Saving Seafood

Diesel at $6.52 squeezes fishing fleets as lobster demand sags

September 28, 2026 — The national average U.S. diesel price hit $6.529 per gallon for the week of September 21, its 11th consecutive weekly increase, according to EIA data reported by Logistics Management — and nowhere is that pain more concentrated than on the nation’s fishing docks.

Heating Oil futures (CME:HO1!), the most direct commodity expression of the diesel crunch, were trading at $4.64 per gallon ahead of Monday’s NYSE open, up 3.88% from Friday’s close and more than double their 52-week low of $2.31, per Investing.com data. Equity investors looking for a direct market handle on fishing-sector margin pressure can watch two thresholds: Clearwater Seafoods trades as a proxy for seafood-processor economics, and analysts note that a move by HO1! through $5.00 per gallon would represent the point at which fuel costs exceed most mid-sized fleet operators’ break-even assumptions, likely forcing further capacity reductions and order-book deterioration for processors like Clearwater. That trajectory tracks precisely with what commercial fishermen are paying at the pier.

Cape Cod fisherman Sam Fuller told the Cape Cod Chronicle that diesel at the Chatham fish pier reached $6.44 per gallon, nearly double the $3.48 he paid a year ago. His vessel burns roughly 200 gallons per week. “Unfortunately fishermen, we’re the end of the line. We can’t raise our rates,” Fuller said. “Everything we’re using now is going up.” The quote captures the structural trap: unlike trucking companies or airlines, fishermen have no mechanism to pass fuel costs downstream. Dock prices for their catch are set by buyers, not sellers.

Read the full article at Investing.com

Farm Bill 2.0 included new provisions for fishing, seafood

September 21, 2026, — Commercial fishermen and the broader seafood industry would gain access to new federal lending opportunities and several seafood-specific programs under Farm Bill 2.0, with provisions addressing everything from vessel financing and domestic processing to country-of-origin labeling and shrimp imports.

The Agricultural Act of 2026 includes a series of provisions aimed specifically at commercial fishing, seafood processing, and aquaculture, according to the Senate Agriculture Committee’s section-by-section summary of the legislation.

Among the most direct changes for working fishermen is a provision that would expand eligibility for farm operating loans to commercial fishing.

Section 5216 would make commercial fishing eligible for the loans for costs associated with “acquiring, operating, or maintaining a commercial fishing vessel.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

House passes bill extending right whale regulatory pause

September 2, 2026 — The U.S. House of Representatives has passed H.R. 9436, legislation that would extend the current pause on new North Atlantic right whale regulations affecting the lobster and Jonah crab fisheries through 2035.

The Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act of 2026 passed the House on Sept. 1 by a 219-196 vote. The bill would extend the existing regulatory pause from its current expiration at the end of 2028 to Dec. 31, 2035.

The legislation has drawn support from Northeast commercial fishing organizations, which argue additional time is needed for ongoing research and technology development to inform future whale regulations. Conservation groups, meanwhile, say the extension would delay measures they believe are necessary to reduce the risk of serious injury and mortality to the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.

The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA), which urged lawmakers to pass the measure ahead of the House vote, welcomed its passage.

“The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association strongly supports passage of H.R. 9436,” Jason Joyce, NEFSA’s director of advocacy, said in a statement provided to National Fisherman.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Bipartisan fisheries management law would expand eDNA use

September 1, 2026 — Bipartisan legislation introduced this month by the co-chairs of the U.S. Senate Oceans Caucus relies on environmental DNA (eDNA) techniques pioneered by Cornell researcher David Lodge, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and past director of the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability.

The Fisheries Science Modernization Act would direct the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to incorporate eDNA tools into their assessment surveys of fish stocks – assessments that inform how many fish can be harvested by commercial and recreational fishers. Eight Republican, Democratic and independent senators co-sponsor the legislation, and multiple fishing industry and environmental protection organizations support it.

“When I started testing eDNA 17 years ago, I was interested in detecting rare species, such as emerging invasive species and endangered species,” Lodge said. “The focus of this legislation is quite different. Here, it’s not just about detecting whether a Pacific hake exists, it’s about estimating how many hake there are, based on how many distinct pieces of hake DNA you can find. It’s pretty astonishing to me that we in the scientific world working on eDNA have come this far, this fast.”

Read the full article at the Cornell Chronicle 

MAINE: Lobsters remain plentiful in Maine, but outside forces cast uncertainty on industry

September 1, 2026 — There was a time when lobsters were so abundant along the Maine coast that they could be plucked by hand from shallow water. Those days are long gone, but for most people — whose interactions with lobsters happen on plates and rolls — it might be hard to say how lobsters and the lobster industry are doing. Lobster rolls might cost more, like everything else, but they’re still available.

Lobstermen are at the mercy of a range of outside forces: economic, ecological, regulatory. Trends in the lobster harvest and its value suggest lobstering is in a healthy position right now. But zooming out to include factors such as global trade and climate change show there is much uncertainty.

In the long view, the number of lobsters coming across wharfs is way up. From 1950 until the end of the 1980s, Maine lobstermen were landing around 20 million pounds of lobster each year. Some years the amount deviated, as low as 16 million and as high as 24 million, but the catch looks pretty consistent through those four decades.

Read the full article at Harpswell Anchour

VIRGINIA: Protesters harass menhaden fishermen

September 1, 2026 — Chesapeake Bay menhaden fishing protesters in small craft continue to harass Ocean Harvesters’ boats and fishermen by circling in front of the firms’ steamers attempting to keep boats from making sets.

Ocean Harvesters of Reedville, Va., harvests menhaden and sells it to Omega Protein, also located in Reedville. Omega Protein buys the fish from Ocean Harvesters and processes them into fish meal, fish oil, and other products.

Ocean Harvesters and Omega Protein are part of the only large menhaden reduction fishery in operation on the East Coast of the United States and have drawn protests from environmental groups throughout the mid-Atlantic who want to prevent menhaden reduction fishing on Chesapeake Bay.

“Over the past three years we have seen a few dozen of these recreational fishing boats racing to get in front of us and just circling so we either can’t get to where we want to go, or to try and block us from setting out nets,” says Monty Deihl chief executive officer of Ocean Harvesters. “These go hand-in-hand with the threats we get on social media and the coordinated effort to disrupt our operations.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

MAINE: What’s the biggest threat to the lobster industry?

September 1, 2026 — Lobstermen are under threat. They all agree on that much. The threats they describe vary from one to the next. But they are worried about their future, and the future of a livelihood that many learned from their fathers and grandfathers and want to pass to their children and grandchildren.

The risks are larger than any one lobsterman — or even the industry as a whole. Lobstering “is not only an economic driver of coastal and island communities, it is an identity of our communities,” said Kristin Garabedian, a community development officer with the Island Institute’s Center for the Marine Economy. In other words, losing lobstering would make a town like Harpswell less like Harpswell.

Most lobstermen see the biggest threats coming from outsiders pursuing their own aims without regard for the lobstermen who live and work here. Those might be wind-power proponents, whale protectors, big businesses or homebuyers.

Few, if any, see climate change as an immediate or catastrophic threat, although they are deeply in tune with the changes happening in the Gulf of Maine and are worried about human impacts on the environment they depend on.

Read the full article at Harpswell Anchor 

Global wild-caught shrimp making progress on sustainability, but still face challenges

September 1, 2026 — Over the last two decades, the percentage of the world’s shrimp supply coming from wild-caught fisheries has gradually taken up a smaller piece of the pie.

The most recent statistics on wild-caught shrimp place it at 29 percent of the world’s total supply of shrimp, and of that, one-third of global catch is taken up by China, with India’s production also rapidly growing. According to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which shared the info during the Wild-Caught Shrimp Summit it hosts alongside the Global Shrimp Forum in Utrecht, Netherlands, more and more of those fisheries are beginning to take up MSC certification.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

LOUISIANA: Louisiana shrimpers launch petition to restrict imports

September 1, 2026 — Frustrated with decades of competition from cheaper, imported shrimp, shrimpers from Louisiana have launched a petition calling on the U.S. federal government to take action to restrict imports and better support domestic producers.

“The Louisiana Shrimp Association is asking fishermen, fishing families, seafood businesses, restaurants, consumers, and everyone who supports American jobs and American seafood to stand with us,” the association said in a 30 August Facebook post. “Our wild-caught shrimp industry is in crisis. American shrimp harvesters are struggling with unsustainable dockside prices while enormous volumes of imported shrimp continue to enter our country.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Mediocre Bristol Bay catch offset by soaring sockeye prices

August 31, 2026 — This summer’s Bristol Bay sockeye season concluded with a total catch of 29.3 million to 29.4 million fish as reported at press time, short of the government’s allowable harvest of 32.26 million. The total run reached 44.7 million fish, exceeding the forecast of 44.05 million; although this was 7 million fish above the seasonal average dating back to1963, it was well below the averages for the last decade and especially the record-run filled last five years.

Within these overall numbers, great variation in forecast and harvest results were evident among the reporting districts.

The two “Ns”, Nushagak and Naknek, were well down from the heady highs of recent years. Nushagak’s late opening (June 27) was set to allow a better upriver escapement of Nushagak king salmon, as the Nushagak kings were listed as a “stock of concern” in 2022 owing to declines. But as luck would have it, the sockeye run started early this year; Nushagak’s peak (mid-point) was July 1, meaning many fish came through before the fishery started. And this late opening no doubt played a role in the total catch (a bit over 9 million fish) falling well below the harvest forecast of 14 million. Naknek, meanwhile, saw its smallest run since 1998. However, other districts fared much better.

And at least some fishermen felt the lower catch this year was anticipated, and then higher prices saved the day.

“I was happy with this season’s catch, given the low return,” noted Peter Oswald, skipper of the Williwa, fishing Nushagak and then the Naknek-Kvichak. “A lot of guys were disappointed with their catches, but the lower catch allowed us to focus on catching the highest-quality fish, and the crew did well.

“Prices started out really strong and then got even stronger with the midseason price adjustment,” Oswald added.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman