Saving Seafood

NOAA scientists set sail on landmark West Coast Ocean Acidification survey

July 21, 2026 — The following was released by the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:

On July 20, 2026, researchers embarked on the NOAA Ocean Acidification Program’s West Coast Ocean Acidification mission (WCOA 2026). Departing from San Diego aboard the University of Alaska, Fairbanks (R/V) Sikuliaq, the team will travel north to Washington, adding important new observations to NOAA’s long-term monitoring of ocean acidification and its impacts on marine resources.

WCOA 2026 will couple ocean chemistry, biology, and physics to build a more comprehensive view of how extreme events impact biogeochemistry and ecosystems.

“Results from past WCOA cruises have provided novel insights into acidification rates and impacts in coastal and estuary habitats that provide our nation with rich fish and shellfish resources,” said Dr. Simone Alin, Supervisory Oceanographer, NOAA/PMEL. Resource managers and harvesters can use this information to inform fisheries management decisions.

This intensive 30-day coastal research cruise aboard the 261-foot research vessel offers scientists a unique opportunity of sampling during an El Niño that is on track to become one of the strongest on record. El Niño brings warmer water and can alter upwelling and precipitation patterns in the region. Phytoplankton and zooplankton communities will follow these warmer waters, which impacts food webs and fisheries as seen during past marine heatwaves.

Two days after the Sikuliaq departs, the PMEL SeaTrac will head south from Washington to collect added coastal measurements during peak ocean acidification and hypoxia season and pick up any El Niño signal that may have made to the northern California Current System this summer. These OA cruises provide critical high-quality data for the U.S. Coastal Large Marine Ecosystems, and are essential for modeling and forecasting changes in ocean acidification and hypoxia to better prepare for future impacts to valued fisheries and ecosystems.

Led by researchers at the University of Washington’s Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, & Ecosystem Studies and PMEL, researchers will collect high-quality ocean chemistry data, phytoplankton, zooplankton, and other observations. Scientists will also collect environmental DNA, which can reveal the diversity and abundance of ocean life in different ocean conditions.

Data collected during WCOA 2026 are essential for validating models and forecasts of ocean conditions like J-SCOPE. This short term (six to nine month) forecast is used for the California Current Integrated Ecosystem Assessment. High quality ocean carbon chemistry data is required to forecast the saturation state of calcium carbonate, the mineral building block used by shellfish like Dungeness crabs, clams, and oysters.

Other coordinated regular coastal fisheries surveys, including the California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) enhance the impact of WCOA 2026. By conducting biological net tows at established stations, researchers will gain high-quality data on marine life.

Ultimately, the data collected through WCOA 2026 will serve as a foundational benchmark for monitoring, modeling and research in the region. These data will provide calibration information for sensor networks designed to fill measurement gaps between research cruises. With the potential for sampling to occur as ocean conditions change with El Niño, NOAA and our partners will be able to better understand how extreme conditions alter vital marine resources like Dungeness crabs, krill, plankton and other fisheries.

NOAA finds gray whales have increased in population along US West Coast over the past year

July 21, 2026 — A new study published by NOAA’s Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center found that population numbers of gray whales along the U.S. West Coast have increased since 2025.

How and why populations of Eastern North Pacific gray whales are seeing an uptick is still under research, but in a release, NOAA confirmed that the increase “likely exceeds the reproductive capacity of the population.” Last year, the most recent estimate for gray whale calves was the lowest on record at 85. Now, researchers estimate the population of Eastern North Pacific gray whales is between 15,930 and 20,530, which is much higher than last year’s estimate of between 11,690 and 12,890.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

CALIFORNIA: Calif. salmon fleet returns under limited season three-year closure

July 15, 2026 — California’s commercial salmon fleet is back on the water for the first time since 2022 following a three-year statewide closure, though the reopening remains tightly restricted as fishery managers work to protect rebuilding Chinook salmon stocks.

According to The Press Democrat, state and federal fishery managers reopened the commercial and recreational salmon season in late June after improved rainfall and snowpack during 2023 and 2024 boosted survival rates for juvenile Chinook salmon migrating from the Sacramento Valley to the Pacific Ocean. Those fish have now returned as adults in numbers sufficient to support a limited harvest, though managers continue to closely monitor catches.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

OREGON: Electronic vessel monitoring could come to Oregon fisheries by Dec. 1

July 13, 2026 — On Aug. 16, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission will decide if the department will implement electronic vessel monitoring and electronic logbook requirements for crabbing vessels working within the Oregon Dungeness Crab Fishery.

During the meeting, the department will hear public comment on the proposed rules which could make the systems required on board for vessels operating in Oregon fisheries as soon as Dec. 1.

Electronic monitoring is not new to West coast fisheries. In Washington and California, fishers have been required to use the monitoring systems for years. For “dual permit” fishers — fishers with permits for both Oregon and Washington — this is also already a regular practice.

In addition, electronic monitoring equipment is a small part of the department’s upcoming “conservation plan” which outlines how ODFW will take steps to reduce whale entanglements in the fishery.

Read the full article at the Seaside Signal

New tagging study tracks Dungeness crab movement in Puget Sound

July 8, 2026 — State and tribal fishery managers in Washington are using a floy-tag study to track how Dungeness crab move through parts of Puget Sound, with the goal of improving how catch quotas and fishing seasons are set in areas where crab populations have struggled.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), working with the Suquamish and Jamestown tribes, has tagged and released 885 legal-size male Dungeness crab since September 2025 across Marine Area 9 (Admiralty Inlet), Marine Area 10 (Seattle and Bremerton area) and the portion of Marine Area 12 (Hood Canal) north of Ayock Point.

In late September 2025, WDFW and the Suquamish Tribe tagged and released 555 crab across six sites in Marine Area 10, ranging from Alki Point in West Seattle north to Apple Cove Point near Kingston. As of June 25, 2026, 84 of those crab had been recaptured in recreational, state, and tribal commercial fisheries.

On June 9, 2026, WDFW and the Jamestown Tribe tagged and released another 330 crab in Marine Areas 9 and 12. Two had been recaptured as of June 25.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Proteins shine a light on Dungeness crab resilience

June 9, 2026 — Professor Brooke Love was already studying the effects of ocean acidification on sea life, but wanted to look into some new tools to aid her studies. After Love received the National Science Foundation’s Mid-Career Advancement Grant in 2020, she decided to learn molecular tools such as mass spectrometry to explore a microscopic angle.

Soon after, she found a study by Paul McElhany, who was researching Dungeness crabs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

McElhany had found a difference in survivability between the offspring, or zoea, of multiple Dungeness crab mothers collected in different regions when living in water with a high concentration of CO2.

“There was this really interesting story where some crab moms produced zoea that survived well, and others produced zoea that didn’t survive well. But we didn’t know anything about why,” said Love, an environmental science professor who works both in Bellingham and at WWU’s Shannon Point Marine Center in Anacortes. “So it struck me as a really good opportunity to use some molecular tools to try to dig a little deeper and understand the mechanisms that led to the response that we found in that experiment.”

The NOAA group initially hypothesized that water conditions, such as oxygen and CO2 levels, at the sites where the crab mothers were collected could influence the zoeae’s survivability and resistance to ocean acidification (OA), but ultimately they found that location had less of an impact than matrilineal lineage.

Read the full article at WWU News

CALIFORNIA: California Senate passes Dungeness crab bill with multiple changes in fishery management

June 1, 2026 — The California state senate has passed legislation that would make several changes to how the state’s Dungeness crab fishery is managed, most notably by freeing up commercial fishing vessels to transit through closed areas even if they have crabs on board.

“The commercial fishing fleet is the lifeblood of rural coastal communities here on the North Coast,” State Senator Mike McGuire, who sponsored the bill, said in a release. “From Crescent City to Half Moon Bay, we depend on the success and sustainability of California’s commercial and recreational fishing fleet. SB 1393 advances the modern management needed to protect our natural resources, strengthen our fisheries, and keep our coastal and rural economies strong for years to come.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

OREGON: Whale permit uncertainty drives changes in Oregon crab fishery

May 20, 2026 — Oregon’s commercial Dungeness crab fishery is facing additional regulatory changes as the state works to address whale entanglements and move forward with a federal permit that could shape future fishing operations.

Many of the recent changes in the fishery are tied to conservation plan required for Oregon to obtain an incidental take permit under Section 10 of the Endangered Species Act. The permit would allow the fishery to have some level of impact on endangered humpback whale populations, according to reporting from KMUN. State fishery managers said the application process is underway, but it could take several years before a permit is issued.

At an industry meeting in Astoria, hosted by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, staff briefed commercial crabbers on potential regulatory changes connected to the conservation plan. Those under consideration include electronic vessel monitoring, the use of experimental fishing gear, and making a temporary early closure of the fishery permanent.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

OREGON: Questions about federal permit hang over commercial crab fishery

May 18, 2026 — Oregon’s valuable commercial Dungeness crab fishery has seen significant changes in recent years as the state looks to minimize and monitor whale entanglements involving gear used in the fishery.

Now more changes are on the horizon. And looming over everything is uncertainty around the details of a federal permit the state is seeking that would allow the fishery to have some degree of impact on endangered humpback populations.

Many of the recent tweaks and additions to Dungeness crab fishery operations are in fact tied to a conservation plan the state is required to complete in order to obtain the incidental take permit under Section 10 of the federal Endangered Species Act. This permit could provide some certainty to fishermen that even if their gear is implicated in humpback whale entanglements, fishing won’t immediately be shut down. The submittal process is underway now, but state fishery managers say it could be several years before a permit is issued.

An industry meeting in Astoria on Thursday hosted by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife staff was intended to brief local commercial crabbers and gather input from them ahead of a meeting in August where Oregon Fish and Wildlife commissioners are expected to consider a suite of new regulations connected to the conservation plan, including the possibility of electronic vessel monitoring for the upcoming season, the use of experimental fishing gear and making what had been a temporary rule to close the fishery a month early permanent.

But the main question on crabbers’ minds was the federal take permit and how many whales NOAA Fisheries might allow the state fishery to impact. For them it is the question that nearly everything else revolves around.

Read the full article at KMUN

OREGON: Humpback tangled in fishing gear spotted near Oregon coast

May 18, 2026 — A humpback whale entangled in fishing gear was spotted Friday west of Winchester Bay, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said Wednesday.

Justin Ainsworth, a marine resources program manager with the state agency, said in an email that the gear has a commercial crab buoy tag, but its owner hasn’t been identified because officials haven’t been able to make out the vessel name and permit number.

The whale, Ainsworth said, “appeared to be in good health and was quite mobile.”

He said the National Marine Fisheries Service is ultimately responsible for “gear attributions and entanglement accounting,” but that he expects the gear to be linked to the Oregon commercial Dungeness crab fishery. If that’s the case, he said, it would be the second confirmed humpback entanglement in fishery gear in 2026.

Read the full article at the Seattle Times