marine predators, is a growing concern among fishing communities. Depredation results in increased mortality for managed fish stocks, economic loss, and degraded fishing experiences.

NOAA Fisheries biologists Dr. William “Trey” Driggers and Dr. Walter Ingram recently analyzed data from the Southeast Fisheries Science Center’s Bottom Longline Survey. Their goal: to determine trends in depredation rates over the past two decades. This is one of the first fishery-independent analyses of shark depredation—most research has been conducted in the fishery. The data confirm what anglers are seeing on the water: increasing trends in depredation by species like sandbar, blacktip, bull, and tiger sharks. 

History of the Bottom Longline Survey

The annual Bottom Longline Survey, which started in 1995, samples U.S. waters of the Atlantic Ocean, including the Gulf of America, from Brownsville, Texas, to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Scientists use these data to monitor trends in abundance of federally managed sharks and other fish species like red snapper. It provides fishery-independent indices of abundance for numerous federal stock assessments in the Southeast region. When the survey protocol was standardized in 2001, Dr. Driggers recognized the importance of collecting data on depredation events. He added it as a standard data collection metric for the survey.

Since 2005, the survey has collected data on:

  • Whether depredation occurred
  • Predator species preying on the hooked catch, when possible
  • Species of the depredated catch
  • Variables like location, depth, temperature, and salinity

This has resulted in a standardized record of depredation events for all survey longline sets for more than two decades.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Opinion: Seabed mining would strip mine fishermens’ future

August 24, 2026 — As a family of lifelong commercial fishers, we’ve always done our best to take care of the ocean off Virginia’s coast. But right now, an out-of-state company wants to dig out the foundation of our fishing grounds.

The federal government is considering a recent proposal by a Florida-based mining company to dredge Virginia’s seabed. If granted, our entire Eastern shore – 2,500 square miles – could be opened up to mining that would tear up the ocean bottom and crush the marine life that depends on it.

The two of us have saltwater running through our veins.

As for me – Jim – I fell in the water when I was two and have been driving a skiff since I was eight. My great uncle was a crabber, and my great aunt was picking crabs. I always knew I wanted to be a commercial fisherman here – just fell in love with fishing.

And as for me – Katie – my neighbor in Freeport, Long Island, threw me in the water and told me to swim when I was three. At about nine, I’d take the neighbors’ dog out on a paddle boat at six am to grab mussels off the pylons and stay out until dark. Neighbors would tell my parents they’d seen me.

Today, we are Virginia’s largest harvesters of black sea bass and flounder, fishing over 100 trips per season. Jim, the tech whiz with a chemistry degree, recently designed and built our own boat and fishes all day with our 24-year-old son, Matt. Katie takes care of lobsters in the tank and delivers our product every Saturday to people’s houses. Around Chincoteague, some people know us better as “Jimmy Neutron” and “The Lobsta Lady.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Court order could threaten permits for surviving US wind projects

August 19, 2026 — A court decision remanding prior approvals for a wind energy project off New Jersey could pose a new threat to offshore turbine arrays under construction, as the Trump administration presses its relentless campaign against them.

The Aug. 10 decision by U.S. District Court Judge Jia Cobb in the District of Columbia granted a request by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to reconsider its permitting for  Atlantic Shores, planned as a 2.8 gigawatt project near Long Beach Island, N.J.

Local activist group Save Long Beach Island had sought a remand and reconsideration of the project’s construction and operations plan, approved in October 2024 in the waning days of the Biden administration.

Save LBI contended that BOEM failed to adequately consider the project’s likely effects under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act, among other federal laws.

Read the full article at WorkBoat

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.