Saving Seafood

ALASKA: ‘How do you buy time?’ Scientists look to slow an Alaska glacier’s march to the sea

August 21, 2026 — The Valerie Glacier is sliding toward the ocean, fast. Over the course of 18 days in July, the glacier galloped a whopping 150 feet— the length of four school buses parked end-to-end.

With it went a small research camp, made up of a cluster of tents pitched under jagged peaks. The scientists were there to study the Valerie and whether it might be possible to slow its disappearance into the sea.

As the team donned snowshoes and skis to head into the field, Melenda Lekanof, the project’s community liaison, took in the seemingly endless glaciated landscape. She said she was thinking about her ancestors – the Ginéix Kwáan or Kwáashk’ikwáan, of the Copper River region – migrating through here centuries ago.

“It’s breathtaking, and it’s a bit overwhelming, because this is part of who I am,” said Lekanof, who is from Yakutat and is Tlingit and Aleut.

But she’s also worried about the future. The world’s glaciers have lost about 5% of their ice since 2000 as temperatures rise with climate change. And Alaska’s glaciers are disappearing even more quickly.

“I don’t know if this is going to be here in my time,” Lekanof said. She added: “We need to know what’s going on.”

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

MAINE: They wanted to restore wild oyster reefs to the Maine coast. Could it be done?

August 19, 2026 — A team in Phippsburg has been working for nearly a decade to get wild oysters to regenerate in Maine’s cold, turbulent waters.

On a sticky August morning in Phippsburg, Cait Cleaver, an assistant professor of environmental studies at Colby College, crouched along a section of rocky shoreline that framed a circular expanse of deep green seawater. She gently brushed aside strands of thick seaweed to reveal a large oyster nestled between two boulders.

“We’ve got 50 percent algae cover, acorn barnacles, and 100 percent rock,” Cleaver reported to her summer intern. “And we’ve got one live 55-millimeter American oyster!”

Less than three inches long, the oyster didn’t look like much. But it was evidence of something Cleaver and her team had been looking for for years: a wild oyster that had successfully grown from free-floating larva and survived the winter.

For the past seven years, Cleaver has helped run The Basin Oyster Project, a collaboration initially started by The Nature Conservancy. The project’s long-term goal is to restore wild oysters up and down the Maine coast. More immediately, that means getting oysters to survive and spawn on their own in the Basin, a deep, protected saltwater inlet on the New Meadows River, creating a self-sustaining reef.

Wild oysters were once prevalent along the coast of Maine, but had largely disappeared by the early 1900s, victims of overharvesting by European settlers, pollution and rising sea levels, which brought in cold water and predators. The state has been trying to re-establish oyster populations in Maine since the late 1940s, but they have struggled to take hold at scale.

Read the full article at the Maine Monitor

Study piloting use of black soldier flies to solve Florida’s sargassum issues

August 18, 2026 — A new study by the University of Miami is trying to determine whether black soldier fly larvae could be a scalable solution to the U.S. state of Florida’s sargassum problem.

Florida’s Atlantic coast is regularly hit by “sargassum inundation events,” which cover the shoreline in massive piles of the seaweed. Researchers have determined the problem has been beginning earlier in the year, and in 2026, South Florida’s shores have been hit with a record-breaking bloom, according to the study’s authors.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALABAMA: ‘A thousand cuts’: What’s lost when we lose Alabama coastal marshes?

August 17, 2026 — “No marsh, no seafood.”

That’s the old adage about the impact of losing marsh habitat, said Blair Morrison, science and monitoring program lead with the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program.

While most Alabama residents think of marshes as providing crucial habitat for shrimp, crabs, red snapper and other culturally significant foods, marshes provide a wider suite of services for the coast and the state at large that would be sorely missed if marshes were gone.

“We can’t directly attribute anything to marsh loss directly,” Morrison said, “but it is one of those cumulative effects of, the more marsh that you lose, you’re more likely to see certain issues with water quality, nutrient impairment, loss of habitat and species. It is very much kind of an intertangled web of, if you lose habitat, you’re losing an entire suite of services.”

Read the full article at AL.com

NEW YORK: Drone Footage Shows Massive Schools of Baitfish Off New York Coast

July 21, 2026 — Massive schools of menhaden (also called baitfish) were spotted lining the shore of Southampton, New York, on July 17.

Aerial footage by drone pilot Joanna Steidle shows dense clusters of the fish swimming just off a beach on Long Island.

Steidle advised swimmers to avoid the areas where baitfish are congregating because larger predators often hunt there.

Menhaden are a keystone species and provide an essential food source for the coastal ecosystem, according to Steidle. Credit: Joanna Steidle via Storyful

Read the full article at Yahoo! News

NOAA seeks proposals for up to $8.5 million for coastal resilience projects

June 16, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA:

As part of its national effort to build resilient coastal ecosystems, communities and economies, NOAA is announcing today the availability of up to $8.5 million in funding for coastal and marine habitat restoration in 2016.

NOAA is seeking proposals for habitat restoration projects under the Coastal Ecosystem Resiliency grant program. The proposed projects should reduce the risks to coastal communities from extreme weather events, changing environmental conditions and known or potential climate change effects.

“People, businesses and their communities face enormous risks from extreme weather and climate change,” said Pat Montanio, director of the Office of Habitat Conservation for NOAA Fisheries. “These grants reflect NOAA’s efforts to better understand those risks, and help them to make smart decisions for a rapidly changing planet. The funded projects will use NOAA’s environmental intelligence to reduce communities’ vulnerability to environmental threats and preserve coastal and ocean resources for future generations.”

In addition to strengthening the resiliency of coastal ecosystems, these projects will support the recovery and conservation of protected resources, and help promote productive fisheries by restoring habitat for marine life to reproduce and develop, which are key NOAA Fisheries missions.

“Investing in habitat restoration is a win-win for marine life and coastal communities,” said Montanio. “Restoration activities create healthy habitat for protected species and valuable fisheries, while also providing ecosystem services for coastal regions such as barriers against extreme storm surge or sea level rise.”

The deadline for applications for the Coastal Ecosystem Resiliency funding opportunity is August 16. NOAA will accept proposals requesting between $100,000 and $2 million. More information can be found online at grants.gov or from NOAA’s Office of Habitat Conservation.