Saving Seafood

CALIFORNIA: 50th annual Zeke Grader forum addresses California fisheries crisis

October 7, 2025 — Lawmakers, tribal representatives and state officials gathered on October 1, in Sacramento for the 50th Annual Zeke Grader Fisheries Forum, focusing on the mounting difficulties facing California’s salmon and Dungeness crab fisheries.

Hosted by California Senator Mike McGuire and the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture, the forum highlighted the economic and environmental pressures impacting coastal communities. Officials discussed how warming ocean temperatures, drought, and habitat degradation have contributed to repeated salmon season closures and delayed crab opening along the West Coast.

Read the full article at KRCR

CALIFORNIA: West Coast fisheries ‘incredibly challenged’: McGuire forum addresses Dungeness, salmon impacts

October 6, 2025 — Last week, the California State Senate’s Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture hosted its 50th annual Zeke Grader Fisheries Forum. Scientists and representatives from various state agencies, tribal government, industry and environmental groups met to discuss challenges facing kelp forests off our shores, the future of a later and later Dungeness crab season and a salmon fishery now in its third consecutive year of commercial fishing closure.

Committee Chair Senator Mike McGuire opened proceedings by noting the challenges the state’s fisheries are facing as well as some of the state’s redoubled efforts and funding, via Proposition 4 funding and other legislative commitments, to improve resiliency along the California coast and waterways.

“I think that we can all agree, fisheries on the West Coast, salmon and Dungeness crab both, … have been incredibly challenged over the past several years, and it seems for every step forward that we take, two steps are taken back,” McGuire said. “… We’ve had some wins, though. We had the first recreational salmon fishing season in California in three years. The challenge that we continue to see (is) no commercial salmon fishing for the third straight year, and that has had massive impacts on rural coastal communities, especially in Northern California …

“Protecting (and) preserving our state’s Fisheries and Aquaculture is vital. It’s vital to the long-term health of rural economies up and down this state, and it is also key to the social and cultural diversity we celebrate here in California, especially with tribal nations.”

Read the full article at The Fresno Bee

CALIFORNIA: Nordic Aquafarms silent on future of aquaculture facility

October 3, 2025 — The future of the company planning a massive aquaculture facility is up in the air.

This week, the Lost Coast Outpost published a story posing the question “Is the Nordic Aquafarms project dead?”

The company secured a 30-year lease agreement with the Humboldt Humboldt Bay Harbor Recreation & Conservation District in 2019, and has been working to redevelop the Redwood Marine Terminal II site on the Samoa Peninsula into a $650 million state-of-the-art recirculating aquaculture facility since then.

But recently, Lost Coast Outpost noted, the company has gone silent, following the unexpected termination of a similar project in Maine earlier this year.

Read the full article at the Times Standard

Marine heatwave ‘blob’ returns in Pacific, rivaling past events in size and impact

September 26, 2025 — In 2013, scientists noticed a block of unusually warm water detected in the Pacific Ocean between the Gulf of Alaska and the Coast of Southern California. This was recognized by meteorologists as a basin-scale marine heatwave (MHW), often referred to as “the blob”. This water mass hung around from 2013-2016 before re-emerging again in July of 2019 (known as Blob 2.0) and lasting 20 months.

In May 2025, the blob reappeared.

Rachel Hager, a spokesperson for NOAA Fisheries, said this new MHW has grown “approximately the same size as the contiguous U.S.” She added it now ranks among the top three largest MHWs ever recorded in the northeast Pacific Ocean since monitoring began in 1982.

Read the full article at KATU 2

California leads spike in whale entanglements last year, NOAA report says

September 25, 2025 —  The number of large whale entanglements in U.S. waters increased steeply in 2024, with California seeing the most of the incidents, a U.S. government report said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a report last week documenting 95 large whale entanglements in 2024, compared to 64 in 2023 and well above the historical average of around 71 per year. The majority of the entanglements, 71%, happened off the coast of four states: Alaska, California, Hawaii and Massachusetts, the report said. Of those, 25% occurred off the California coast, primarily in the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Area.

The report said about half of the entanglements, mostly of humpback whales, were directly attributed to commercial or recreational fisheries. Whales become snagged in fishing gear used to catch lobster, crab, and other species, affecting their ability to swim, reproduce, and feed, and often causing death.

Entanglements and vessel strikes are two main causes of whale deaths, according to the NOAA. The agency says that since 2007, at least 922 humpback whales have been maimed or killed by long lines of rope fishermen use to pull up crab cages.

Read the full article at CBS News

NOAA identifies 21,000 acres suitable for commercial aquaculture development

September 25, 2025 — NOAA Fisheries has identified 21,000 acres of ocean off the coast of California and in the Gulf of Mexico, now called the Gulf of America by the Trump Administration, that it claims would be suitable for offshore aquaculture development.

The announcement follows up on an executive order issued by U.S. President Donald Trump during his first term, which charged NOAA Fisheries with establishing 10 Aquaculture Opportunity Areas (AOA) by 2025. According to the order, AOAs would be sites predetermined by the government to be suitable for commercial aquaculture.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

CALIFORNIA: California wildlife officers find dozens illegally harvesting Dungeness crab

September 24, 2025 — In August, California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) officers caught roughly 45 individuals engaged in illegally harvesting Dungeness crab, ultimately issuing 15 citations.

Officers headed to the scene at Thronton Beach in San Francisco after being alerted to “30 people” potentially poaching via the state’s tip line. Law enforcement found close to 45 individuals taking part and opted to approach small groups of poachers as they left the beach.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

New Data Shows Healthy Numbers of Quillback Rockfish off California; Fishing to Resume

September 22, 2025 — New data collected with help from California fishermen has revealed more quillback rockfish off the California Coast than estimated earlier. These findings allow NOAA Fisheries to drop fishing restrictions meant to help rebuild the species.

