Saving Seafood

Subsidies, fragmented enforcement hampering progress on fighting illegal fishing, research finds

August 17, 2026 — A study conducted by researchers at the University of British Columbia has found that industrial-scale illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing accounts for as much as 15 percent of global marine wild capture and is estimated to be worth between USD 6.2 billion and USD 12.2 billion (EUR 5.4 billion and EUR 10.5 billion).

The study, titled “Casting light on the workings of illegal fishing markets,” found that roughly two-thirds of illicit seafood trade by value originates in West Africa, East Asia, and Southeast Asia, with the bulk of the illegal catch consumed in North America, Europe, and East Asia.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

After gauge fight, lobster managers rethink strategy

August 14, 2026 — After the collapse of controversial lobster gauge changes, managers are taking a different approach to the future of the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank fishery. This time, they are starting with a broader question: What should lobster management be trying to accomplish?

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) is beginning a process that is expected to bring fishermen and other industry members into the conversation before any new major management measures are proposed.

At the American Lobster Management Board’s Aug. 4 meeting, ASMFC staff outlined how that process could work. Eventually, it could lead to what is known as a Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE), which essentially allows managers to test different management approaches on paper before putting them into practice.

But ASMFC isn’t there yet.

First, managers want to hear from the industry about what the future of the fishery should look like and what needs to be protected, from the lobster resource itself to fishermen’s businesses and coastal communities.

The discussion comes as managers continue to watch changes in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank lobster stock. The 2025 stock assessment found the stock was not depleted, but lobster abundance had fallen 34 percent from the high identified in the previous assessment.

That decline raised concerns and led the Lobster Board to begin looking at what might need to happen next.

Rather than immediately developing another set of regulations, however, ASMFC’s Technical Committee recommended first figuring out what fishermen and managers actually want future management to accomplish.

ASMFC’s Caitlin Starks called that a “critical first step” during the Aug. 4 meeting.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

US court hears arguments against turtle excluder devices in inshore Louisiana waters

August 14, 2026 — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is considering a challenge to a 2019 NOAA Fisheries rule forcing Louisiana inshore shrimpers to install turtle excluder devices (TEDs).

A TED is a grid of metal bars placed in a trawl net that block larger animals – like turtles – while allowing smaller animals – like shrimp – to pass through. Louisiana shrimpers claim the requirement on inshore vessels is excessive, making their work more difficult and expensive despite little risk to turtles.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US embassy launched IUU reporting hub in the Philippines

August 14, 2026 — The U.S. Embassy in the Philippines has launched a new initiative to gather community reports of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing around the Southeast Asian nation and share them with authorities.

“Illegal, unreported, and unregulated [IUU] fishing is both an economic and a national security challenge. It depletes fish stocks, disrupts supply chains, distorts markets, threatens food security, and places responsible fishers and legitimate businesses at a disadvantage,” U.S. Embassy Officer Taylor Fincher said in a release. “Addressing illegal fishing and related maritime concerns is an important area of cooperation between the United States and the Philippines.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Beyond bycatch: The bigger story of Alaska pollock

August 14, 2026 — Alaska pollock is the biggest catch in the United States. But the fish drawing the most attention are the ones the fleet never meant to pull up.

For Sam Murphy, vice president of the Alaska Pollock Fishery Alliance (APFA), the focus on bycatch misses a much larger story.

That argument comes at a pointed moment for the fishery. In February, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) voted 8-3 to recommend the first mandatory limit on chum salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock fishery, an annual cap of 45,000 Western Alaska chum, paired with a corridor closure near the Alaska Peninsula between June 10 and Aug. 31, apportioned among the at-sea processor, catcher vessel, mothership, and Community Development Quota (CDQ) sectors.

The NPFMC heard testimony from more than 170 people over four days, including tribal leaders, subsistence fishermen, CDQ groups, and pollock industry participants. The new rules are not expected to take effect until June 2028 at the earliest.

Murphy didn’t dismiss the difficult conversations about salmon bycatch or the challenges facing Alaska’s fisheries. Those discussions are necessary, he said. But after spending the past year and a half aboard fishing vessels, touring processing plants, and visiting fishing communities across Alaska, he believes the conversation had become too narrowly focused on a single issue while overlooking the broader role pollock plays in the state’s seafood economy.

“I don’t really see it as an argument,” Murphy said in an interview with National Fisherman. “To me, it’s simply the reality that I hope more people start to recognize.”

That reality, he said, was one of interdependence.

