Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Alaska seafood harvesting jobs are up for the first time since 2019

November 6, 2026 — Last year, Alaska saw the biggest increase in seafood harvesting jobs in more than a decade, according to a recent report from the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Seafood harvesters include permit holders and boat crews. Their numbers increased by 4% over the previous year, averaging over 200 more jobs per month than in 2024.

That growth follows a five-year decline, with harvesting job numbers hitting an all-time low in 2024 since data collection began more than two decades ago.

Economist Joshua Warren authored the report for Alaska Economic Trends, the labor department’s magazines. He said that five-year decline was in large part due to the pandemic.

“Other industries saw some level of return once COVID measures stopped, but those trends just seemed to continue for seafood harvesting,” Warren said.

On top of that, Warren said some fisheries closed — like red king crab and snow crab in the Bering Sea — and others saw reduced catch limits. But last year there weren’t any new closures.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

 

Maine, Virginia fishermen unite against further menhaden quota cuts

November 6, 2026 — Commercial fishermen from Maine and Virginia are calling on fisheries managers to maintain the Atlantic menhaden quota for 2027, arguing that additional reductions could threaten fishing families and coastal communities that depend on the species.

In a new video produced by the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA), Maine fishermen Dustin Delano and Jim Wotton join Ben Landry, a spokesperson for Virginia’s menhaden reduction fishery, to discuss the industry’s economic importance and the potential consequences of further restrictions.

 

The video, highlighted in a Nov. 5 release from the American Small Pelagics Network, comes as the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) prepares to consider coastwide menhaden quotas for 2027 through 2029.

“We’re all commercial fishermen,” said Wotton, a fisherman from Friendship, Maine. “I think we need to stick together. We need to work together.”

The ASMFC reduced the coastwide Atlantic menhaden total allowable catch by 20 percent for 2026. According to the commission’s latest stock assessment, Atlantic menhaden are not overfished, and overfishing is not occurring.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Virginia Menhaden Fishery Welcomes VIMS Dean Derek Aday’s Call for Science to Guide Chesapeake Bay Decisions

November 6, 2026 — Dr. Derek Aday, director and dean of William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science and the Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences, has offered a thoughtful and timely call for rigorous, unbiased science to guide decisions about Atlantic menhaden and the Chesapeake Bay.

In a column in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Aday described how research supported by Virginia’s newly approved budget will help scientists and managers better understand menhaden abundance, their availability to predators and fishing patterns in the Bay.

“The Chesapeake Bay is too important to manage by assumption,” Aday wrote.

“Dr. Aday has put the focus exactly where it belongs: on rigorous, independent science that can give decision-makers the information they need,” said Monty Deihl, CEO of Ocean Harvesters. “We appreciate his leadership and his recognition that these decisions affect both the Chesapeake Bay and the lives and livelihoods of coastal Virginians. The men and women who work on the Bay want healthy waters, strong fisheries and decisions grounded in sound science, and we are grateful to Dr. Aday and the scientists at VIMS and the Batten School for their commitment to finding answers.”

His message deserves the attention of everyone participating in the menhaden debate. Aday brings scientific expertise, a commitment to independent research and an appreciation of the stakes for Virginia’s fisheries and coastal communities. His clear explanation of why reliable data matter offers a constructive path forward for the Bay and the people who depend on it.

Aday’s leadership and the work at VIMS and the Batten School are welcome. His call for rigorous, independent science reinforces why policymakers should allow the research supported by Virginia, the federal government and the menhaden industry to be completed before imposing further restrictions on a fishery that supports working families and communities across the Northern Neck—especially since Draft Addendum II does not establish a biological problem that its proposed restrictions would solve.

Aday points to the long-term research behind the management of blue crabs and the restoration of eelgrass and bay scallops as examples of the value of establishing baselines, measuring results and letting evidence guide decisions. His column makes a compelling case for bringing that same commitment to the questions surrounding menhaden.

The menhaden industry has invested directly in finding answers. Through the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS), the industry supports a research roadmap identifying practical methods and studies that can produce the information needed for a scientifically defensible Chesapeake Bay harvest cap. Scientists from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, VIMS and NOAA are reviewing existing research and developing approaches for filling information gaps. That work, and the separately funded federal research and the Commonwealth of Virginia’s investment in VIMS research should be completed and their findings considered before additional restrictions are enacted.

The families who fish and process menhaden have a direct stake in the outcome. Their future depends on a healthy Bay, thriving fish and birds, and a sustainable fishery they can pass on to their children and grandchildren. For generations, the fishery has supported union jobs, wages and benefits for Northern Neck families, including many African American workers.

