Saving Seafood

Calif. fisheries bill advances out of Senate

June 2, 2026 — A California fisheries bill backed by commercial fishermen and recreational fishing interests has cleared the state Senate and is headed to the Assembly.

Sen. Mike McGuire’s SB 1393 passed the Senate on May 28 with bipartisan support. According to McGuire’s office, the legislation focuses on fish habitat restoration, steelhead trout recovery efforts and updates to Dungeness crab fishery management regulations.

The bill would strengthen California’s steelhead trout fishing restoration program while directing additional funding toward fishery habitat restoration projects. It would also modernize management rules for the state’s Dungeness crab fishery and establish clear guidelines allowing vessels to transit through closed crab fishing areas even when fishing activity is restricted.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

 

CALIFORNIA: California Senate passes Dungeness crab bill with multiple changes in fishery management

June 1, 2026 — The California state senate has passed legislation that would make several changes to how the state’s Dungeness crab fishery is managed, most notably by freeing up commercial fishing vessels to transit through closed areas even if they have crabs on board.

“The commercial fishing fleet is the lifeblood of rural coastal communities here on the North Coast,” State Senator Mike McGuire, who sponsored the bill, said in a release. “From Crescent City to Half Moon Bay, we depend on the success and sustainability of California’s commercial and recreational fishing fleet. SB 1393 advances the modern management needed to protect our natural resources, strengthen our fisheries, and keep our coastal and rural economies strong for years to come.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

New AI-powered thermal cameras could reduce vessel strikes on gray whales in San Francisco

June 1, 2026 — Researchers at the Santa Barbara, California, U.S.A.-based Benioff Ocean Science Lab helped develop an AI-powered thermal camera that can detect grey whales, and scientists are using the technology to reduce the risk of vessel strikes in San Francisco Bay.

The forward-looking infrared (FLIR) cameras use AI-powered technology developed by WhaleSpotter that detects the heat signature of warm-blooded whale blows at all hours of the day up to 4 nautical miles out, according to a release. The project was a collaboration between the Benioff Ocean Science Lab, the U.S. Coast Guard’s Vessel Traffic Service, and whale experts at the Marine Mammal Center.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

CALIFORNIA: California launches digital tool to track reopened commercial salmon fishery

May 28, 2026 — The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has launched new digital tools that allow both commercial and recreational fishers to track in-season harvests of ocean salmon.

“We’re excited to give salmon anglers the data they need to better plan their fishing seasons while at the same time leveraging technology to support in-season management and sustainable fisheries,” CDFW Director Meghan Hertel said in a release.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US lawmakers introduce federal bill to address invasive golden mussels

May 28, 2026 — U.S. lawmakers are pushing for a stronger federal response to golden mussels, an invasive species found on the U.S. west coast that can cause massive damage to waterways and infrastructure.

“Golden mussels have spread across California with alarming speed, infesting our waterways, and destroying infrastructure and ecosystems,” U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-California said in a release. “It is clear that we must intensify efforts with local, state, and federal partners to prevent further spread of this invasive species to our water systems, and to address threats to our water quality. As millions of Californians depend on the Delta and other critical sources of clean drinking water, we must strengthen our response to eradicating this problem once and for all – in order to put the health of the public first.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

CALIFORNIA: Are California’s lofty offshore wind power ambitions on the rocks?

May 26, 2026 — California is counting on the growth of offshore wind generation to help the state meet its ambitious goal to derive 100% of its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2045 or earlier.

But late last month, state energy officials and offshore-wind advocates were blindsided after learning one developer abruptly withdrew plans to build a big wind farm in Morro Bay, after striking a controversial deal with the Trump administration.

It came “totally out of the blue,” said Matt Baker, one of the five voting members of the California Public Utilities Commission, “and it’s amazing the lengths that the administration is going towards trying to make this important source of energy off-limits, both to California and the rest of the country.”

Baker was one of the panelists this past week in Long Beach at the Pacific Offshore Wind Summit, a meeting of policymakers, businesses, port authorities, environmental groups and others supporting the Golden State reaping the anticipated energy bonanza blowing off its coast.

The title of this year’s convention was telling: Staying The Course on California Offshore Wind. And state energy officials insist they can ride out the storm.

Read the full article at the Miami Herald

Why an immense marine heatwave off the US west coast has alarmed scientists

May 26, 2026 — An enormous marine heatwave off the US west coast is ringing alarm bells among ocean and atmospheric scientists as new data shows its ecological and environmental effects are intensifying.

The unusual area of warm water has persisted since peaking in size during September 2025 and still stretches thousands of miles from the California coastline – more than halfway across the Pacific – affecting a vast triangle-shaped region of oceanic habitats from Hawaii to British Columbia and southward to Mexico.

As recently as early April, marine scientists had hoped that the heatwave might diminish and the worst of its effects might be avoided. However, new projections released last week by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) show it is now expected to expand and strengthen in the months to come.

Read the full article at The Guardian

CALIFORNIA: California’s salmon fishery is reopening after a population crash led to a 3‑year closure, but that doesn’t mean all is well

May 26, 2026 — Along the California coast, from Bodega Bay to Morro Bay, commercial fishing boats have started pulling in salmon for the first time in three years, and local salmon are once again appearing on restaurant menus and in seafood markets across the state.

California’s commercial ocean salmon fishery began reopening in May 2026 for the first time since a population crash led to a three-year closure.

But while the reopening, happening in phases and with limits, is welcome news, it does not mean the underlying problems have been solved.

The Pacific Fisheries Management Council, established by Congress to oversee West Coast fisheries, closed the salmon fishery in 2023 after populations of fall-run Chinook salmon collapsed to critically low levels, down 85% from the average population before 2005.

The immediate cause of the latest closure was the extreme drought from 2020-2022 that devastated salmon survival as river levels fell and the water heated up. But more than drought pushed the fishery to the brink. The underlying system of water management, hatchery practices and habitat loss have also eroded the salmon population’s ability to quickly recover from difficult years.

Read the full article at The Conversation 

Fishermen challenge sea otter protections in Calif. waters

May 22, 2026 — Otters and California’s sea urchin and lobster fisheries are a bad mix, and fishermen are taking legal action to protect themselves from the marine mammal.

“We’ve filed two petitions,” says Nate Hotes, a lawyer with the fishermen’s advocacy organization Pacific Legal Foundation.

“There are two timelines,” says Hotes. “The first is the delisting of the otters under the Endangered Species Act. Back in 2003, the Southern California sea otter population was 3,090 animals above the threshold for listing. We have been trying for the last ten years to get them delisted, and the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) hasn’t moved.”

To provoke action by the FWS on delisting, Hotes reports that the PLF filed a petition on April 24, 2026, requesting that the California otters be delisted. “I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he says. “But they’re supposed to respond to that in 90 days.”

Read the the full article at the National Fisherman

CALIFORNIA: California launches AI detection network as whale deaths skyrocket

May 21, 2026 — Ferries, cargo ships and tankers cut through choppy waters in the San Francisco Bay on Tuesday as a whale surfaced nearby, its spout barely visible against the white caps. Until now, whales could easily go unnoticed by mariners, but an AI-powered detection network launched this week is designed to track them day and night.

The system, called WhaleSpotter, scans the bay around the clock for whale blows and heat signatures up to two nautical miles away, alerting mariners to slow down or reroute when whales are nearby.

“They’ll be able to make adjustments way before they get anywhere close,” said Thomas Hall, director of operations for San Francisco Bay Ferry.

“It will also allow us to track data over time and see where the whales are camping out so we can adjust our routes during whale season to avoid those areas completely.”

The effort comes amid an alarming rise in gray whale deaths in the bay.

Last year, 21 dead gray whales were found in the wider Bay Area — the highest number in 25 years, according to The Marine Mammal Center — with at least 40% killed by ship strikes.

Read the full article at The New York Post