The change frees commercial and recreational fleets to resume fishing, particularly in shallower federal waters, for many species of groundfish off California, including rockfish. These fisheries generated more than $150 million in landings in some years. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife relaxed limits in state waters in August. NOAA Fisheries has now done the same in federal waters off California, which was announced on September 18.

“This demonstrates the value of good data to support the science,” said Keeley Kent, chief of the groundfish branch in NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region. “The industry stepped up and helped gather a lot more data, and that shows there is a healthy population of quillback out there.”

The first-ever stock assessment for quillback rockfish off California in 2021 was based on the limited data available at the time. It found that the lesser known species in that area was below a minimum stock size threshold. The Pacific Fishery Management Council took precautionary steps to reduce the harvest. NOAA Fisheries determined in December 2023 that the species was overfished. Sustainable fisheries regulations required NOAA Fisheries to develop a rebuilding plan, which further limited fishing for quillback and other rockfish that can be caught with quillback.

These limits hit in 2023 just as low salmon returns also shut down salmon fishing in California for the first of 3 years, said Tim Klassen, who captains charter trips for Reel Steel Fishing in Eureka, California. He’s also a member of the groundfish advisory subpanel for the Pacific Fishery Management Council. “The timing couldn’t have been worse.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Aquaculture Opportunity Areas bolster America-First seafood production

September 19, 2025 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

As part of NOAA’s commitment to prioritizing American seafood competitiveness, the agency has identified 13 Aquaculture Opportunity Areas totaling more than 21,000 acres in U.S. federal waters of the Gulf of America and off the coast of Southern California. These areas will strengthen the nation’s seafood industry, reduce reliance on foreign imports, and create high-quality American jobs.

Today’s release of two final programmatic environmental impact statements for the Gulf of America and Southern California identifies prime locations that may be suitable for developing multiple commercial aquaculture projects, fulfilling President Trump’s 2020 Executive Order “Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth” and supporting the 2025 Executive Order “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness”. These orders champion a robust, America-first seafood industry that puts U.S. workers and consumers first.

Each year, Americans eat roughly $15 billion in seafood farmed and imported from foreign countries, where labor and environmental standards often fall short of America’s rigorous standards. By expanding domestic aquaculture to complement wild-harvest fisheries, NOAA is driving an America-first approach that creates jobs, supports coastal communities, and ensures  high-quality, homegrown seafood for American families.

“The U.S. leads the world in aquaculture science and technology, yet we rank 20th globally in marine aquaculture production,” said Eugenio Piñeiro Soler, acting assistant secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA Fisheries assistant administrator. “By growing our domestic aquaculture industry, we will strengthen American health, create good-paying jobs, and drive sustainable, long-term economic growth for our nation.”

The final documents released today are grounded in 19 scientific support products and incorporate robust public input, building on draft documents released last year. These efforts reflect NOAA’s commitment to transparency and American-driven decision-making.

In Southern California, NOAA experts identified 10 prime locations for potential aquaculture development –  eight in the Santa Barbara Channel and two in Santa Monica Bay – ranging from 500 to 2,000 acres, totaling 16,500 acres. NOAA found these areas may be suitable for seaweed, shellfish, and finfish aquaculture.

In the Gulf of America, three locations off the coast of Texas were identified, each ranging in size from 500 to 2,000 acres, totaling 4,500 acres. NOAA found these areas may be suitable for seaweed, shellfish, and finfish aquaculture. NOAA is also investing in baseline environmental surveys in the Gulf to provide valuable data to prospective farm applicants.

The Aquaculture Opportunity Areas will be finalized with two decision documents following this announcement. The selected areas are just the beginning of unlocking the vast potential for aquaculture in U.S. waters, paving the way for more jobs, thriving coastal economies, and an increased abundance of high-quality American-raised seafood on Americans’ plates.

More information on the final PEISs for Southern California and the Gulf of America is available on the NOAA Fisheries website. 

CALIFORNIA: California isn’t backing down on offshore wind power despite Trump cancellation

September 18, 2025 — California’s ambitious plan to generate clean electricity from offshore wind suffered a considerable blow recently when the Trump administration canceled nearly half a billion dollars in federal funding for the state’s largest project. But industry insiders, experts and officials told The Times they aren’t slowing the pursuit of this up-and-coming technology.

The Golden State last year approved a landmark plan for developing 25 gigawatts of floating offshore wind by 2045. Five ocean leases have already been granted to energy companies off the coast of Humboldt and Morro Bay, with the potential to produce up to 10 gigawatts of electricity.

The plan eventually could see 1,600 turbines as tall as the Eiffel Tower in federal waters 20 to 50 miles offshore, producing enough electricity for 25 million homes. It is a climate solution and key component of the state’s goal of reaching 100% carbon neutrality by 2045.

Floating offshore wind is relatively new compared with fixed offshore wind, which involves attaching turbines directly to the sea floor. Most offshore wind around the world so far is fixed, but California has been exploring floating turbines because the Pacific Ocean is so deep. The floating technology has been successfully deployed in Norway, France, Portugal and China.

Federal officials last year said California’s offshore wind efforts would help combat climate change, lower consumer costs and create jobs. But the Trump administration has an aversion to climate efforts and to wind power in particular: On his first day in office, the president issued a memorandum halting offshore wind leasing on the Outer Continental Shelf and ordered officials to review all existing leases to look for legal grounds for termination.

Read the full article at LA Times