Saving Seafood

Reducing Bycatch in Shrimp Trawls Through Education

June 19, 2026 — NOAA’s Gear Monitoring Team has made significant progress improving and maintaining turtle excluder device compliance in the Gulf of America shrimp fishery. TEDs allow shrimp to pass through the bars to the end of the net. This allows fishers to maintain catch levels, while larger marine animals like sea turtles get “excluded” from the net.

Our gear experts cover the entire Gulf—from Key West, Florida to Brownsville, Texas. Through their efforts conducting outreach, education, and enforcement training within fishing communities, TED compliance rates in the Gulf shrimp fishery now exceed 90 percent

Refresher for Law Enforcement

The team provides training to state and federal enforcement agencies to improve understanding of TED requirements and promote consistency in enforcement. This year we provided refresher training to:

  • Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers and the U.S. Coast Guard near Marco Island, Florida
  • Texas Parks and Wildlife and U.S. Coast Guard in South Texas
  • Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries officers

NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement coordinated and participated in these training sessions with our team and state law enforcement partners. This allowed officers to gain proficiency in TED requirements and gain on the water experience measuring the devices.

“We conducted a classroom portion of the training to review regulations and provide hands-on practice,” said Jason Letort, gear specialist and Gear Monitoring Team lead. “This was followed by a day of offshore patrols several miles west of Marco Island and Naples, Florida, where we boarded seven vessels and checked TED compliance on all of them. This allowed the officers to gain real experience checking TEDs on the back deck of a shrimp boat, which they can’t get in a classroom.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

ALABAMA: Dauphin Island Sea Lab pilot in Alabama harvests first red drum

June 16, 2026 — An Alabama, U.S.A.-based aquaculture project led by Dauphin Island Sea Lab has harvested its first fish, according to the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR).

Though funded by Congress years ago, the project has effectively been dead in the water awaiting permitting and other agreements, Integrated Multitrophic Aquaculture Project Manager Ashley McDonald said in a department announcement. The project finally lifted off last year after receiving a protected species agreement from NOAA and permits from ADCNR, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Coast Guard, and a platform and fish pen were installed about 2 miles off the coast of Fort Morgan.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Diving Deep into Sperm Whale Clicks

June 12, 2026 — Between June and August 2025, my fellow scientists of the Southeast Fisheries Science Center and crew of the NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter deployed a towed hydrophone array—an underwater microphone system—about 300 meters behind the ship. The goal? To detect the sounds produced by one species in particular: the endangered sperm whale in the Gulf of America.

This survey was focused on finding and studying these deep-diving giants. The scientists worked with the ship’s crew to transit through prime sperm whale habitat. Visual observers, drone operators, and acousticians were always on high alert—each using their specialized methods to detect these creatures.

Types of Sperm Whale Clicks

The towed hydrophone array picked up lots of sperm whale clicks on this 3-month trip. If the acousticians heard a whale before the visual observers spotted one, they were able to guide the ship toward the location. The array has multiple hydrophones, and measuring the tiny time differences when a click arrives at each one allowed them to pinpoint where the whale was. That’s teamwork at its finest, and it’s pretty cool, right?

But you might be wondering, what’s so special about these clicks besides helping to find the whales? Well, there’s actually a whole lot more to them!

Echolocation Clicks

Sperm whales produce different types of clicks. When they dive deep in search of food, they produce echolocation clicks to sense their environment and find their prey. They do this by listening for the echoes that bounce off of objects. The longer the echo takes to return, the farther away the object is. As they get closer to their prey, the two-way transit time for the clicks decreases, and they speed up their click rates until they’re making a rapid-fire sound called a “buzz” or a “creak.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

NOAA proposes moving more commercial fishers to electronic logbooks

June 3, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries is accepting public comments on a proposal to switch over more commercial fishers in the Gulf of Mexico – currently referred to as the Gulf of America by the administration of President Donald Trump – and South Atlantic Ocean from traditional, paper logbooks to electronic logbooks.

If approved, the change would apply to all federally permitted commercial fishers harvesting Gulf reef fish, Gulf or Atlantic coastal migratory pelagic species, Atlantic dolphin and wahoo, and species in the South Atlantic snapper-grouper complex.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

TEXAS: Texas shrimpers ask Trump administration for more H-2B visas amid labor shortage

May 18, 2026 — U.S. Representative Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas) has asked the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to release more temporary worker visas for his state’s shrimp industry, which is facing labor shortages ahead of the upcoming commercial season.

