Saving Seafood

The NSF Seafood Engine in New England wins $15M U.S. National Science Foundation award to strengthen fisheries and aquaculture

July 15, 2026 — The following was released by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution:

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) announced a major new award to bolster the American seafood industry through the NSF Regional Innovation Engines (NSF Engines) program within the Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (NSF TIP). The NSF Seafood Engine in New England, led by the Portsmouth-based non-profit NERACOOS, is a collaboration of seafood industry, tech sector, government, and research partners across Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, including the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. This innovation ecosystem aims to revitalize the seafood sector through cutting-edge technology. This award will position New England to lead the nation in meeting the goals outlined in the Executive Order on Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness.   

“NSF Engines investments in critical technologies and future industries will transform America’s innovation infrastructure for decades to come,” said Brian Stone, performing the duties of the NSF director. “The NSF Seafood Engine will leverage cutting-edge resources, including AI, advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, robotics, and more to strengthen the New England seafood supply chain, from harvesting to consumer delivery, supporting businesses up and down the coastline.” 

The Seafood Engine will initially receive an award of $15 million over two years, with the potential to grow up to $160 million over ten years as it works to build an internationally competitive technology and innovation cluster. This core funding from NSF creates an unprecedented opportunity to leverage additional resources from public, private, and philanthropic sources to expand the partnership and scale its outcomes. The NSF Engine strives to enhance the competitiveness of fisheries and aquaculture, a pillar of New England’s economy that accounts for 25% of the nation’s seafood value. The technological solutions can be rolled out nationwide, propelling the American seafood industry to a stronger position within the global market. 

“Built on the ingenuity and steadfast determination at the heart of America’s oldest commercial enterprise, the Seafood Engine is ready to confront key challenges facing the industry with bold innovation,” said Jake Kritzer, Principal Investigator of the Seafood Engine and Executive Director of NERACOOS. 

Over time, new R&D, Workforce Development, and Translation activities will work to reshore American seafood processing capacity and strengthen the full supply chain. Together, these efforts will bring new opportunities to small and medium firms across the New England coastline and cut into the $20B seafood deficit facing American businesses.  

WHOI researchers will support these efforts through leadership in ocean observation, technical innovation, and workforce development. Physical oceanographer Glen Gawarkiewicz will partner with New England fishers to deploy a fleet of nine autonomous underwater vehicles from fishing vessels, collecting and analyzing high-resolution data on conditions that affect commercially important species. Marine biologist Michael Brosnahan will develop and deploy robotic systems for data-driven aquaculture management with colleagues from the University of New Hampshire and the University of Rhode Island. WHOI will also develop a two-week course for students in the WHOI-Cape Cod Community College Blue Economy Internship program to help develop future leaders of the regional blue economy. 

“New England’s prosperity has always been tied to the ocean,” said Diane Foster, WHOI’s Vice President and Dean of Academic Programs and a member of the Seafood Engine Workforce Development Sub-team. “NSF’s foresight in establishing the Seafood Engine will not only strengthen the seafood supply chain with unparalleled innovation, it will also turn the region’s maritime economy into a powerhouse that will support blue innovation, national security, and economic prosperity nationwide.” 

Government leaders from across the Seafood Engine region of service welcomed the news from NSF: 

“Massachusetts’ commercial fishing industry is powered by hardworking fishermen, family-owned businesses and coastal communities that have helped define our state for generations,” said Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey. “This investment will strengthen those communities by supporting innovation, expanding our workforce and helping to ensure our seafood industry remains competitive for years to come. Congratulations to the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance and all of the partners who made this achievement possible.” 

“Our fishing industry has shaped Massachusetts’ coastal communities for generations, and it’s critical that we continue investing in its future,” said Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll. “This partnership brings together fishermen, researchers and businesses to develop new technologies, strengthen our seafood supply chain and create new opportunities for the next generation. We’re proud to be part of this regional effort to keep New England at the forefront of the seafood industry.”  

In early summer 2024, the Seafood Engine submitted one of nearly 300 letters of intent in response to the second NSF Engines funding opportunity. The preliminary proposal was selected as one of 71 to advance to the next round of competition. Following a merit review, the Seafood Engine was one of 29 teams to share a detailed presentation about their proposed NSF Engine. From this process, 15 finalists were selected to participate in two-day site visits with NSF staff and external experts. The Seafood Engine is one of 12 NSF Engines award winners selected from among these finalists. 

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About the Seafood Engine 

The NSF Seafood Engine in New England, led by the Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems (NERACOOS), is working to revitalize a legacy industry by leveraging advanced technologies that reduce the national seafood deficit and strengthen every level of the seafood supply chain.  

Learn more at seafoodengine.org  

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Founded in 1930 and based in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, WHOI’s mission is to understand the ocean and its interaction with the Earth system, and to communicate the ocean’s vital role in the global environment. 

NSF awards $15M to launch New England Seafood Engine

July 15, 2026 — A new federally backed initiative aimed at strengthening the U.S. seafood industry is bringing $15 million to New England, with commercial fishermen expected to play a central role in developing new technologies for the sector.

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) announced July 14 that the NSF Seafood Engine in New England has been selected for funding through the agency’s Regional Innovation Engines program. Led by the Portsmouth, N.H.-based Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems (NERACOOS), the initiative brings together seafood industry leaders, researchers, government agencies and technology partners across Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, including the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance.

According to the announcement, the project will receive $15 million over its first two years, with the potential to grow into a $160 million investment over the next decade as it builds a regional innovation hub focused on fisheries and aquaculture.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: Trump says he’ll reopen Northern Edge to scalloping; New Bedford may benefit more than Cape Cod

July 8, 2026 — South Coast scallopers are rejoicing at President Trump’s pledge, on Thursday, to reopen a prime scallop fishing area off Massachusetts.

But the process could take more than 18 months, and Cape Cod scallopers may not benefit as much as those in New Bedford.

“From an industry perspective, access to the Northern Edge would be a blessing,” said Eric Hansen, owner of two New Bedford scallop vessels. “The loss of resource and revenue for the scallop industry for the last 30 years has been huge.”

The Northern Edge, a section of Georges Bank, has been closed to scalloping since 1994.

Aubrey Church, policy director at the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, said some of the smaller commercial vessels on Cape Cod Cape are unlikely to be able to make the 15-hour trip to the Northern Edge.

Many of Cape Cod’s commercial fishing vessels are dayboats, meaning they go out and return on the same day.

Church said the alliance wants to hear more from its members before taking a position on access to the Northern Edge.

“Understanding how different sectors of the fleet may be affected will be an important part of our discussions with members,” she said.

Read the full article at NHPR

Scientists share work to understand struggling sea scallop populations

May 15, 2026 — The Coonamessett Farm Foundation hosted Scallop Research Share Day, on Tuesday, in cooperation with the New England Fishery Management Council.

Melissa Sanderson, chief operating officer of the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, was one of the presenters. Sanderson said the annual event is a chance to share research progress and results between scientists, fishermen, and fishery managers.

“And it really makes sure that we’re all on the same page,” Sanderson said. “That we’re aware of other projects that we might be able to build upon or learn from. And sometimes it provides new opportunities to collaborate.”

Read the full article at Connecticut Public

Monkfish are there- fishermen say the science is missing them

January 20, 2026 — If no one catches fish in the ocean, are they still there? Commercial fishermen say yes, but fisheries science has been saying otherwise.

The disconnect between what fishermen experience on the water and the information regulators use to manage stocks has always been a bugaboo, but it’s a particular problem when it comes to monkfish.

Since scientists can’t age monkfish, they tie the total allowable landings to an incomplete federal survey and fishermen’s landings over the last few years – which plummeted during COVID when the markets shut down.

When fishermen began targeting the ugly, yet delicious, big-mouthed fish again, they were faced with drastic cuts because the stock assessment model assumed there were less fish because landings were down.

Seeing the problem, Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance teamed up with School for Marine Science and Technology at UMass Dartmouth and commercial fishermen to use a competitive federal grant program to better incorporate fishermen’s effort into the stock assessment.

“Our goal for this project was to provide a way to expand the the stock assessment model to include fishing effort,” said Melissa Sanderson, chief operating office at Fishermen’s Alliance, who noted that local gillnet fishermen have told her that they are less likely to target monkfish when prices are low or when the skates clog up the nets excluding the monks.  “Because monkfish landings are low, the amount fishermen are allowed to harvest keeps going down.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

House Committee advances reauthorization of Young Fishermen’s Development Act

September 18, 2025 — On Sept. 3, the House Natural Resources Committee has advanced H.R. 3692, a bill to reauthorize the Young Fishermen’s Development Act (YFDA). The legislation, first passed in 2020, is aimed at addressing workforce challenges in the commercial fishing industry by providing training and business development support for new entrants.

The Fishing Communities Coalition (FCC), which said in a press release that it has backed the bill since its inception, welcomed the committee’s action. “The FCC has championed this legislation for more than a decade, now that we are beginning to see what a catalyst it is for the fishing industry we need to keep it going,” said Aubrey Church, fisheries policy director of the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance.

The proposed five-year reauthorization is intended to build on YFDA’s support for workforce development, safety training, and business education, the FCC press release said. According to the Coalition, nearly $2 million has already been distributed to training programs through the Sea Grant Program at NOAA, which administers the initiative.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

‘Alarm bells.’ After low oxygen scare in Cape waters, Falmouth company uses $2M to help

March 3, 2025 — In a small room in the Falmouth Technology Park, Noah Van Home is assembling 450 sensors that will be scattered in waters from Maine to New Jersey to help scientists, fishermen and businesses in the blue economy learn more about the ocean.

The sensors, or data loggers, are part of a project involving a private-public partnership funded by a $2 million grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative and spearheaded by the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance.

Lowell Instruments of Falmouth has been hired to manufacture the data loggers that will collect bottom water temperature and dissolved oxygen readings. The program gives fishermen and scientists a look at what’s happening in the water, not just on top of it.

Read the full article at WickedLocal.com

$2M Grant to Fishermen’s Alliance Means More Boats Gathering Ocean Data

December 5, 2024 — Strange things have been happening in recent years in the Gulf of Maine, the 36,000 square miles of relatively enclosed ocean stretching from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia. Low-oxygen zones have become annual occurrences, a large brown algae bloom in summer 2023 grew from Maine to northern Massachusetts, and looming over it all is the accelerating warming of surface waters. The Gulf of Maine is warming three times faster than the global average, according to the Maine Climate Council, which is faster than 99 percent of the world’s oceans.

Understanding these phenomena and their effects on fisheries is difficult, said Owen Nichols, Director of Marine Fisheries Research at the Center for Coastal Studies, because of the lack of data available on the ocean water below the surface — at the depths where most fish live.

There is one group of people, however, who regularly put equipment deep in the ocean: fishermen. And many of them are already working with scientists to gather data on the water.

But on Oct. 31, Gov. Healey’s administration announced a nearly $2 million grant to the Chatham-based Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance that will significantly expand fishing vessel-based measurements. The grant is from the quasi-public Mass. Technology Collaborative.

Since 2001, a Northeast Fisheries Science Center project has partnered with local fishermen to try to fix the lack of data about the depths. The project, called eMOLT (Environmental Monitoring on Lobster Traps and Large Trawlers), has so far installed sensors on about 100 fishermen’s gear to gather data on stratification of water temperature, dissolved oxygen levels, and other parameters.

Read the full story at The Provincetown Independent

$2M to give more ocean information to fishers, scientists. ‘It will make a difference.’

