Saving Seafood

ALASKA: As waters around Alaska warm, algal toxins are turning up in new places in the food web

March 27, 2026 — Over the past two summers, a pair of remote and treeless volcanic islands in the eastern Bering Sea broadcast signals of climate change danger in the marine ecosystem that feeds Alaska residents and supports much of the state’s economy.

Tribal employees monitoring St. Paul Island’s beaches came across 10 dead but seemingly well-fed northern fur seals in August of 2024, their bodies lying amid piles of dead fish and birds.

Testing revealed that the seals had been killed by an algal toxin that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning. It was the first ever conclusive case of marine mammals killed by saxitoxin, the algal toxin that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning.

The people living on St. Paul, numbering about 400, most of them Unangax, are highly dependent on the marine environment for their food. They are aware of the algal toxins that pose risks of paralytic shellfish poisoning in faraway Southeast Alaska. But seal deaths from algal toxin poisoning on their own island came as a big surprise to local people, said Aaron Lestenkof, who is part of the tribe’s Indigenous Sentinels Network.

“It never occurred to us that it may happen to our marine mammals here,” Lestenkof said. “I guess it was just a matter of time.”

The St. Paul die-off was not a one-time incident. In August of 2025, tribal residents found 21 dead fur seals on a beach at St. George Island, a sister island of St. Paul. Along with the seals were two dead fin whales, a dead sea lion and several dead seabirds.

Read the full article at

MAINE: Maine lobster industry hit by harsh winter, falling catch and rising costs

March 26, 2026 — Maine’s lobster industry is facing mounting pressure after a harsh winter reduced fishing activity, slowed catches and added to rising costs across the sector.

A key driver was fewer days on the water. Maine lobster harvesters took more than 21,000 fewer fishing trips in 2025 than in 2024, the agency said. Total landings fell to just over 78 million pounds, the lowest level since 2008.

“It started in December, and in December you usually get to fish a lot of days, and we didn’t get to fish,” said lobsterman Greg Turner.

Turner, who has worked on a boat since childhood, said crews were only able to fish about half as many days as normal during peak winter months.

“If it’s zero out, and it’s blowing negative 25, you can’t go because it’s just – if something happened – you’d be done. You’d die out there, probably,” said Turner.

Read the full article at Fox Business 

What is a ‘super El Niño’? Scientists predict record-breaking climate event this year

March 24, 2026 — The ever-shifting, interconnected system of global air and ocean currents dictates the weather we experience daily.

This year, however, scientists are warning that a particularly potent version of one of Earth’s most infamous climate phenomena, El Niño, could dramatically alter these patterns.

Climate scientist Daniel Swain recently posted on X (formerly Twitter), stating: “Whew. All signs are increasingly pointing to a significant, if not strong to very strong, El Niño event.”

This sentiment was echoed by Washington Post meteorologist Ben Noll, who cautioned that “changes in location, intensity and frequency of droughts, floods, heat waves and hurricanes are all likely.”

Read the full article at the Independent

Industry puts forth guidance on a “fishery sensitive” approach to marine carbon dioxide removal

March 23, 2026 — With the launch of a set of guidance memos last week, the fishing industry established its leadership in a set of novel ocean-based climate interventions that could someday become one of the largest human activities in the ocean: marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR).

mCDR techniques are currently experimental; their effectiveness and environmental safety are yet to be firmly established. But against a backdrop of rising global temperatures and backpedaling on international climate commitments, these potential climate solutions are attracting increased attention. In just the last year, several field trials to test these methods at sea have been completed or planned.

The new guidance memos position the fishing industry at the center of mCDR planning from the very start, hoping to establish the industry’s standing as a must-consult constituency and showing that fishermen have indispensable knowledge for making sure this new field advances responsibly.

“As mCDR research moves from the laboratory into the ocean, it is essential that coastal communities—including fishermen and their representatives—be included in the planning process,” said Fiona Hogan of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, which led the project. “Too often, stakeholders are not admitted early enough into offshore development processes to have meaningful influence over how projects are structured.”

Based on ideas put forth during a set of virtual roundtables by commercial fishermen and fishing industry association staff across Alaska, the West Coast, and the Northeast, the memos outline critical first steps for involving the fishing community in mCDR technology development, project governance and permitting, and collaboratively designed research. Acknowledging the potential for serious missteps that could harm ocean ecosystems and their dependent communities, the memos offer a hopeful-but-fragile path forward for “fishery sensitive” approaches to mCDR. Key to making this vision possible will be a firm commitment by mCDR funders, project leaders, and relevant policy makers to include fishing industry expertise and priorities from the earliest stages. “Fishermen have unique knowledge about the functioning of complex ocean ecosystems gained through decades or generations on the water,” said Darcy Dugan from the Alaska Ocean Acidification Network, one of three coastal and ocean acidification networks that participated in the memos’ creation. “Bringing fishermen into mCDR research and planning efforts creates real opportunities to be partners in co-designing this new ocean-based climate solution alongside scientists and engineers.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Severe U.S. drought undermined Gulf fisheries, raising food security concerns

March 18, 2026 — A severe and prolonged U.S. drought in the late 1980s played a central role in one of the largest fisheries declines ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a new study published in Nature Communications.

The research, led by scientists at the University of Haifa and co-authored by Ben Kirtman, a climate scientist and dean of the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science, found that drought-driven reductions in Mississippi River flow sharply limited nutrient delivery to coastal waters.

“Our findings show that the fisheries collapse was not driven by fishing pressure alone,” said Igal Berenshtein, head of the Marine Ecology and Ocean Health Laboratory at the University of Haifa, and the study’s lead author. “The prolonged drought reduced river discharge and nutrient input to the Gulf, weakening phytoplankton production and primary productivity at the base of the food web. That disruption cascaded through the ecosystem, ultimately reducing fish biomass and fisheries yields.”

The study documented a roughly 42 percent drop in total fish biomass and a 34 percent decline in fisheries catch following the drought period. Nearly 90 percent of species groups examined showed decreases in biomass.

Read the full article at The University of Miami

UConn Helps Sea Scallop Communities Adapt to Ocean Warming

March 17, 2026 — A combination of conservation measures has helped the industry weather the effects of overfishing. Now, warming and acidifying oceans are posing new threats and prompting new solutions.

A team of researchers co-led by UConn Associate Professor of Marine Sciences Samantha Siedlecki, Shannon Meseck, of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, and Robert “Bobby” Murphy, a social scientist with NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, is exploring how environmental data can be used to develop a new management approach adapted for and responsive to a changing ocean. With the support of a three-year grant of just over $1 million from NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Program (OAP), the project will integrate oceanographic modeling, industry engagement, and socioeconomic research to create actionable strategies for industry and management. The project is one of six announced by OAP in November aimed at helping U.S. coastal communities adapt to ocean acidification.

“This is one of the earliest attempts to forecast optimal regions for Atlantic sea scallop growth, based on both carbon content and ocean temperature,” says Siedlecki.

Ocean acidification occurs when carbon dioxide (CO2) sent into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels and other human activity is absorbed by the oceans. Like sponges, the oceans of the world soak up about one-third of the CO2 generated by humans. Once dissolved in seawater, the CO2 forms carbonic acid, which increases acidity and reduces the carbonate ions that shell-building sea life, like sea scallops, need to form shells and skeletons.

Read the full article at UConn Today

Fish stocks are on the line: Climate change impacts global fishing yields

March 16, 2026 — As the saying goes, there are plenty more fish in the sea—but climate change is rapidly challenging that notion, with fish stocks around the world under threat. New modeling from Monash University predicts how climate change will alter fishing yields in many regions, threatening food security, livelihoods and the future of marine life as a sustainable food source.

Existing prediction models have looked at how fish species respond to warming temperatures in the absence of evolutionary change. However, the research published in Science now looks at how fish will evolve in response to future climates.

Fisheries provide billions of people with animal protein, for which the demand is predicted to increase. But as oceans warm and weather patterns shift, fish are evolving, breeding less or disappearing from waters entirely.

Read the full article at phys.org

Warming Waters Threaten Seafood Supply

March 13, 2026 — In the world’s waters, fish are making a quiet, biological retreat. The once simple rules of the ocean—grow larger than potential predators—are being rewritten as temperatures reach record highs. Desperate to survive, fish are hitting the fast-forward button on life in a biological shift that will soon impact what ends up on dinner tables globally.

Fish are getting smaller and dying at higher rates as they adapt to warming waters, researchers warn in a report released Thursday in the journal Science. This evolutionary change will reduce global fish yields by one-fifth under current warming predictions, and up to 30 percent in high-emissions scenarios.

This will trigger potentially irreversible evolutionary processes, shaking up entire ecosystems and food webs, with consequences for the billions of people who rely on seafood for protein—a demand expected to increase.

“What I found frightening about this work was that it was difficult to identify winners and losers—there are simply no real winners here,” said Craig White, the study’s co-author and an evolutionary physiologist at Monash University in Australia. “The combination of warming and evolution was always bad for fisheries.”

Read the full article at Inside Climate News

Upwelling Fueled Productive West Coast Ocean, Holding Warm Waters Offshore in 2025

March 10, 2026 — A massive marine heatwave warmed the eastern Pacific Ocean through much of 2025, but the wind-driven upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich water that drives the rich marine productivity of the West Coast kept the ecosystem healthy.

That is the conclusion of the California Current Ecosystem Status Report, an annual assessment of the West Coast marine ecosystem by NOAA’s California Current Integrated Ecosystem Assessment team. The report provides ecological insight for the Pacific Fishery Management Council and others on the ecological, social, and economic factors likely to influence fisheries and other ocean uses in the coming year.

The report assesses conditions and trends over the last year for insight on coming seasons. The leading takeaways from the annual report include:

  • Strong upwelling fostered productive waters and held heatwave warmth offshore
  • Deep-water nutrients likely fostered toxic algae as it mixed with warm surface water
  • Juvenile salmon, young rockfish and anchovy flourished in productive conditions
  • Shrimp-like krill, which often reflect the health of the ecosystem, proved abundant coastwide
  • Precipitation on land reduced drought conditions but sparse snowpack reduced water storage
  • Four coastal fish processors closed as total coastwide landings remain low

This year’s report also highlights new technology, ocean forecasts, and collaborations with vessel operators that provide fishing fleets and managers with timely ecosystem insight that helps support sustainable fisheries. It includes projections that many marine species will move farther offshore and into deeper waters as the ocean warms, which could affect fishing fleets and their communities on the West Coast.

Researchers from the NOAA Fisheries Northwest and Southwest Fisheries Science Centers presented the findings to the Council this week. They said abundant forage such as krill, juvenile rockfish, and anchovy helped boost species including salmon, squid, seabirds, and more.

“Warming continues to be an inescapable reality off the West Coast, but upwelling saved the day,” said Andrew Leising, a research oceanographer at the NOAA Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center and an editor of the annual ecosystem reports. “The cold water influx helped hold off the marine heatwave and sustained many of the fisheries and species the California Current is known for.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

MAINE: Maine’s catch of lobster declines again as high costs and climate change impact industry

March 9, 2026 — Maine’s catch of lobsters declined for the fourth straight year, state fishing regulators said Friday, as the industry continued to grapple with soaring business costs, inflation and a changing ocean.

The haul of lobsters, Maine’s best known export and a key piece of the state’s identity and culture, has declined every year since 2021, and some scientists have cited as a reason warming oceans that spur migration to Canadian waters.

The sector brought in 78.8 million pounds (35.7 million kilograms) of lobsters in 2025, down from more than 110 million pounds (49.9 million kilograms) in 2021, regulators said. It was the lowest total since 2008.

Inflation hit the industry hard last year, and there were more than 21,000 fewer fishing trips than in 2024, according to Carl Wilson, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources. Market uncertainty due to tariffs and a late start to the busy portion of the fishing season also played roles, he said.

Read the full article at the Associated Press