Saving Seafood

CALIFORNIA: CDFW closes sardine fishery for human consumption

May 20, 2025 — On May 9, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) announced an immediate restriction on the commercial and recreational harvest of Pacific sardines for human consumption in ocean waters south of Point Conception to the California-Mexico border.

The move follows a public health warning issued after dangerously high levels of domoic acid were detected in sardine samples from the region.

The directive, issued by CDFW Director Charlton Bonham, was prompted by recommendations from the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). According to CDFW, sardines caught in the Southern California Bight pose “a human health risk due to elevated levels of domoic acid,” a naturally occurring marine toxin produced by harmful algal blooms.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Natural toxin in ocean results in restrictions on Pacific sardine fishing off South Coast

May 12, 2025 — The ban is in place from Point Conception to the Mexico border.

The presence of a naturally occurring toxin in the ocean prompted state officials to ban the catch of Pacific sardines for human consumption from Point Conception to the Mexico border.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife issued the order. State Health officials say they’ve found elevated levels of domoic acid in the fish.

Read the full article at KCLU

California and 17 other states sue Trump administration over wind energy projects

May 9, 2025 — California and 17 other state attorneys general have filed a lawsuit attempting to stop the Trump administration’s efforts to thwart the development of wind energy projects.

The complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts comes in response to a Jan. 20 executive order by President Donald Trump that issued a temporary withdrawal of all areas on the outer Continental Shelf from offshore wind leasing.

The directive also called for a review of leasing and permitting for all wind energy projects across the country, alleging they “may lead to grave harm” that includes “negative impacts on navigational safety interests, transportation interests, national security interests, commercial interests, and marine mammals.”

The 101-page lawsuit from states led by Democrats says the executive order is unlawful and creates “an existential threat to the wind industry.”

Read the full story at The Mercury News

CALIFORNIA: 50-year legacy: Vietnamese boat people thrive as Monterey fishermen

May 5, 2025 — Aboard his boat in Moss Landing harbor, Tai Huynh, 71, bent over a pile of grenadier, then flung one of the deep sea fish into a large bin. Next to him, Tham Vo tipped them into a 500-pound crane lift box, swigging glass bottles of Heineken between loads.

In just over two hours recently, the pair offloaded 3,854 pounds of fish after spending 24 hours at sea and another 12 guarding their haul until daybreak.

These men are some of the oldest working refugees known as “boat people,” who fled Vietnam after the fall of Saigon 50 years ago and once in the U.S., got right back on boats to fish. From California to the Gulf Coast to Boston, they faced grueling labor, competition, racism, terror, climate change, the collapse of fisheries and ever-evolving regulations.

In Monterey County, they now stand alongside fifth- and sixth-generation Italians in a long line of ethnic local fishermen in a declining industry that just may rise again.

Huynh’s father taught him how to fish in the waters off Da Nang in central Vietnam when he was 12. He left home in his early 20s on a raft to avoid compulsory enrollment into the Communist military and entered the U.S. in 1978, sponsored by a church in Chicago. His wife joined him there.

Read the full story at the Santa Cruz Sentinel

As Trump pares back ocean protections, California weighs expanding them

May 5, 2025 — Strands of kelp glow in the dim morning light off California’s Channel Islands as fish and sea lions weave through the golden fronds. It’s a scene of remarkable abundance — the result of more than two decades of protection in one of the state’s oldest marine reserves.

But farther out in the Pacific, life in the vast Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument faces a very different future. The Trump administration has moved to reopen 500,000 square miles (about 1.3 million square kilometers) of previously protected waters there to commercial fishing, in a dramatic rollback of federal ocean protections.

California, meanwhile, may be headed in the opposite direction. As it undertakes its first 10-year review of its marine protected area network, state officials, scientists, tribal leaders and environmental advocates are pushing not just to maintain protections but to expand them.

But expansion proposals have sparked debate among fishermen.

Read the full story at KCRA

Gulf fish farming project at risk as judge pulls nationwide permit

May 2, 2025 — A federal judge repealed a nationwide permit for industrial fish farming off the coasts of Florida and California. Instead, the company leading the project will have to turn to individualized permits.

Ocean Era, a Hawaii-based company, proposed a series of industrial fishnets, including three that would be located roughly 45-miles southwest of Sarasota.

Their proposal predates a President Donald Trump 2020 executive order that initially created these “blanket” permits that could be granted by the Army Corp of Engineers.

With U.S. District Judge Kymberly Evanson revoking the nationwide permit on March 17, Ocean Era would have to turn to individualized permits to create fish farms.

Read the full story at WUWF

‘A ghost town’: How Bodega Bay is adapting to the ailing seafood industry

April 30, 2025 — From the living room window of their waterfront home, Carol and Tony Anello have watched the rise and fall of Bodega Bay. Traffic on Westshore Road flows past in waves, fishing boats pull into the docks and throngs of visitors line up at Spud Point Crab Co., their restaurant next door. Launched more than 20 years ago and known for its chowder and Dungeness crab rolls, the restaurant has helped make the Anellos beacons of the community.

It has also served as a life raft as they left the commercial fishing business.

“I had a premonition that the fishing industry was going down,” said Tony Anello, who fished commercially for salmon, crab and herring for 54 years before selling his boat Anabelle last year. “There are guys dropping out of this industry like flies, and I’m one of them.”

At Bodega Bay and other picturesque seaside villages along the California coast, the fishing economy is gradually sinking.

The latest blows came earlier this month: Commercial harvest of Chinook salmon was banned in California for the third consecutive year because of low populations, and the state’s Dungeness crab fishery has been severely restricted in an effort to protect humpback whales from entanglements. Sportfishing for salmon — a valuable industry and a beloved pastime — also was prohibited for two straight years, and will be severely cut back this year to what may amount to a single weekend in June in Northern California.

Read the full story at CalMatters

Northern California rock crab fishery opens for first time in a decade

April 30, 2025 — California state regulators have decided to open the Northern California commercial rock crab fishery for the first time in a decade after determining the shellfish are now safe to harvest and consume.

The fishery was first closed in 2015 through an emergency rule following the largest outbreak of domoic acid on the West Coast of the United States. However, with a lack of testing done to confirm the quality of the crab meat, the precautionary action remained in place for years after the domoic acid outbreak had ended.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Promising signs for 2026 after California closes commercial salmon season for the year

April 29, 2025 — For the third consecutive year, commercial salmon fishing off the California coast will be prohibited, although there will be a limited opportunity for recreational anglers for the first time since 2022. However, officials say data indicates the industry could see a return in 2026.

Angela Forristall, salmon staff officer with the Pacific Fishery Management Council, said the decision to recommend closing the state’s commercial salmon fisheries for the year followed a challenging debate among the council and stakeholders from both the recreational and commercial fishing industries.

Forristall shared that there were several versions of the recommendation that did open commercial fishing briefly, but the data they’re seeing from populations in the Klamath and Sacramento rivers says it’s potentially too soon for major operations.

Read the full story at KRCR

California reaches settlements with seafood companies over elevated levels of toxic metals

April 29, 2025 — The state of California has reached separate settlements with Clearwater Fine Foods, Seaquest Seafood Corporation, and Jayone Foods over allegations that the companies sold seafood products with elevated levels of toxic heavy metals without warning consumers as required by state law.

“No one should have to question whether their food is safe to eat,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in an announcement. “That’s why California law requires businesses to warn our residents about potential harm from significant exposures to toxic contaminants.”

Read the full story at SeafoodSource