Saving Seafood

OREGON: Oregon’s Newest Food Trail Highlights Local Seafood and the People Who Catch It

July 29, 2026 — From dock to plate, the Oregon Coast Seafood Trail puts the people behind the catch at the center of every meal. While much of the seafood consumed in Oregon comes from outside the country, Oregon’s newest trail highlights where you can enjoy Oregon-landed seafood that directly supports local fisheries. The trail guides travelers to vetted eateries, restaurants, seafood markets, food carts and dockside retailers that prioritize local seafood.

Central to the trail is the idea of “Oregon-landed” seafood, meaning the catch was delivered to a port in Oregon. Oregon’s fisheries are among the most sustainably managed in the world, with species like pink shrimp, albacore tuna, groundfish and Dungeness crab certified for responsible harvest. Additional local species — including Pacific halibut, salmon, oysters, clams and sea vegetables — round out the diversity of Oregon’s coastal waters and ensure every meal reflects the region’s bounty.

Each stop along the trail offers a window into the working waterfronts that sustain coastal communities. A dynamic map helps travelers sort stops by region, business type, seasonal events and more. The trail allows visitors to time their trip with the commercial crab season, albacore tuna runs or opportunities to buy directly from the docks. Along the way, visitors can explore coastal eateries, seafood markets and other businesses where transparency, sustainability and local sourcing are part of the story.

Read the full article at South Sound

ALASKA: For Yukon River residents, salmon shortages have health consequences

Juky 24, 2026 — When 26-year-old Tirzah Bryant was a kid, she knew how to watch the cottonwood trees along the Yukon River for the sign that it was time to fish for salmon.

“We know that the fish are coming when the cotton’s flying from the cottonwood,” she said.

But run collapses and successive fishing closures along the river have rendered the cottonwood signal meaningless.

“I remember that first summer that we couldn’t fish, watching the cotton flying and being like …what it felt like, I was drifting. I’m like, ‘What am I doing?’” she said. That drifting feeling includes interactions with members of her extended family who had moved to cities but used to gather in Galena during fishing season. “They don’t have a reason to come home now,” she said.

Bryant described that odd feeling during a presentation in March at an Anchorage tribal environmental conference. A 2025 graduate of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Center for One Health Research master’s degree program, which focuses on the human-animal-environmental health connections in Alaska and the Arctic, she described the One Health concept as fitting perfectly with her family’s traditions.

“Everything is related. So a healthy environment equals healthy animals, which equals healthy humans,” said Bryant, who also holds a biology degree from UAF and is now the environmental and education coordinator for the Louden Tribe, the Galena-based tribal government.

That makes the collapse of runs in the Yukon River — where Indigenous residents’ culture is tied to communal salmon harvesting, preparation and eating — “very detrimental to our people,” she said.

On the Yukon River, salmon runs that used to support a thriving and lucrative commercial harvest have collapsed. The runs of Chinook, also called king salmon, that have been in steady decline since the early 2000s, took a nosedive in recent years; by 2022, Chinook abundance was down 81% below its long-term average, according to fishery biologists. Harvest closures that began in 2020 were extended, and in 2024 an Alaska-Canada agreement established a seven-year moratorium on Chinook salmon fishing in the river to preserve Canadian-origin stocks.

Runs of chum salmon, a species that is generally more abundant in the river, suffered a similar but more sudden crash. A series of chum-harvest closures, even for subsistence purposes, started in 2020, and by 2022 abundance had fallen 92% below the long-term average.

Several factors, working in combination, are blamed for the declines. Scientists cite multiple climate change effects in both the ocean and freshwater bodies used by salmon. Those changes have not only affected the raw numbers of fish but also contributed to the shrinking size of salmon, resulting in smaller egg loads carried to spawning grounds by females.

Other factors cited are interceptions at sea by trawlers targeting groundfish species like pollock, changes forced by increasing loads of Asian hatchery fish in the ocean, past fishery management practices and the parasite Icthyophonus, which thrives in warmer conditions and has a more detrimental effect on Yukon Chinook than on any other type of salmon.

Salmon-protection activists say there is not much that can be done in the short term in Alaska to address those factors, other than to adjust fishery management to cut down on at-sea interception, also known as bycatch.

Read the full article at Alaska Beacon

US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick goes against top choices for fishery management councils

July 17, 2026 — U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has opted to go against some top nominations for U.S. fishery management councils.

In a 26 June announcement Lutnick announced he selected Forrest Bowers, the second choice for the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, instead the Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy’s top choice and current Alaska Department of Fish & Game Board Chair Märit Carlson-Van Dort. For the Pacific Fishery Management Council, Lutnick selected second-choice Chad See, director of the Freezer Longline Coalition, over the Washington Governor Bob Ferguson’s first pic of Jamie Goen, the executive director of the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers trade group.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

New cod regulations could squeeze remaining New England groundfish fleet

July 9, 2026 — New cod fishing regulations in New England will make life more complicated for the region’s groundfish fleet during a period already impacted by high fuel costs.

The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) recently approved a new multispecies fishery management plan that split the management areas for cod in the Northeast U.S. into four separate areas, an increase from the two areas it was previously. That rule, Amendment 25, set separate allowable catch limits for each quadrant, which combines to a total allowable limit of 608 metric tons (MT) across all areas.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Trump administration promises to make U.S. ‘dominant seafood leader’

July 7, 2026 — Advocates for the U.S scallop fleet hailed President Trump’s declaration of a “National Scallops Day” July 2, leading a list of NOAA Fisheries actions the administration says are aimed to “stabilize markets, improve access, enhance economic profitability, and prevent closures.”

Measures for the lucrative Northeast and Mid-Atlantic scallop fishery headed priorities announced by NOAA Assistant Administrator Eugenio Piñeiro Soler. The changes will open the Northern Edge of Georges Bank to the scallop fleet, and advance “permit stacking” on scallop vessels, two reforms the industry’s Sustainable Scallop Fund has sought for years.

“Permit stacking will let scallop permit holders consolidate operations, cut costs, and fish more safely and efficiently. Opening the Northern Edge returns the fleet to a productive, well-managed resource that has stayed closed for years,” the group says.

“We are grateful to President Trump and his team for listening to the men and women of the scallop fleet and acting on their behalf,” said SSF president John Lees. “Permit stacking and Northern Edge access will make our fishery more competitive, more sustainable, and more valuable to the American families who depend on it. This is what it looks like when Washington puts American fishermen first.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

President Trump Declares ‘National Scallops Day’ as NOAA Prioritizes Opening Northern Edge and Permit Stacking

July 2, 2026— President Donald Trump declared “National Scallops Day,” tying the designation to a NOAA Fisheries announcement that the agency has prioritized expanding access for the Atlantic sea scallop fleet on the Northern Edge of Georges Bank and advancing a long-sought permit-stacking policy.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the action would “open up the Northern Edge of Georges Bank to Scallops Fishing,” predicting “millions more pounds” of wild scallops for American consumers and more jobs in East Coast fishing ports, including New Bedford, Massachusetts; Cape May, New Jersey; and Norfolk, Virginia. This comes as part of a broader Trump Administration effort to expand domestic seafood production and reverse restrictions imposed by prior administrations.  

The President’s statement came the same day NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Eugenio Piñeiro Soler released a region-by-region list of regulatory priorities under Executive Order 14276, “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness.” In the New England section of that announcement, NOAA listed two major scallop actions: “Implement rotational access for the Northern Edge scallop fishery” and “Implement Scallop Permit Stacking.” Administrator Piñeiro Soler described them as “regulatory actions we have prioritized.” 

The April 2025 executive order directed the Commerce Department and NOAA Fisheries to work with regional fishery management councils to reduce regulatory burdens, increase domestic seafood production, improve access, stabilize markets, and enhance profitability for U.S. fishing businesses. NOAA said Thursday it received input from 787 individuals and organizations before prioritizing the actions announced by Piñeiro Soler.  

“The Fisheries Survival Fund, which has represented Atlantic scallop fishermen since 1998, has been working throughout the Executive Order process to reopen the Northern Edge. We very much appreciate President Trump’s and NOAA’s directive to NMFS and the Council to reopen this historically vital fishing ground after 35 years,” stated Eric Hansen, chairman of the Fund’s board.  “We will work hard to help make a productive, responsible opening become a reality. To the fleet, please be aware the area is not currently open, but we are thankful the process has begun.”

The Sustainable Scalloping Fund, a scallop industry group active in Washington and New Bedford, praised the announcement, saying the opening of the Northern Edge and the move toward permit stacking were two reforms it had sought since its inception.

“Permit stacking will let scallop permit holders consolidate operations, cut costs, and fish more safely and efficiently,” the group said in a statement. “Opening the Northern Edge returns the fleet to a productive, well-managed resource that has stayed closed for years.”

SSF President John Lees said the decision reflected direct engagement between fishermen and the White House. The group said Lees had carried the issues to senior White House officials and advocated for them directly with the president.

“We are grateful to President Trump and his team for listening to the men and women of the scallop fleet and acting on their behalf,” Lees said. “Permit stacking and Northern Edge access will make our fishery more competitive, more sustainable, and more valuable to the American families who depend on it. This is what it looks like when Washington puts American fishermen first.”

The Northern Edge of Georges Bank has been the subject of a long-running debate within New England fisheries management. The New England Fishery Management Council previously considered a framework action that would have revised habitat management restrictions and created rotational scallop access areas in the region. Council materials described the Northern Edge as roughly including the Closed Area II Habitat Management Area and the adjacent Northern Flank of Georges Bank, and said the habitat restrictions there were intended to minimize fishing impacts on essential fish habitat for multiple species, including scallops, groundfish, herring, monkfish and skates.  

Council materials also reflected concerns that opening the area could affect long-term scallop yield because dense scallop aggregations on the Northern Edge may serve as a larval source for other scallop grounds, including the Southern Flank of Georges Bank, the Great South Channel and Nantucket Lightship.  

NOAA’s announcement did not provide a detailed schedule for implementation, catch projections, or final management measures for the Northern Edge or permit stacking. Piñeiro Soler said some priorities may implicate other statutory requirements and that NOAA Fisheries would work with the councils to determine how to advance them.  

Groundfish industry cleans 55,935 pounds of nets for recycling

June 8, 2026 — Four huge worn-out midwater trawl nets that in old times might have been buried in a landfill are instead being repurposed into usable new products and protection for Ukrainians from explosive Russian drones.

The efforts of over 100 volunteers from Seattle’s wild Alaska pollock catcher-processor fleet hunkered down in 80-degree heat at Terminal 91 on Thursday, May 28, offered both environmental and financial benefits to American Seafoods, Arctic Storm Management Group, Coastal Villages Region Fund, Glacier FIsh Company and Trident Seafoods, all members of the At-Sea Processors Association.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

MAINE: One solution for Maine’s struggling fishing industry? Give fillets away for free

May 26, 2026 —  Surging food costs and fuel prices are pummeling Maine’s struggling groundfishing industry. But a pandemic-era program is helping to keep it afloat as inflation worsens, while also aiming to create a new generation of seafood lovers.

Fishermen Feeding Mainers began in late 2020 and raises money to buy locally caught fish, process it and donate the frozen fillets to schools and food banks in Maine. So far, it has spent more than $4 million on the purchasing and processing of about 1.3 million pounds of locally caught fish.

“Before this [program], chances were you could get down to some really scary-low prices,” said Boothbay fisherman Devyn Campbell of the amount he could earn for his catch.

That’s in part because the market for local fish dried up early in the COVID-19 pandemic when restaurants closed to in-person dining. “COVID destroyed all fish prices,” Campbell said.

Read the full article at KUOW

MAINE: Downeast groundfish vanish, leaving stories and questions behind

May 21, 2026 — As summer approaches in Downeast, Maine, there is a certain sadness about visitors who no longer arrive in the border waters shared with Canada and the Passamaquoddy Tribe. For tens of thousands of years, big cod, pollock, and haddock swam into what we now call Cobscook Bay, Passamaquoddy Bay, the St. Croix River estuary, and surrounding waters. And for thousands of years, the Passamaquoddy Tribe, the people of the pollock, lived a rich life harvesting these fish.

“By 1988 it was all over,” says Jane Cowles, who with her late husband, Rick, once bought fish from the mosquito fleet in Eastport, Maine. “We were there for about ten years,” she says.

“I imagine you can still catch some to eat,” says Edward French, owner and editor of the Quoddy Tides, the easternmost newspaper in the USA. In 1998, French interviewed Reid Wilson of Eastport, Maine. Wilson had been a leader of the mosquito fleet—about twenty fishermen who buzzed out of the harbor before dawn, racing their outboard skiffs to fishing spots no one knows the names of anymore. They’d be back by noon, unloading hundreds of pounds of large and whale cod, pollock, and haddock. Eastporters loved the haddock but not the cod. “Too wormy,” they said. You couldn’t give cod away in Eastport; it all went down the road to processors in Portland and Boston. Those high-quality fish, less than 24 hours out of the water, sold for the same price as 10-day-old cod from the offshore draggers.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Groundfish Gut Check: Partnering with the Fishing Industry to Update Groundfish Data

April 17, 2026 — Blood, guts, and gore! Those words sound like a review for a horror movie, but it’s actually the basis of my field work. I’ve been looking at and evaluating a lot of fish guts for the Cooperative Research Branch Conversion Factor Project.

Giving Groundfish Conversion Factors a Refresh

Many fish are gutted at sea, which means the internal organs are removed to prevent spoiling. Once these fish are offloaded from a commercial trip, scientists apply a conversion factor to the gutted weight to convert it to a whole weight which they use to evaluate the abundance of a fish stock. As the ocean changes, fluctuations in temperature and shifting prey availability impact fish metabolism and physiology. That can cause changes in average fish size and weight.

The conversion factors used for cod, haddock, and pollock haven’t been updated since the 1960s, so they’re in need of a little refresh. That’s where I come in. I’ve been sailing on commercial groundfish vessels all over the region. The goal? Collect data that represents the landings of the commercial groundfish fleet from different ports, gear types, and gutting methods.

My mobile office changes from vessel to vessel as I bring everything I need to do my job back and forth each time. Sailing aboard commercial fishing vessels is not a 9–5 job. Sometimes we leave in the middle of the day, sometimes we leave in the middle of the night. In fact, the only consistency is that when the lines get thrown, everyone is quite literally in the same boat. I work with the captain and crew on each trip to find a space and establish a work flow that fits their deck space and fishing operations.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries