Saving Seafood

CALIFORNIA: California approves pop-up gear as “alternative gear” for commercial crabbers

February 9, 2026 — Commercial crabbers in California’s Dungeness crab fishery can now use pop-up, or ropeless, gear to continue fishing, even after a fishing area is closed.

“Pop-up gear gives us fishermen the ability to harvest Dungeness crab for the public while the whales and turtles are present,” said Stephen Melz, a commercial Dungeness crab fisher who helped test pop-up gear in the state’s fishery last year. “It is an amazing way that technology and the spirit of innovation have come together to bring back fishing opportunity!”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Whale strandings prompt Dungeness crabbing rule changes

February 5, 2026 — Last September, a humpback whale off the coast of California and another off the coast of Mexico were found dragging gear from Dungeness crabbing operations in Oregon. In November, rigging from the Oregon Dungeness crab fishery caused the stranding of a juvenile humpback whale on the beach in Yachats that was subsequently euthanized, according to wildlife officials.

Whale entanglements are becoming more common along the west coast of the United States, with NOAA Fisheries reporting as many as three dozen confirmed sightings in 2024.

In an effort to prevent the entanglements, last year, the state of Oregon mandated that commercial crabbing operations reduce the number of pots they deploy and stick to shallower waters on May 1. Now, state regulators have moved the date earlier in the season, April 1.

The impact of the change

Poggy Lapham is owner/operator of the 66-foot, Newport-based fishing vessel Michele Ann. On a recent morning, Lapham stood on the bridge of his boat while watching a small crane lift five-foot-square plastic bins brimming with freshly-caught Dungeness crab from the ship’s hold. A forklift took the bins to a scale and then a refrigerated tractor-trailer.

Lapham said the crabbing community was not consulted about the new rules, and even though the change will likely not impact his bottom line, it will undermine the profitability of many smaller operations.

“I typically don’t fish [for crab] that late in the season, as it is, but if you look out the window of this boat right now, I can pick out a whole bunch of boats where that is an essential part of their season,” he said.

Typically on April 1, Lapham begins to harvest sablefish, which is also known as black cod. He uses traps that sit on the sea floor like crab pots. And just like crab pots, the denial-of-exit trap is tethered to a rope and a buoy that floats on the surface.

Lapham knows the industry well. In fact, he’s a member of the federally mandated West Coast Take Reduction Team for sablefish pot fishing.

Read the full article at KLCC

CALIFORNIA: CDFW authorizes first on-demand gear for Dungeness crab

January 30, 2026 — The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has approved the first-ever state-authorized on-demand fishing gear for use in California’s commercial Dungeness crab fishery, marking a significant step forward in efforts to reduce marine life entanglement risk.

CDFW supports the development and testing of fishing gear modifications and innovations aimed at lowering the risk of entanglement with Dungeness crab fishing gear. Currently, the state offers two primary pathways for testing and using innovative or experimental fishing gear: Experimental Fishing Permits (EFPs) and alternative gear authorization.

Under the state’s Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program, alternative gear authorization establishes a process for certifying innovative gear types that reduce entanglement risk. Once authorized by the CDFW director, alternative gear may be used between April 1 and the closure of the commercial Dungeness crab statutory season in areas that would otherwise be closed to traditional crab fishing.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Commission again sets Pacific halibut harvest at rock-bottom levels amid U.S.-Canada tensions

January 29, 2026 — The International Pacific Halibut Commission set the 2026 harvest at a historic low during an annual meeting that drew a Trump administration political appointee to lead tense U.S. negotiations with Canada over shares of a shrunken fishery.

The four-day gathering last week in Bellevue, Washington, came during a time of tumultuous relations between the two nations.

President Donald Trump’s tariff policy and blustering talk of making Canada part of the United States have spurred widespread anger among Canadians. January has been particularly volatile, as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, at an economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, attacked “coercion” by great powers, while Trump, in a subsequent speech, asserted that “Canada lives because of the United States.”

At the Bellevue halibut meeting, Drew Lawler, a political appointee to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, served as the non-voting head of the U.S. delegation.

In private talks sandwiched between public parts of the meeting, the U.S. delegation threatened economic sanctions, and successfully pressured Canadians to trim the British Columbia share of the halibut harvest, according to sources with knowledge of these discussions.

The commission is charged by a more than century-old treaty with conserving Pacific halibut. There are three voting representatives from the United States and three from Canada.

The halibut fishery has been in a deep prolonged downturn that has buffeted sport, commercial and subsistence fishermen in Alaska, British Columbia, Oregon, Washington and Northern California. Since the early 2000s, both the average size and overall population of halibut have fallen precipitously, according to scientists.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

BOEM Releases Call Areas for California Offshore Drilling Plan

January 27, 2025 — On Monday, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management began the process for an offshore oil and gas lease sale off California with the publication of two call areas, which cover the southern and central areas of the state. The announcement suggests that the first lease sales will occur next year – giving time for local opposition, which has already begun to gather momentum.

CALIFORNIA: California to open last section of coast for commercial Dungeness crab harvesting

January 26, 2026 — The U.S. state of California is set to open up the last section of its coast to commercial Dungeness crab harvesting after testing revealed domoic acid levels in the area had gone down.

Although the rest of the state’s coastline opened for commercial harvesting earlier in January, a small stretch from the southern tip of the Reading Rock State Marine Protected Area to Cape Mendocino was further delayed due to elevated levels of domoic acid in crabs sampled from those waters. Domoic acid is a naturally occurring neurotoxin that can cause health issues for humans when they consume shellfish that contain high levels of it.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

CALIFORNIA: California announced USD 10 million for salmon recovery projects

January 26, 2026 — The U.S. state of California has announced USD 10 million (EUR 8.4 million) in funding for salmon recovery projects as part of the state’s ongoing efforts to support the species’ growth.

“These investments are another step forward to help California salmon,” California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said in a release. “The projects we’re funding will improve the health of creeks and rivers across the state, which will help salmon survive through climate change and benefit all who depend on healthy salmon fisheries. I’m proud of this progress, with much more work ahead.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

CALIFORNIA: California lawmakers push back against offshore oil drilling

January 22, 2026 — Weeks after California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis spoke out against federal efforts to expand offshore oil drilling, state lawmakers told The Center Square that increased drilling is deeply unpopular among coastal residents.

Opponents warn against the environmental costs.

But supporters say technology has made drilling safer. They also note offshore drilling could boost America’s energy independence and lower gas prices in California, which typically has the highest in the U.S.

Legislators’ comments opposing the drilling come after the announcement in November 2025 that the U.S. Department of the Interior would expand oil and gas drilling leases not just off the Pacific Coast in areas such as Santa Barbara, but other sites on the nation’s outer continental shelf.

“We have a deep, visceral experience that is seared into the community’s consciousness about the risks of offshore oil development,” Assemblymember Gregg Hart, D-Santa Barbara, told The Center Square. “We are adamantly opposed to the leasing. There’s been a bipartisan consensus for 40 years that we want to wind down offshore oil development, not expand it.”

According to a November 2025 order from the U.S. secretary of the interior, the program to increase oil drilling off American coastlines is meant to increase “national energy resilience” by increasing the number of oil drilling leases. That order mandated that four lease sales were planned for the coming months – one in December 2025, two in March 2026 and one in August 2026.

The first sale was held in December in New Orleans, attracting 219 bids from 26 companies that would include the increased oil production of 1.02 million acres in the Gulf of America, according to previous reporting by The Center Square. The last time oil drilling leases were sold in the Gulf of America, formerly the Gulf of Mexico, was in 2023.

Additional lease sales are planned for the Gulf of America and Cook Inlet in Alaska, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which is overseen by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Despite no lease sales immediately planned off the coast of California, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management plans to start auctioning six total oil drilling leases off the coast of California starting in 2027, according to a proposed program report from the bureau released in November. Three lease sales are planned in 2027 off the coast of Southern California, another two starting in 2027 off the coast of Central California and one off the coast of Northern California in 2029, the report states.

CALIFORNIA: California invests $10 million to restore salmon and steelhead habitats

January 22, 2026 — In a significant move to bolster California’s salmon population, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has allocated over $10 million in grants to 16 projects aimed at restoring, enhancing and protecting salmon and steelhead habitats across the state. This initiative is part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s comprehensive strategy to address the challenges facing these vital fish populations.

The funding, awarded through CDFW’s Fisheries Restoration Grant Program (FRGP), includes contributions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. These efforts align with the objectives of the California Salmon Strategy for a Hotter, Drier Future, which seeks to restore salmon populations and improve their habitats.

Among the funded projects, the Upper Klamath River Design and Planning Project was awarded $739,196 to the Mid Klamath Watershed Council. The project will develop a 100% level fisheries restoration design on 7 miles of Beaver Creek.

Read the full article at KRCR

CALIFORNIA: California delays commercial crab season start for section of Northern coast

January 13, 2026 — The state of California has decided to further delay the start of the commercial crab season along a stretch of its Northern coast after detecting elevated levels of domoic acid in the area.

After facing a delay of several weeks due to an abundance of whales off the state’s coast, California has been starting the commercial Dungeness crab season piecemeal as conditions improve in designated fishing zones. Crabbing in the central management area launched 5 January, while the Northern section of the coast was slated to open 15 January.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource