Saving Seafood

Trump administration releases its expanded oil and gas drilling plan

November 21, 2025 — Californians were already gearing up for battle even before the Trump administration released a draft plan on Nov. 20 that proposes a broad expansion of oil and gas drilling and lease sales along America’s coasts, including California, Alaska and west of Florida.

The Department of the Interior announced as many as 34 potential offshore lease sales across 21 of 27 existing Outer Continental Shelf planning areas, covering roughly 1.27 billion acres. That includes 21 areas off the coast of Alaska, seven in the Gulf of America and six along the Pacific coast.

The plan quickly drew opposition from state leaders and environmental groups – and support from some business organizations. California Attorney General Rob Bonta said his office fully opposes the plan.

Read the full article at USA Today

Latest survey shows slight increase in critically endangered vaquita population

November 11, 2025 — Scientists surveying the Upper Gulf of California for the critically endangered vaquita porpoise have confirmed sightings of between 7 to 10 individuals and the birth of new calves, a slight increase from the 2024 survey, which marked the lowest results ever recorded.

Found only in the Northern Gulf of California off the coast of Mexico, the vaquita porpoise is among the planet’s most endangered species. The population has seen a steady decline since its first survey in 1997, when scientists estimated roughly 567 individuals. By 2024, that number had fallen to just eight – the lowest level ever documented – with no sightings of newly born calves.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Judge rules NOAA must release bycatch photos from trawlers

November 4, 2025 — A federal judge in California has ordered NOAA to release photos, videos and other visual data documenting the catch of nontargeted species by the state’s halibut trawl fishery.

In a ruling, Judge Josephine Staton of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California told NOAA to release 77 photographs to the environmental group Oceana detailing the bycatch of fish and marine mammals caught up in nets used by bottom trawlers off the California coast.

Oceana had requested the photos in 2022 under a public records request, but NOAA declined to provide them, citing an exemption where the release of documents violates nondisclosure provisions in federal law. NOAA argued that the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act prohibited the release of the photos because doing so could identify the identities of fisheries observers whose identities were to be kept private.

Read the full article at E&E News

CALIFORNIA: Recreational crab season opens along the Sonoma Coast as state warns of biotoxin risk

November 3, 2025 — There’s a catch to this year’s crab season and it’s not just in the traps.

The recreational Dungeness crab season opened Saturday along the Sonoma Coast, but state officials are warning fishers about potentially dangerous levels of domoic acid in the crabs’ internal organs.

In a health advisory issued Oct. 24, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the California Department of Public Health said unhealthy levels of the naturally occurring toxin have been found in the viscera, or the internal organs of the crab. Officials warned that cooking the crab does not destroy the toxin, advising fishers to not ingest any part of the viscera.

Domoic acid poisoning in humans can cause nausea, dizziness and in severe cases, even memory loss or death, public health officials cautioned.

Despite the warnings, recreational crabbers can still hit the seas, unlike Bodega Bay’s Dick Ogg and other commercial fisherman who have been sidelined following seven straight years of season delays to protect endangered marine life from entanglements.

For Ogg, who predicts the commercial season will once again not open until January, and other fishermen across the state, these delays take a major toll on their profit margins.

“The impact is significant,” Ogg said Saturday. “What we have lost is our Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s crab market. Everything has been pushed ahead to when people are less interested in getting the resource. It’s a lot more difficult and the financial impact to everyone is pretty significant.”

Read the full article at East Bay Times

CALIFORNIA: California reintroducing salmon by planting 350,000 spring-run Chinook eggs above dam

October 31, 2025 — The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) plans to inject 350,000 Chinook salmon eggs into the North Yuba River this fall as the state government looks for new ways to help struggling salmon populations recover.

This is the second year CDFW has taken this approach, collecting eggs fertilized at the Feather River Fish Hatchery in Oroville and then hydraulically injecting them into the river’s gravel substrate in November.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

A Lifeline for Salmon: UCSC and NOAA Join Forces to Secure a Future for California’s Most Iconic Fish

October 30, 2025 — Nearly every day for the past 20 years, scientists from UC Santa Cruz and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have waded into Scott Creek, a 12-mile-long burbling stream in Santa Cruz County just a few miles north of Davenport.

Dressed in waders and toting bags and buckets, these scientists navigate the stream’s chilly waters and muddy banks in search of coho salmon. Along the coast of central California, coho salmon are endangered. But the young salmon in Scott Creek may hold the key to the species’ recovery.

As the southernmost population of coho in the state, the salmon in Scott Creek are adapted to warmer and drier conditions than their more northern cousins. By studying the evolution, ecology, and genetics of this population, scientists at UCSC and NOAA hope to gain insights that could help them ensure the survival of the species throughout California.

The project at Scott Creek is one of many that UCSC and NOAA have undertaken together to prevent the extinction of California’s iconic salmon. Since joining forces 25 years ago, the federal agency and the university have become the largest and most strategic force fighting to conserve salmon in California. But with climate change, habitat loss, overfishing, invasive species, and poor water management posing an ever-greater threat to salmon survival, the salmon-saving team continues to have its work cut out for it.

Read the full article at UC Santa Cruz

CALIFORNIA: California delays commercial Dungeness crab season to 2026, citing presence of whales, sea turtles

October 28, 2025 — The U.S. state of California has delayed the start of the commercial Dungeness crab season until 2026 after regulators detected a high number of humpback whales and the presence of leatherback sea turtles off the coast.

“Another year of a delayed commercial Dungeness crab season is incredibly difficult for our fleet and port communities. However, given the current risk assessment process, the commercial fleet supported this outcome as the most practical path forward,” Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman’s Association (PCFFA) Executive Director Lisa Damrosch said in a release.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

CALIFORNIA: Why holiday crab tradition in California faces another disrupted season

October 28, 2025 — For many Californians, crab bakes, crab cakes and crab feeds are traditional holiday fare.

But the need to protect humpback whales in California’s coastal waters, combined with widespread domoic acid contamination along the northern coast, has once again put the brakes on the Dungeness commercial fishery and parts of the recreational fishery this fall.

Consuming shellfish contaminated with domoic acid can cause illness and death.

Last week, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced it was delaying the opening of commercial crab fishing statewide until Jan. 1. The season will end July 31. It had been scheduled to start Nov. 1.

New state regulations require the closure of the fishery if three or more humpback whales are confirmed to have been entangled in crab gear during the calendar year. In 2025, four whales have been entangled in commercial Dungeness crab fishery ropes and lines. An additional four humpbacks have been snared in gear that officials suspected but could not confirm was for crab fishing.

Read the full article at The Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA: Commercial Dungeness crab fishing season delayed for all of California

October 27, 2025 — The commercial Dungeness crab fishing season has been delayed for all of California.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced that the presence of whales and leatherback sea turtles has stopped the starting of crab season. The season would have begun Nov. 1.

Recreation Dungeness crab season will open on Nov. 1 along the coast of the Central Coast and the Monterey Bay, but with some restrictions.

The use of crab traps between the areas of the Sonoma and Mendocino County line and Lopez Point, Monterey County, will be restricted.

A Fleet Advisory has also been sent out to avoid dropping any gear in the areas near the whales. Hoop nets also cannot be left unattended for extended periods and must be serviced every two hours.

Read the full article at KSBW

Trump administration aims to auction offshore oil leases along U.S. coastlines that have been off-limits for decades

October 27, 2025 — The Trump administration is proposing to auction offshore oil drilling leases across new portions of the U.S. coast as soon as 2026, according to internal Department of Interior draft documents viewed by CBS News.

New leases would include waters off New England, the Carolinas and California.

Offshore oil leases are common along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana, as well as parts of Alaska, but there are currently no active oil leases on the Atlantic coast, and California has not had a new oil lease since 1984.

This comes as the Department of Interior formally announced plans this week to reopen 1.56 million aces in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas leasing, reversing a Biden administration decision to limit oil drilling in the Arctic.

That decision drew a strong rebuke from Democrats, including Sen. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, who accused the administration of rewarding the fossil fuel industry for its support of the president. “This decision is not about energy dominance—it’s about donor dominance,” Markey said in a statement. “The Trump administration must immediately reverse its shortsighted decision. The Arctic Refuge is not for sale.”

Read the full article atThe Trump administration is proposing to auction offshore oil drilling leases across new portions of the U.S. coast as soon as 2026, according to internal Department of Interior draft documents viewed by CBS News.

New leases would include waters off New England, the Carolinas and California.

Offshore oil leases are common along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana, as well as parts of Alaska, but there are currently no active oil leases on the Atlantic coast, and California has not had a new oil lease since 1984.

This comes as the Department of Interior formally announced plans this week to reopen 1.56 million aces in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas leasing, reversing a Biden administration decision to limit oil drilling in the Arctic.

That decision drew a strong rebuke from Democrats, including Sen. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, who accused the administration of rewarding the fossil fuel industry for its support of the president. “This decision is not about energy dominance—it’s about donor dominance,” Markey said in a statement. “The Trump administration must immediately reverse its shortsighted decision. The Arctic Refuge is not for sale.”