“Shrimpers from my congressional district and across the Gulf region applied for the H-2B Temporary Non-Agricultural Workers program but have not secured the necessary visas for the upcoming shrimp season, which begins on 15 July,” Gonzalez said in a 13 May letter. “The domestic shrimping industry is already facing an existential crisis due to unfair competition from foreign imports, combined with severe labor shortages and increased fuel prices. Without immediate action from the administration, this industry will suffer irreparable harm if they cannot employ the workers they need for the upcoming commercial shrimp season.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

LOUISIANA: Louisiana’s Menhaden Industry Marks Start of 2026 Season with Annual Blessing of the Fleet

May 11, 2026 — Louisiana’s menhaden fishing industry officially began the 2026 season on April 20, the day after the annual Blessing of the Fleet in Plaquemines Parish. The longstanding tradition brought together fishermen, their families, clergy and community members to pray for a safe and successful season. Held in Empire, the Blessing of the Fleet reflects generations of coastal heritage rooted in faith, family and a deep connection to the Gulf.

The full day of activities included boiled crawfish, lively conversations and children’s activities. There were also reflective moments, as captains and crew members bowed their heads on their menhaden steamers to pray for the coming months.

“The Blessing of the Fleet isn’t just about the season ahead,” said Francois Kuttel, President of Westbank Fishing. “It’s about recognizing the generations of hardworking fishermen who have made this industry what it is today.”

The event was also a time for Plaquemines Parish families to remember what the menhaden industry means to them. Dozens of attendees pointed out that the fishing season is a way of life for multiple generations. In fact, several noted that their parents, grandparents, adult children, cousins, in-laws and others have jobs that are directly tied to the menhaden industry.

“Daybrook and Westbank are invested in our community. They give us a chance to do something in our hometown,” said Sara Nelson, a lifelong resident of Empire and a six-year employee of Daybrook. “If I didn’t have this position here, I wouldn’t be able to live here.”

Read the full article at the Advocate

GEORGIA: Georgia governor signs foreign shrimp labeling legislation

May 8, 2026 — Just over two months after it was approved by the state legislature, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has signed a bill requiring clear labeling of imported shrimp into law.

“The enactment of HB 117 is a huge victory for Georgia shrimpers, who organized an effective grassroots campaign to ensure that consumers have the ability to choose U.S. wild-caught shrimp when they dine out,” Southern Shrimp Alliance Director Blake Price said in a release.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

LOUISIANA: One of more than 60 seafood samples tests positive for oil in Gulf

April 23, 2026 — More than 60 samplings of Gulf aquatic life have been tested for oil, and samples have come back negative.

Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, known as LOOP, learned Feb. 26 of a leak from one of its offshore facilities about 18 miles out from Port Fourchon. About 750 barrels of heavy crude oil were spilled into the Gulf, according to news releases from the company.

The U.S. Coast Guard reported in a March 17 news release that roughly 95 barrels of the oil remained uncollected in the Gulf of Mexico, which was renamed the Gulf of America by the U.S. Government.

Samples were taken from blue crabs, oysters, Spanish mackerel, black drums, spotted sea trout, red drum, as well as brown and white shrimp. They were taken between March 19 and April 1.

Read the full article at Daily Comet

Administration to Convene ‘God Squad’ With Power to Override Environmental Law

March 18, 2026 — The Trump administration plans to convene the so-called God Squad, a high-level federal panel that has the power to override protections under the Endangered Species Act, for a meeting related to oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico.

The meeting, scheduled for March 31, will be the first time in three decades that the group, officially called the Endangered Species Committee, will gather.

Notice of the meeting was released on Friday and officially published in the Federal Register on Monday. The Gulf, which the administration calls the Gulf of America, is home to the critically endangered Rice’s whale, a species that exists nowhere else. According to the latest available federal estimates, around 50 of the animals remain on Earth.

Information in the notice announcing the meeting, called by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, is sparse.

“The Committee is meeting regarding an exemption under the Endangered Species Act with respect to oil and gas exploration, development, and production activities in the Gulf of America associated with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Program,” the notice states.

When emailed for additional information on what had prompted the move, the Interior Department declined to directly answer questions and repeated the published information. But President Trump has wanted the God Squad to convene since he returned to office last year.

Read the full article at The New York Times

Louisiana wildlife agents use drone to spot illegal oyster harvesting

February 12, 2026 — Agents with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries used an aerial drone to spot an individual illegally harvesting hundreds of pounds of oysters in February.

While on an early morning patrol of the Sister Lake Oyster Seed Reservation 3 February, agents decided to fly an aerial drone overhead to observe an individual harvesting oysters from a vessel. Oyster season in the area had already been closed for more than a month.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource