Saving Seafood

Tiny plankton have big impact on harmful algal bloom predictions, data reveal

April 10, 2026 — As climate change intensifies harmful algal blooms worldwide, an international team led by Hiroshima University has developed a hybrid modeling approach that combines algal movement simulations, AI, and long-term monitoring data to sharpen forecasts of these bloom events—linked to environmental damage, mass fish die-offs, economic losses, and risks to human health.

Harmful algal blooms (HABs)—responsible for environmental damage, mass fish die-offs, economic downfalls, and even human deaths—are increasing in frequency and severity as Earth warms.

While some computer models can forecast potential blooms, their accuracy is limited by the number of algae species that can bloom harmfully under different environmental triggers, as well as how different species may overlap with one another. However, an international team has demonstrated that coupling three models and accounting for how different algae species interact can significantly improve predictions.

The researchers, led by Fumito Maruyama, a professor with the Center for Planetary Health and Innovation Science at Hiroshima University’s The IDEC Institute, published their work in Ecological Informatics.

Read the full article at phys.org

Arctic sea hits record low, while Bering Sea ice surges

April 8, 2026 — While Arctic sea ice reached its lowest seasonal peak on March 15, conditions in the Bering Sea told a very different story this winter– with ice expanding farther south than fishermen have seen in more than a decade.

According to reporting from KMXT, sea ice in the eastern Bering Sea continued growing for another week after the Arctic-wide peak, ultimately reaching its greatest extent since 2013. Ice pushed south past Bristol Bay and the Alaska Peninsula, extending to Cold Bay, Unimak Island, and even the Pribilof Islands

“The Bering Sea is the only place in the Arctic where sea ice is above normal,” Rick Thoman said to KMXT. “To our west, in the Sea of Okhotsk, so west of Kamchatka, it’s the lowest sea ice extent of record [as of March 19].”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Trump budget proposal targets NOAA

April 7, 2026 — The Trump administration’s fiscal year 2027 budget request is drawing sharp concern from environmental groups and ocean advocates, with proposed cuts to key federal agencies that support fisheries science, management, and coastal communities.

According to Inside Climate News, the spending plan would continue efforts to scale back funding for climate and environmental programs, including significant reductions to NOAA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The proposal outlines a broader push to “constrain non-defense spending,” while increasing defense funding to $1.5 trillion, a 44 percent jump.

At the EPA, funding would be cut roughly in half under the proposal, with grants reduced by $1 billion. Inside Climate News also reported that the agency has already seen significant staffing losses, with more than 4,000 employees leaving during the first year of Trump’s second term. That represents a 24 reduction in workforce, bringing staffing levels to their lowest point since the 1980s.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NEW YORK: New York governor seeks federal aid for state’s oyster industry

April 7, 2026 — New York Governor Kathy Hochul has asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to confirm that a disaster has hit the state’s oyster industry, enabling oystermen to access emergency loans and financial support.

Like their counterparts working in Chesapeake Bay, New York oystermen have been beset by extreme cold weather and icy conditions that have kept them from working for much of the season.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Warming Waters in the Gulf of Maine May Affect the Future of Lobsters

April 6, 2026 — Curt Brown spent his childhood harvesting lobsters along the coast of Maine. As an adult, he went on to earn a Master of Science from the University of Maine, observing the very waters where he spent years fishing for the crustaceans.

With a rapidly changing climate, many researchers worry that Maine’s lobsters will eventually move north to colder waters. Brown isn’t so sure, though, seeing all of the forces affecting the ecosystem as highly complex. His studies in marine biology and policy, along with his continued work as a lobsterman, have helped him understand that the lobster industry depends upon various factors, some beyond man’s control.

Last year, the state of Maine’s lobster fisheries harvested 78.8 million pounds of lobsters, and according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR), commercial harvesters earned $619 million.

Synonymous with the New England state, lobsters have a documented history in Maine that dates back to 1605. Recent studies, though, show that climate change and a shift in currents are warming up the local waters. In a now well-quoted 2015 study led by Andrew Pershing, researchers found that the surface temperature of the Gulf of Maine is warming 99 percent faster than the rest of the ocean.

Read the full article at Inside Climate News

“Remarkable” sea ice conditions in Bering Sea this winter as Arctic-wide sea ice hits record low

April 6, 2026 — Scientists say sea ice in the Arctic hit its seasonal peak on March 15 – and it was the lowest peak on record. That probably comes as a surprise for fishermen who work the Bering Sea, where sea ice kept expanding for another week and hit its highest peak since 2013, extending south all the way to parts of the Aleutian Islands.

Sea ice last month completely froze over Bristol Bay and the north end of the Alaska Peninsula, past Nelson Lagoon. It reached Cold Bay, Unimak Island – even the Pribilof Islands.

“The Bering Sea is the only place in the Arctic where sea ice is above normal,” Rick Thoman said. “To our west, in the Sea of Okhotsk, so west of Kamchatka, it’s the lowest sea ice extent of record [as of March 19].”

Thoman, a climatologist with the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Preparedness, said there’s been a persistent series of high-pressure storms that have caused significant sea ice growth in the eastern Bering Sea by holding colder air in that area this winter. But that has also prevented sea ice from forming west of the International Date Line in Russian waters.

“That big high pressure over the Bering Sea has steered many storms and their south winds into the Sea of Okhotsk,” Thoman said. “They just have not been able to form much sea ice.”

Read the full article at KMXT

Trump’s Budget May Target Climate Programs. Here’s What Still Survives.

April 2, 2026 — President Trump has tried to cut funding for virtually every federal program that addresses climate change. But Congress has been pushing back, sometimes with surprising bipartisan support.

This year, lawmakers quietly saved funding for the government’s popular Energy Star program, which ranks appliances based on energy conservation and cost savings. Bipartisan majorities also salvaged weather forecasting, fisheries and climate research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and even some international environmental aid.

Mr. Trump’s new proposed budget is expected to be made public on Friday, and climate advocates said they were bracing for steep new cuts to environmental programs. The White House declined to comment on the budget but noted that Mr. Trump had already eliminated his top targets, like federal support for wind, solar and other renewable energy.

Advocates for climate action said their modest success last time had given them some hope of again retaining popular programs in next year’s budget.

Read the full article at The New York Times

In New England, Catching Climate Data Along With Fish

April 1, 2026 — When Bob Hersey Jr., a Maine lobsterman, pulls up his traps, he gets more than tasty crustaceans. He’s collecting vital details about the changing ocean environment.

Mr. Hersey, who also dives for sea urchins, is among nearly 150 fishermen who have installed temperature sensors on their traps or trawl nets from Maine to North Carolina as part of a program run by a nonprofit organization with help from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The soda-can-size sensors are dragged along the seafloor, giving fishermen and scientists a three-dimensional map of the ocean rather than just conditions on the surface, which can be checked using satellites or thermometers on boats. The data is continuously collected and fed into regional weather and climate models.

“The fishing industry can collect data that nobody else can get to,” said George Maynard, a marine resource management specialist at the National Marine Fisheries Service, a branch of NOAA. “It’s a cheap way to collect a lot of oceanographic data to improve those models.”

The sensors record water temperature and oxygen levels and soon they will also record salinity, an important indicator of large-scale changes in ocean currents that influence weather patterns.

While the data is valuable to researchers, it’s also helping Mr. Hersey and others decide the best places to fish.

“I’m trying to figure out how to be more efficient,” said Mr. Hersey, 55, who has deployed four sensors on his 600 lobster traps and has been studying the temperature changes in relation to the size of his catches. “I’m trying to establish a pattern of where they are with a certain temperature.”

Read the full article at The New York Times

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 the Alaska Beacon

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