November 8, 2024 — A $2 million dollar grant aimed at beefing up collaboration between commercial fishermen and scientists was announced in late October at an event in Sandwich.

The money will put 450 more sensors on commercial fishing equipment and data monitors on 150 more commercial fishing vessels.

The research and development grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative Innovation Institute to the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance will make it possible to gather more ocean data and share it widely, according to James Byrnes, director of operations and programs.

“We’re creating the largest collection of boats and sensors in the U.S. for at-scale monitoring of the oceans in and around Massachusetts,” he said at the announcement.

Read the full article at Yahoo News!

MASSACHUSETTS: Fear on Cape Cod as Sharks Hunt Again

October 25, 2021 — Over the past decade the waters around Cape Cod have become host to one of the densest seasonal concentrations of adult white sharks in the world. Acoustic tagging data suggest the animals trickle into the region during lengthening days in May, increase in abundance throughout summer, peak in October and mostly depart by the dimming light and plunging temperatures of Thanksgiving. To conservationists, the annual returns are a success story, a welcome sign of ecosystem recovery at a time when many wildlife species are depleted. But the phenomenon carries unusual public-safety implications. Unlike many places where adult white sharks congregate, which tend to be remote islands with large colonies of sea lions or seals, the sharks’ summer residency in New England overlaps with tourist season at one of the Northeast’s most coveted recreational areas. Moreover, the animals are hunting in remarkably shallow water, at times within feet of the beach. This puts large numbers of people in close contact with a fast and efficient megapredator, historically the oceans’ most feared fish.

Among critics of the white-shark status quo, disillusionment runs deep. Other members of the Cape Cod Ocean Community, including Drew Taylor, reject the reliance on nonlethal approaches. Taylor proposes challenging policy and amending federal law to allow communities to set preferred population levels for white sharks and gray seals and permit hunting or fishing to reduce their numbers. Conservation laws, he said, were understandable in intent but lack tools to deal adequately with rebounds of this scale. “How can you write a law that protects something in perpetuity?” he said. His views, like those heard in human-wildlife conflicts elsewhere, can be summarized like this: It’s perfectly reasonable to find lions or cobras or white sharks captivating but not want hundreds of them feeding in your neighborhood park. He blames federal policies for fostering biological and social dynamics that force people to yield without question or recourse to dangerous or nuisance animals. Marine mammals, he noted, enjoy protection that terrestrial mammals do not; a sole black bear that roamed Cape Cod in 2012, for example, was promptly tranquilized and removed.

Greg Connors, captain of the 40-foot gillnet vessel Constance Sea, which fishes from Chatham, said environmentalists and bureaucrats have not fully considered the gray seal recovery’s effect on people who live on the water. Seal advocates and scientists, he said, have not shown convincing evidence that the historic seal population in New England was as large as it is now and operate on assumptions that all increases are good. At some point, he said, other voices and interests should be balanced against those in control. “They never set a bar on how high they want it to get,” he said of the seal population. “It’s always just more. That’s a terrible plan.” Seals, he said, have done more than attract white sharks; they have driven fish farther to sea and steal catches from nets. Nick Muto, the lobster captain, said marine-mammal protections, as designed, defy common sense. Why, he asked, do protections apply equally to North Atlantic right whales, of which perhaps 400 animals remain, and gray seals, which in the western Atlantic number roughly half a million? He was surprised that Medici’s death didn’t change the official stance. “I thought once somebody died here,” he said, “it would be lights out for the seals.” Connors and Muto acknowledge there is little chance for an amendment, an assessment shared by their industry group. “We’re under no illusion that there is going to be a cull,” said John Pappalardo, who heads the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance. “Blood on the beach? People would not tolerate that.” But frustrations capture the degree to which one side feels overtalked and alienated by the other, including many people whose lives center on the water.

Read the full story at the New York Tims Magazine