Murphy described Alaska’s seafood economy as a three-legged stool. Commercial fishermen harvest the resource, processors transform that harvest into products consumed around the world, and coastal communities provide the workforce, ports, and infrastructure that allow the system to function.

“Remove any one of those three legs, and the whole thing starts to wobble,” Murphy said.

That connection, he said, was why framing Alaska’s fisheries as rivals missed the point.

“Pollock doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Neither do salmon, crab, cod, or halibut,” Murphy said. “These fisheries are connected economically, operationally, and culturally.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

OREGON: Southern Oregon Coast seafood processors say tariffs are an old problem, not a new crisis

August 14, 2026 — A state report says President Donald Trump’s tariffs have hurt Oregon trade, but seafood processors on the South Coast say the effects on their industry are more complicated.

Oregon’s tariff analysis says the latest trade policies have disrupted exports and created uncertainty for businesses across the state. Oregon importers paid nearly $3 billion in tariffs between March and December 2025, while exports fell 17% over the year.

Lori Steele, executive director of the West Coast Seafood Processors Association, said tariffs are nothing new for the industry.

“There’s definitely concern about retaliatory tariffs, but these are coming in countries where we’ve been dealing with tariffs for a long time,” Steele said.

Read the full article at OPB

ALASKA: Deep sea mining in the Gulf of Alaska

August 13, 2026 — With China reportedly producing around 90 percent of the world’s supply of rare earth elements, and far ahead in processing technology, the U.S. and other countries are searching for new ways to meet demand, and deep sea mining on seamounts in the Gulf of Alaska is on the list of proposals. The Japanese press reported in July that experimental deep sea mining had successfully extracted rare earth elements such as neodymium, dysprosium, and terbium—all vital for fighter jet and missile guidance systems—from 6,000 feet below the surface.

In April of 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14285 “Unleashing America’s Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources,” and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is evaluating whether to advance a competitive lease sale for minerals on the Alaska Outer Continental Shelf. “We don’t know what impact deep sea mining could have on fisheries, but there is cause for concern,” says retired University of Alaska marine professor Rick Steiner, who now runs a consulting company called Oasis Earth.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: Gloucester honors Lily Jean crew at Fisherman’s Memorial

August 13, 2026 — Six months after the F/V Lily Jean sank off Cape Ann, Mass., the Gloucester fishing community gathered Saturday, Aug. 8, to remember the seven people lost aboard the vessel and other mariners who died over the past year.

The annual remembrance at Gloucester’s Fisherman’s Memorial carried particular weight this year following the Jan. 30 sinking of the 72-foot Gloucester-based groundfish trawler Lily Jean about 25 miles off Cape Ann.

All seven people aboard were lost: Capt. Accursio “Gus” Sanfilippo, Paul Beal Sr., Paul Beal Jr., John Rousanidis, Freeman Short, Sean Therrien and NOAA fisheries observer Jada Samitt.

Family members, state officials and members of the community gathered Saturday at the memorial, where generations of Gloucester fishermen lost at sea are remembered.

“It feels like every time they do something like this, you relive it, that day in January,” Tiffany Leigh, girlfriend of Short, told WCVB.

State Sen. Bruce Tarr also spoke about how deeply the loss has affected a community accustomed to the dangers of working at sea.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

US State Department looking for NGO partner to shine light on forced labor and IUU fishing

August 13, 2026 — The U.S. Department of State is seeking an NGO partner that can identify evidence of forced labor and illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the seafood supply chain.

“By increasing transparency and accountability in global seafood supply chains, the program will help combat unfair competition, support responsible business practices, protect marine resources, and reinforce a level playing field for the U.S. seafood sector,” the State Department said in its announcement.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ASMFC petitioned to consider menhaden reallocation, will make decision on fishery cap in Chesapeake

August 13, 2026 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) is being petitioned to initiate a reallocation process for the menhaden fishery as it also considers its options to reduce the Chesapeake Bay Reduction Fishery Cap by up to 50 percent.

The menhaden fishery is spread across the U.S. east coast, and allocated across several U.S. states, with each state getting a different share of the fishery. Historically the U.S. state of Virginia has received the largest portion of the quota, and has also been the largest fisher of the species, with companies like Omega Protein and Ocean Harvesters processing and harvesting most of the catch, respectively.

Now, conservation groups are petitioning the ASMFC to reallocate the quota of the fishery, claiming the shifting patterns of the species mean the quotas should shift too.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource