Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Modifications recommended on retainable amounts of groundfish species

October 22, 2025 — Federal fishery management officials meeting in early October in Anchorage recommended modifying regulations that implement maximum retainable amounts of groundfish species.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) recently noted that there is broad support from multiple fishing sectors in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea for moving forward with this action, adding that the analytical document is clear on the positive benefits their action will have for multiple fleets.

The council said its preferred alternatives would improve regulations that implement the maximum retainable amounts, as well as clarify their current regulations, make maximum retainable amount calculations easier, reduce regulatory discards, ease regulatory burden, and address medical, mechanical and weather issues that can impact those calculations.

Read the full article at The Cordova Times

NOAA Fisheries Partners with Northeast Groundfish Industry to Update Key Data for Stock Assessments

September 22, 2025 — The commercial groundfishing industry has long been a cornerstone of New England’s coastal communities. For generations, fishermen have harvested species including Atlantic cod, haddock, and flounder, contributing significantly to local livelihoods and the food supply. NOAA Fisheries works to promote science-based management of these species, ensuring both the industry’s economic viability and the long-term health of marine ecosystems.

Why Weight Matters: Bridging the Gap for Accurate Assessments

Commercial fishery quotas and recorded catch are typically based on total fish weight, which is easy to measure in bulk. However, scientists use stock assessment models that require numbers of individual fish to accurately evaluate population trends and dynamics. To bridge the gap between total weight and number of fish, reported commercial catch weights must be translated into fish numbers using length-weight relationships and conversion factors derived from biological sampling data.

The length-weight relationship—a mathematical model to predict a fish’s weight based on its length—is a fundamental tool in fisheries science. Converting length to weight is more complex for species like Atlantic cod, which are typically gutted at sea. A critical step involves converting the fish’s dressed weight back to whole, or live, weight. This conversion is achieved by applying a ‘conversion factor’, which represents the ratio of the gutted weight to the whole weight.

“Conversion factors directly impact our estimates of commercial landings,” said Charles Perretti, a stock assessment analyst with NOAA Fisheries’ Population Dynamics Branch. “So getting those factors right is important. “Many of the existing conversion factors and length-weight relationships used for Northeast species are based on older data, some dating back to the 1960s. Over time, fish growth rates and body shape can change. Fishing practices also evolve along with technology and shifting market preferences. Stock assessment models benefit from up-to-date inputs including conversion factors and length-weight relationships.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

New Data Shows Healthy Numbers of Quillback Rockfish off California; Fishing to Resume

September 22, 2025 — New data collected with help from California fishermen has revealed more quillback rockfish off the California Coast than estimated earlier. These findings allow NOAA Fisheries to drop fishing restrictions meant to help rebuild the species.

The change frees commercial and recreational fleets to resume fishing, particularly in shallower federal waters, for many species of groundfish off California, including rockfish. These fisheries generated more than $150 million in landings in some years. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife relaxed limits in state waters in August. NOAA Fisheries has now done the same in federal waters off California, which was announced on September 18.

“This demonstrates the value of good data to support the science,” said Keeley Kent, chief of the groundfish branch in NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region. “The industry stepped up and helped gather a lot more data, and that shows there is a healthy population of quillback out there.”

The first-ever stock assessment for quillback rockfish off California in 2021 was based on the limited data available at the time. It found that the lesser known species in that area was below a minimum stock size threshold. The Pacific Fishery Management Council took precautionary steps to reduce the harvest. NOAA Fisheries determined in December 2023 that the species was overfished. Sustainable fisheries regulations required NOAA Fisheries to develop a rebuilding plan, which further limited fishing for quillback and other rockfish that can be caught with quillback.

These limits hit in 2023 just as low salmon returns also shut down salmon fishing in California for the first of 3 years, said Tim Klassen, who captains charter trips for Reel Steel Fishing in Eureka, California. He’s also a member of the groundfish advisory subpanel for the Pacific Fishery Management Council. “The timing couldn’t have been worse.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

New England council tries again on Northeast groundfish plan

July 8, 2025 — The New England Fishery Management Council will resubmit Amendment 25 to  its Northeast groundfish plan, after U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnik disapproved the regional council’s original December 2024 proposal.

The National Marine Fisheries said May 28 “that Amendment 25 and its supporting analyses do not adequately demonstrate how the proposed action is consistent with National Standard 1 or other required provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.”

After a lengthy deliberation at the council’s Junemeeting, its members voted to resubmit Amendment 25, “which would replace the current Atlantic cod stocks in the Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank with the newly identified cod stocks in Eastern Gulf of Maine, Western Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank, and Southern New England,” council officials announced July 3.

The plan was protested by New England fishermen after the council’s initial approval last December. Despite Lutnik’s disapproval, NMFS still assessed that a new four-stock Atlantic cod structure “and the resulting management track stock assessments have been determined to be the best scientific information available.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NOAA reverses course on winter Florida groundfish ban

June 10, 2025 — In a victory for sport fishermen, NOAA has scrapped a proposed rule that would have banned fishing for 55 fish species off Florida’s Atlantic coast during the winter to aid the recovery of overfished red snapper, one of the region’s most prized sport species.

In a bulletin announcing a suite of changes to federal management of South Atlantic red snapper, NOAA said it had axed the three-month ban — called a “discard reduction season” — on dozens of species that share the same near-bottom habitat with snapper, citing heavy opposition from fishing interests.

Those species include black sea bass, red grouper, vermillion snapper, gag, scamp, greater amberjack and gray triggerfish.

Read the full article at E&E News

Groundfish season opens on time after NOAA passes emergency catch limits

May 1, 2025 — The fishing season for cod, haddock and flounder started on time Thursday after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued emergency regulations this week.

The move came after weeks of delay because of the Trump administration’s cuts to NOAA staff, and controversy over proposed changes to how the agency measures cod populations.

For now, catch limits for these bottom-dwelling fish will remain lower than last season. NOAA said it will delay any decision about the suggested updates to cod fishing regulations until next year.

Read the full story at WBUR

Mass. pushes feds for May 1 groundfish season start

April 17, 2025 — Massachusetts is calling on federal regulators to act swiftly to ensure the 2025 commercial groundfish season opens on time. On April 15, Tom O’Shea, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game, sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick urging immediate regulatory action to authorize the May 1 start date.

“Without fishing measures, federal fishing vessels from ports of Gloucester south to New Bedford will be tied up with no opportunity to sustain their businesses,” O’Shea wrote in the letter.

The Northeast multispecies (groundfish) fishery is jointly managed by NOAA Fisheries and the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) under the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan. The plan governs thirteen species, including iconic New England stocks like Atlantic cod, haddock, halibut, and winter flounder. However, to legally land and possess these fish, federal regulations must be in place to start the fishing year on May 1.

If the Department of Commerce does not act in time, federal groundfish vessels in Massachusetts will be effectively shut out of the fishery, causing serious economic disruptions across the state’s fishing ports. “The impacts will be particularly acute in Gloucester, New Bedford, and Boston, where our federal groundfish permit holders are concentrated,” the Department of Fish and Game warned in a separate briefing.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Groundfish: NEFMC Takes Final Action on Framework 69 With Catch Limits for Four New Atlantic Cod Stock Units

December 10, 2024 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council took final action on Framework Adjustment 69 to the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery Management Plan when it met in Newport, Rhode Island December 3-5, 2024. The framework contains catch limits and management measures for the 2025 fishing year and beyond.

The Council received three reports before beginning its decision-making on Framework 69:

  • The Northeast Fisheries Science Center presented the peer-reviewed results of 2024 Management Track Stock Assessments for American plaice, pollock, witch flounder, Atlantic halibut, Georges Bank haddock, and Gulf of Maine haddock;
  • The Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) presented overfishing limit (OFL) and acceptable biological catch (ABC) recommendations for each of those newly assessed stocks; and
  • The Transboundary Management Guidance Committee (TMGC) presented recommendations for U.S./Canada shared groundfish resources on Georges Bank.

Read the full release from the New England Fishery Management Council

Groundfish: Council Signs off on Amendment 25; Prepares for December Final Action on Framework 69 Under Cod Phase 1

October 23, 2024 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council took final action on Amendment 25 to the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery Management Plan (FMP) when it met September 24-26, 2024 in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

The Council is now focused on Framework Adjustment 69 to the FMP. The framework is being developed to establish measures for the 2025 groundfish fishing year and, for certain stocks, 2026 and 2027 as well. The Council is scheduled to take final action on the framework at its December 3-5, 2024 meeting in Newport, Rhode Island. The 2025 groundfish fishing year begins on May 1.

AMENDMENT 25: The 2023 Atlantic Cod Research Track Assessment determined that Atlantic cod would be better assessed as four stock units as shown in the map below. The groundfish plan, however, continues to refer to only two stocks – Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank. Amendment 25 takes the necessary first step of incorporating the four newly defined stocks into the plan as follows:

  • Eastern Gulf of Maine as a new stock unit;
  • Western Gulf of Maine as a new stock unit;
  • Georges Bank as a revised stock unit; and
  • Southern New England as a new stock unit.

Read the full release from the NEFMC here

Tribal groups, seeking restrictions on Alaska’s Bering Sea trawlers, get day in court

September 27, 2024 — U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason heard oral arguments Thursday in a lawsuit filed by two of Alaska’s largest tribal groups against federal managers of the state’s groundfish trawl fisheries.

The Association of Village Council Presidents and the Tanana Chiefs Conference claim the federal government has failed to adjust trawling rules in the Bering Sea and off the Aleutian Islands to compensate for the ongoing salmon crisis on Alaska’s Interior rivers.

Victory by the plaintiffs could lead to new restrictions on the world’s largest trawl fishery. If plaintiffs lose, the status quo is likely to continue.

On Thursday, Gleason asked plaintiffs whether they’re seeking a halt to trawl fishing in the Bering Sea.

No, the plaintiffs said.

Read the full article at Alaska Beacon