Saving Seafood

US representatives introduce bipartisan bill to undo Trump’s ESA rollback

July 29, 2026 — A pair of U.S. lawmakers has introduced a bill that would reverse the federal government’s decision to roll back the definition of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to exclude habitat destruction.

“Congress enacted the Endangered Species Act to prevent extinction – not to document it after the damage has already been done,” U.S. Representative Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania) said in a release. “For more than 50 years, our nation’s protections have reflected a basic legal, scientific, and commonsense truth: When habitat destruction actually kills or injures protected wildlife, that destruction is harm. The administration’s rule would erase that longstanding safeguard through regulatory action and leave vulnerable species exposed at the precise moment the law is intended to protect them.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NOAA Fisheries Announces a Negative 90-day Finding on A Petition Request to Revise the Critical Habitat Designation for the North Atlantic Right Whale

July 21, 2026 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries received a petition from Save Long Beach Island, Inc. to revise the critical habitat designation for North Atlantic right whales under the Endangered Species Act. The petition requests a revision to the current critical habitat designation to include a migratory habitat in waters between Maine and Georgia.

NOAA Fisheries reviewed the petition, references provided by the petition, and information readily available in our files, and found that the petition does not present substantial scientific information indicating a revision to North Atlantic right whale critical habitat may be warranted. Therefore, a negative 90-day finding was made.

Read the notice as filed in the Federal Register today.

Questions?

Industry: Jean Higgins, Protected Resources, 978-281-9345

Media: Contact GARFO Public Affairs

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

New regulations to protect right whales may be paused until 2035

July 20, 2026 — A bill cosponsored by U.S. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine’s 2nd District that would further delay new protections for North American right whales has advanced out of Committee.

Golden has cited government layoffs and other slowdowns as reasons for extending a moratorium on new regulations from 2028 to 2035.

Golden said in remarks to the House Natural Resources Committee that the extended moratorium would provide time to collect more data, ensuring that Maine fisheries aren’t unfairly burdened. The Maine Department of Marine Resources and the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association wrote letters of support for the legislation.

“We need more time to make sure that any new measures we ask lobstermen to take will strike a very careful balance between protecting marine life and protecting the livelihoods of fishermen themselves,” Golden said at the committee hearing.

But Gib Brogan of ocean protection nonprofit Oceana said the science is clear.

“All of the available evidence shows that the protections that are in place right now are not enough to support the recovery of North Atlantic right whales.”

Read the full article at Maine Public

MAINE: Maine seeks new ESA tools to speed Atlantic salmon recovery

July 16, 2026 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) is asking federal fisheries officials to evaluate whether existing authorities under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) could help accelerate Atlantic salmon recovery while maintaining current protections.

In a June 4 letter to the National Marine Fisheries Service, DMR Commissioner Carl Wilson requested that NOAA review whether the ESA could provide additional flexibility to expand Atlantic salmon recovery efforts. The Bangor Daily News reported that the request could eventually create opportunities for tightly controlled, conservation-oriented catch-and-release fishing if the species recovers.

The request follows decades of habitat restoration, fish passage improvements and river connectivity projects that have benefited Atlantic salmon and other sea-run fish. However, Sean Ledwin, director of the DMR Bureau of Sea Run Fisheries and Habitat, said adult Atlantic salmon returns remain very low despite those investments.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Golden-sponsored bill to extend pause on new lobster fishing rules

July 16, 2026 — The Maine lobster industry may be getting an extended reprieve on new regulations aimed at protecting North Atlantic right whales.

A bill, the Northeast Lobstermen Protection Act, co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), will extend a moratorium on those regulations for Maine lobster fishermen until 2035. Yesterday, the bill passed the House Natural Resources Committee by a vote of 22-13.

In remarks to the committee, Golden noted that many communities in Maine rely on the lobster industry, and are being threatened by the new regulations.

Read the full article at Spectrum News

US congressional committee votes to extend moratorium on new right whale regulations through 2035

July 16, 2026 — In a 22-13 vote, the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee advanced legislation that would extend a five-year pause on new lobster regulations related to North Atlantic right whales through 2035.

“Protecting the North Atlantic right whale and supporting America’s fishing communities are goals that can and must go hand in hand. By extending the current regulatory framework through 2035, the Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act provides the time needed to develop durable, science-driven solutions that protect this endangered species without imposing unnecessary burdens on fishermen,” U.S. Representative Mike Lawler (R-New York) said in a release.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Environmental groups sue government to stop a big change to the Endangered Species Act

July 15, 2026 — By altering the interpretation of a single word in the Endangered Species Act, the Trump administration has made what could be a sweeping change to how wildlife is protected in the United States.

That word is “harm.” For more than 50 years, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service defined harm to refer to anything that injures or kills a protected organism, including “significant habitat modification or degradation” that might impact a species’ ability to feed, reproduce or seek shelter.

But now, the federal government has officially rescinded that definition — a move that is already being challenged in court.

“This action restores common sense, respects private property, provides much-needed certainty for landowners and follows the statute Congress actually passed,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in a statement Friday, when the change was announced.

“The final rule will restore the definition of ‘harm’ to its original intent as written under the ESA, and will maintain protections for endangered species while reducing unnecessary or duplicative permitting requirements, cutting compliance costs, and eliminating confusion for Americans,” a representative for NOAA Fisheries said in an emailed statement Tuesday.

But environmental groups worry the rule change, which goes into effect on September 14, could destroy the wild places that endangered species depend on, undermining the protections that have helped sustain them.

Shortly after the new rule was published in the federal register Tuesday, the law firm Earthjustice, alongside more than half a dozen other environmental groups, filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Seattle against the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries (also known as the National Marine Fisheries Service).

Kristen Boyles, an attorney with the group, told NPR that they’re contesting the change on various levels. “The agencies haven’t explained themselves adequately,” she says. “Making this kind of dramatic change doesn’t make any legal sense because it goes against the fundamental purpose and spirit of the statute itself. All of those things make it an unreasoned and unreasonable decision.”

Read the full article at NPR

 

NOAA eyes potential changes to Alaska sea lion protections as Trump urges boosted seafood harvests

July 6, 2026 — Federal regulators plan to reevaluate fishing closure boundaries established to protect endangered Steller sea lions in Alaska, part of a national Trump administration push to cut regulation of U.S. commercial seafood harvests.

The Steller sea lion protections are among a series of rules that the administration is seeking to relax or change to carry out a mandate from President Donald Trump to increase catches, reduce regulation and ensure that the nation is “the world’s dominant seafood leader.”

The recommended changes were released on Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries service and are in response to Trump’s 2025 executive order titled “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness.” They could affect oceans from New England and the Caribbean to the tropical Pacific and the Bering Sea.

Several months of public consultations resulted in a list of recommendations that “we believe will reduce burdens on domestic fishing, increase production, stabilize markets, improve access, and enhance economic profitability,” NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Eugenio Piñeiro Soler said in a statement.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

Hawaiʻi’s endangered false killer whales show signs of nutritional stress

June 5, 2026 — Some of Hawaiʻi’s endangered false killer whales are rapidly losing weight, a warning sign that warming oceans and limited prey may be pushing one of the nation’s smallest whale populations closer to extinction, according to research published in Endangered Species Research by a team including scientists from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

The findings provide the first quantitative evidence that nutritional stress and competition with fisheries may be accelerating the decline of this iconic population, which now numbers fewer than 140 individuals.

The research—a partnership between the Pacific Whale Foundation (PWF), Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP) at UH Mānoa Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology and Okinawa Churashima Foundation—utilized high-resolution drone photogrammetry to track 68 whales (roughly half the remaining population) between 2019 and 2025.

Read the full article at the University of Hawaii News