In a letter to Gov. Abigail Spanberger, Virginia NAACP President the Rev. Dr. Cozy Bailey urged the Commonwealth to maintain the existing Chesapeake Bay harvest cap while Virginia-funded scientific research is completed. He emphasized that the fishery provides wages, health insurance, retirement benefits and stability for African American workers and union families, and that comparable jobs cannot simply be assumed to replace them.

UFCW Local 400, which represents menhaden fishermen, has called on lawmakers and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to refrain from additional Chesapeake Bay restrictions until ongoing research establishes their necessity. The union has also called for working people to have a voice in decisions affecting their livelihoods and communities.

Aday’s commitment to healthy waters, strong fisheries and decisions grounded in sound science is an example for everyone involved in the menhaden discussion. His leadership, and the work of scientists at VIMS and the Batten School, will help provide the answers needed to guide the Bay’s future.

About Ocean Harvesters

Ocean Harvesters owns and operates a fleet of more than 30 fishing vessels in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of America. The company’s purse-seine fishing operation is exclusively engaged in the harvest of menhaden, a small, nutrient-dense fish used to produce fish meal, fish oil, and fish solubles. Both its Atlantic and Gulf Menhaden fisheries are certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council. Committed to responsible fishing operations, Ocean Harvesters is proud to be heir to a fishing legacy that extends nearly 150 years.

‘We’re All Commercial Fishermen’: Maine and Virginia Stand Together on Menhaden

November 5, 2026 — The following was released by the American Small Pelagics Network:

Fishermen from Maine and Virginia are standing together in support of a healthy Atlantic menhaden fishery, calling on fisheries managers to maintain the coastwide quota after a 20% reduction took effect this year.

In a new video, produced by the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA), Maine fishermen Dustin Delano and Jim Wotton join Ben Landry, a spokesperson for the Virginia menhaden reduction fishery, to discuss what menhaden mean to fishing families and working waterfronts along the Atlantic Coast.

“We’re all commercial fishermen,” says Wotton, a fisherman from Friendship, Maine. “I think we need to stick together. We need to work together.”

The video comes as the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) prepares to consider Atlantic menhaden quotas for 2027 and beyond. The Commission’s latest assessment found that the coastwide stock is not overfished and that overfishing is not occurring. Its ecological approach to management accounts for the needs of predators that depend on menhaden.

The ASMFC reduced the coastwide quota by 20% for 2026. When it adopted that quota, the Commission projected a 0% probability of overfishing in 2026.

Wotton says fishermen need time to see how that reduction plays out before managers consider another cut.

“I think we need status quo right now,” he says in the video. “I think we leave it where it is and we can work something out with the different sectors of the fishery.”

Menhaden provide bait for New England lobstermen. In Virginia’s Northern Neck, the reduction fishery supports fishing families and a community whose connection to the water spans generations.

“If you’ve not been to the Northern Neck of Virginia, the menhaden facility there and the fishing operations is the lifeblood of the Northern Neck,” Landry says in the video. He warns that severe restrictions would reach beyond the boats and affect families in a rural coastal community where other jobs are not always available.

Delano, chairman and chief strategist of NEFSA, says fishermen rely on a healthy fishery for their future.

“Fishermen rely on these fisheries for future generations,” Delano says. “But we need to take advantage of this fishery when it’s here.”

The fishermen are asking managers to maintain the quota and give the people who depend on menhaden a voice in decisions about the fishery’s future.

Watch the video: NEFSA: Maine and Virginia Stand United on Menhaden

Sources

About the American Small Pelagics Network
The American Small Pelagics Network represents fishermen, processors, suppliers, and coastal communities connected to fisheries such as menhaden, mackerel, herring, squid, and butterfish. ASPN supports sustainable fisheries management that supports critical fish species, while maintaining economic opportunities for fishermen and fishing communities.

ALASKA: Harvest Fuel Relief Program to help farmers & fishermen

November 5, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a Harvest Fuel Relief Program on Oct. 19. The announcement, which came just ahead of the midterm elections, pledged $8 billion in one-time payments to American farmers and fishermen to provide relief for market disruptions and increased operating costs.

Alaska’s commercial fishermen could be eligible to share in the money. John Yeager of Wrangell had this to say.

With high fuel prices and insurance costs and bait costs, you leave the dock in the hole quite often, and that’s not a good feeling. It’s hard to maintain a business plan because you’re constantly adjusting for all these different increases in expenses.

The USDA has not said when it will start accepting applications or when the money would start going out.

Read the full article at KSTK

Workers union calls for support of menhaden fishery

November 2, 2026 — A coalition of recreational fishing organizations is petitioning the government to ban Atlantic menhaden fishing in parts of the U.S., while union workers in the menhaden processing industry warn cuts would cost jobs.

“Working families should not be forced to bear the economic consequences of decisions made without a full understanding of their impact,” UCFW Local 400 said. “Environmental stewardship must go hand in hand with economic justice and meaningful consideration of the communities whose livelihoods are at stake.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MASSACHUSETTS: Gloucester remembers the crew of the Andrea Gail, 35 years after they were lost during ‘Perfect Storm’

October 29, 2026 — This week marks 35 years since a Gloucester-based fishing vessel bound for home was lost at sea in a massive tempest that was later dubbed “The Perfect Storm.”

Six fishermen were lost aboard the Andrea Gail, a commercial fishing vessel, which had been out on the waters off of Canada, when a massive storm hit New England.

On board at the time were Captain Frank “Billy” Tyne, Robert “Bobby” Shatford, David “Sully” Sullivan, Michael “Bugsy” Moran, Dale “Murph” Murphy, and Alfred Pierre.

David Sullivan’s sister, Catherine Sullivan Mustone, still lives in Gloucester, and told NewsCenter 5 that the loss of her brother is a wound that will never be fully healed.

Read the full article at WCVB

War in the Middle East continuing to disrupt Iran’s fisheries sector, with estimated millions in losses

October 29, 2026 — According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), ongoing war in the Middle East has heavily disrupted Iran’s fisheries sector, especially in two of the nation’s top commercial fishing provinces.

OCHA estimated that direct and indirect losses to the fisheries sectors in the provinces of Hormozgan and Bushehr have totaled around USD 105.9 million (EUR 94.4 million). This comes as more than 60 percent of the fishing fleet in the two provinces remains inactive, directly impacting the income of an estimated 37,000 fishers and causing other adverse impacts on the livelihoods of an estimated 300,000 people.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

The Permitting Bill Fishermen Can’t Afford to Ignore

October 29, 2026 — On November 9, the Senate is scheduled to take up the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026, known as BAAJA (S. 5653). This legislation is not about Mexican sheep; instead, the dense 400-page bill rewrites how the federal government approves energy, mining, and infrastructure projects. Its sponsors, Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Mike Lee (R-UT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM), call it a historic compromise. I call it a historic risk for fishing communities.

The coalition behind BAAJA is unusual. The American Petroleum Institute (oil and gas), the American Clean Power Association (wind and other renewables), and major organized labor groups support it. Tribal nations, historic preservation groups, and ocean conservation organizations oppose it.

Commercial fishermen have been mostly absent from this fight, and that needs to change. BAAJA rewrites the rules for offshore wind farms, export cables, offshore oil and gas, and seabed mining. It changes how those projects are approved, how long the approvals last, and how hard they are to challenge. Nearly every change reduces the leverage fishermen have used to protect fishing grounds historically, and that’s not a coincidence.

The Senate outcome is close to being settled. The House is a different story, and that is where fishermen still have a real opening. But we must make our voices heard, and soon.

What this issue is about

Fishermen have spent more than a decade fighting for a real voice in offshore wind decisions. Lease areas have been granted on productive fishing grounds over industry objections, and project layouts have been set with little regard for how fleets actually fish or what they need for safe transit. Too often, fishermen’s concerns have been treated as a box to check rather than a reason to change course.

BAAJA would shrink what voice fishermen have left in the regulatory process for energy permitting. Its supporters pitch it as protection for clean energy, pointing to the 2025 federal stop-work orders that halted offshore wind projects already holding permits. The bill delivers that protection by making permits nearly impossible to revisit once they are issued, and much harder to challenge before then during the planning process.

The bill doesn’t stop at wind. Its “protections” for energy projects from public scrutiny and challenge cover any federally permitted project with a private sector sponsor, including offshore oil and gas wells and mines. The same rules that would wall off a wind farm from fishermen’s objections would wall off an offshore drilling lease or a seabed mining permit.

More on that in just a bit.

People who work on the ocean deserve a real say in what happens to it, before a permit is issued and after. Whatever the energy source, BAAJA moves decisions further away from coastal communities and closer to developers and their lawyers and lobbyists.

Read the full article at the Fishery Friendly Climate Action Campaign

MASSACHUSETTS: What’s in your logbook? New Bedford wants to preserve fishing history

October 27, 2026 — The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center is asking fishermen and fishing families to dig through old file boxes, basements, and kitchen drawers for records that could help preserve the history of one of the nation’s most prominent commercial fishing communities.

The center has launched a new collection and digitization effort focused on fishermen’s documents, including logbooks, settlement sheets, vessel trip reports, charts and other records from the New Bedford fishing industry.

For generations, fishermen have kept handwritten logs documenting their time at sea, recording everything from fishing locations and catches to weather, sea conditions, and tow duration. Settlement sheets offer another piece of the story, detailing trip expenses, wages, and crew shares.

Together, those records can provide a window into both the economic and environmental changes fishermen have experienced over time.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman