Saving Seafood

OREGON: ODFW Commission revises Dungeness crab fishery rules to address whale entanglements

August 17, 2026 — On Friday, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission revised rules to strengthen the department’s efforts to reducing whale entanglements in Oregon’s Dungeness crab fishery.

The revised rules include electronic vessel monitoring, including the installation of devices that provide a vessel’s location and other data. This requirement will take effect in February 2027.

The Commission also established additional criteria and guidelines for approving experimental fishing gear permits, allowing the exploration of alternative gear for the crab fishery that needs to be tested off the Oregon coast.

Read the full article at OPB

NORTH CAROLINA: Coastal habitat plan, commercial fishing licenses lead Marine Fisheries Commission meeting in Raleigh

August 14, 2026 — Possible new protections for submerged grass beds and other fish habitat in the Albemarle and Pamlico sounds will move closer to public debate if the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission sends a draft Coastal Habitat Protection Plan amendment out for review next week.

The commission meets Aug. 19-20 in Raleigh and is scheduled to vote on releasing the proposed 2026 amendment for public and advisory committee review. The vote would not adopt the plan or impose new fishing restrictions.

The draft recommends beginning a separate rulemaking process in 2027 to develop a broader framework for protecting habitats under the commission’s authority.

That process could consider how fishing gear and other activities affect submerged aquatic vegetation and deep-water oyster recovery areas, along with rules governing the harvest and transplanting of vegetation for restoration projects.

Any regulations developed through that process would require additional commission action and public review.

North Carolina’s coastal waters have historically supported nearly 200,000 acres of submerged aquatic vegetation, commonly called SAV.

Read the full article at the Island Free Press

MAINE: Scientists have begun to re-deploy ocean monitoring equipment yanked from Pacific Northwest waters by the Trump administration in September.

August 3, 2026 — Every lobsterman expects to lose gear.

Strong tides, boat traffic, and tangled lines make losing lobster traps an unavoidable part of fishing Maine’s rugged coastline. But when those traps settle on the seafloor, they can impact marine life for years, creating problems for both the environment and the state’s most valuable fishery.

That’s why Buzz Scott has made it his mission to bring them back.

Scott has spent nearly two decades as a commercial fisherman off the Maine coast. While he still operates a lobster boat, much of his time is now dedicated to recovering abandoned traps as executive director of the nonprofit OceansWide.

Read the full article at News Center Maine

NOAA Fisheries Seeks Comments on Ropeless Fishing

July 20, 2026 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is seeking information from fishery participants and others with specialized knowledge on the potential voluntary use of ropeless fishing gear, which includes on-demand fishing gear and other fixed gear that does not use persistent buoy lines.

Responses to this request for information may inform the potential future voluntary use, development, and management of ropeless fishing in the Greater Atlantic Region. NOAA Fisheries is seeking feedback from various stakeholders, primarily fixed-gear and mobile-gear fishermen, and intends to summarize the responses to this request for information and share that summary publicly.

The comment period is open through October 14, 2026. Submit your comments through the e-rulemaking portal. NOAA will accept anonymous and non-anonymous comments.

For more information, read the request for information as published in the Federal Register.

From making a living to saving lives: spent fishing nets are snaring Russian drones in Ukraine

July 16, 2026 — Local fishing nets, once bound for recycling, are now saving lives in Ukraine. The spent nets are being repurposed to protect soldiers from Russian drone attacks.

In the early morning hours of Feb. 24, 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine. At the time, Russian President Vladimir Putin called it a “special military operation.” Now, nearly four-and-a-half years later, the war rages on. And it’s a new kind of warfare, where small armed drones supplement expensive missiles.

A new kind of warfare requires new defense strategies. And, it turns out, fishing nets are an effective tool against exploding drones.

Eric Klose, founder of the Boston-based impact-first investment group Ground Squirrel Ventures learned this on a visit to Ukraine last year. While there, he met with some humanitarian groups, and he posed a question:

“If I could fix one thing, what would you want it to be?”

The answer was simple, and surprising – nets.

Nets cover hundreds of miles of roadways near the front line. They are draped over trees to protect gathering places. They cover trenches, and bombed-out windows and doors.
Big trawling nets, seine nets, and even thin-filament gill nets play a role.

Klose said soldiers cut gill nets into strips and keep them in their packs to use for emergency cover. They seal up openings like bombed-out windows and doors on the front lines.

Read the full article at Maine Public

CALIFORNIA: California Dungeness crab fishery opens to use of pop-up gear

March 17, 2026 — Use of conventional traps for commercial harvesting of Dungeness crab must cease in southern California on March 27, but fishermen may continue operating through the rest of the season using pop-up gear.

The March 13 announcement from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) for fishing zones 4 and 5 was the department’s first ever on the use of the recently approved pop-up gear, with buoys and lines remaining coiled on the seafloor. The announcement covers all fishing grounds south of Pigeon Point, including Monterey Bay and Morro Bay.

When commercial fishermen are ready to retrieve their gear, a remote signal triggers the release of the buoy, which carries the line to the surface, allowing commercial crabbers to locate the trap for quick removal.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Whale Entanglements in Fishing Gear Surge Off U.S. West Coast During Marine Heatwaves

February 26, 2026 — Each spring, humpback whales start to feed off the coast of California and Oregon on dense schools of anchovies, sardines and krill—prey sustained by cool, nutrient-rich water that seasonal winds draw up from the deep ocean.

That process, known as coastal upwelling, turns the California Current into one of the most productive marine ecosystems in the world, giving whales a chance to rebuild the energy reserves they depleted during months of fasting in their winter breeding grounds in Mexico.

But according to a new study published on Wednesday in the scientific journal, PLOS Climate, rising ocean temperatures are shrinking and redefining this critical foraging habitat, putting the humpbacks at greater risk of entanglement in fishing gear.

Marine heatwaves weaken upwelling, reducing the amount of cold, nutrient-rich water reaching the surface. That, in turn, reduces offshore krill blooms. Humpbacks then begin to move inshore, where other prey, like anchovies and sardines tend to swarm. There, they are more likely to overlap with dangerous fishing activity and fixed gear, like Dungeness crab traps.

Read the full article at Inside Climate News

MASSACHUSETTS: State officials release updated regulations targeting fishing gear debris

January 30, 2026 — State officials have announced new regulations for the cleanup of fishing gear debris, to go into effect as of Friday, January 30, 2026. 

The new regulations will serve to rewrite old laws affording gear with property rights – a relic of the days when biodegradable wooden lathe traps made up a significant portion of in-use fishing gear – and will permit local leaders, community organizations, and partner groups to cleanup derelict gear, 9% or more of which is lost each year. 

The decision was informed by a report produced by the Derelict Gear Task Force, a collaboration of state, fishing industry, and conservation partners established by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries in 2022. 

Read the full article at CapeCod.com

CALIFORNIA: Whale-safe pop-up gear could bring crab back to Monterey Bay markets

August 5, 2025 — Pop-up fishing gear is one step closer to becoming available to local crab fishermen.

“We hope to see Monterey Bay fishermen really get back out on the water and keep bringing in crab in a way that’s whale-safe,” said Geoff Shester with Oceana.

In recent years, Monterey Bay has seen the Dungeness crab fishing season closed down or shortened due to the risk of whale entanglements in fishing ropes. The closures have put a financial burden on local fishermen.

“We’ve lost a good number of fishermen who have either retired or stopped fishing and taken land jobs,” said Gasper Catanzaro with Monterey Fish Co.

The pop-up gear is designed to keep whales safe while letting fishermen get back on the water.

“The way the pop-up gear works is all of the lines and buoys stay down with the trap. The fisherman is actually able to push a button on their tablet, see everyone else’s gear as well, and then retrieve the gear,” Shester said. “So, it pops up.”

Shester said Oceana’s most recent trial for the gear was their most successful yet; it brought in $1.4 million worth of crab this past spring.

“We were able to get out on a fishing boat, and every time it popped up, all the fishermen yelled, ‘Science!’” Shester said.

Read the full article at KSBW

Whale entanglement reports declined slightly in 2023, NMFS reports

July 29, 2025 — Entanglement in fishing gear or marine debris ensnared 64 large whales in U.S. waters during 2023, below the average annual number of cases in recent years but not yet a clear trend, the National Marine Fisheries Service reported.

The National Report on Large Whale Entanglements Confirmed in the United States in 2023 notes the 64 confirmed large whale entanglement cases nationally was less than 67 confirmed large whale entanglement cases in 2022.

“It is also below the average annual number of confirmed entanglements over the previous 16 years (which was 71.8),” according to a July 28 summary from the agency. “We will continue to analyze data from 2023 to understand whether this dip is temporary or part of a longer-term downward trend.”

Along with ship strikes, entanglements are a threat to individual whales and threatened or endangered species, such as the North Atlantic right whale with a population now estimated at only around 370 animals.

Reducing that danger to meet NMFS’ mandates  under the Marine Mammal Protection Act drives management actions on the East, Gulf and West coasts, including changes to fishing seasons, gear restrictions and efforts to develop and test so-called ropeless gear in fisheries.

According to a NMFS  breakdown of 2023 confirmed entanglement cases, 61 cases or 95 percent involved live animals, and three were whales found dead and floating when initially reported. The 2023 cases were lower than the average annual number of 71.8 confirmed entanglements from 2007–2022.

Four species of large whales were documented with 2023 entanglements in U.S. waters: humpback whales,  gray whales, minke whale and North Atlantic right whales.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman