Saving Seafood

Framework finally implemented as Gulf of Maine haddock quota increase takes effect

March 9, 2026 — After weeks of frustration from New England groundfish sector managers and stop-fishing notices for some vessels, Framework 69 has finally been approved and implemented by federal regulators.

According to a March 5 notice from NOAA Fisheries, the agency approved Framework Adjustment 69 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan and announced final catch limits for fishing year 2025. The action officially went into effect March 9.

Framework 69 establishes annual catch limits and management measures for multiple groundfish stocks, including a significant increase to the Gulf of Maine haddock quota– an increase fishermen have been waiting on for months.

The approval comes after mounting pressure from industry leaders who argued the delay was forcing boats to tie up during one of the most productive fishing periods of the year. Just days before NOAA issues its final notice, six New England groundfish sector managers formally petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service for relief, calling the delay in approving the framework “frankly ridiculous.”

At the time, several sectors had already begun issuing stop-fishing notices after vessels exhausted their Gulf of Maine haddock allocations under the interim limits.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NOAA announces planned rollback of North Atlantic right whale protections

March 4, 2026 — The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration has announced plans to roll back protections for North Atlantic right whales as part of the Trump Administration’s ongoing efforts to deregulate across multiple government sectors.

There are fewer than 380 right whales left in the world, with roughly 70 females capable of bearing young. North Atlantic Right Whales, one of the most endangered species in the world, are frequently spotted by the dozens in the Gulf of Maine.

Vessel strikes and equipment entanglement are the leading causes of death, Rachel Rilee of the Center for Biological Diversity told Maine Public.

Read the full article at NEPM

Stop-fishing notices spread as haddock delay drags on

March 4, 2026 — It has been almost a week since six New England groundfish sector managers formally petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for relief on Framework 69, and, from the industry’s perspective, nothing has changed.

In a Feb. 27 letter addressed to Michael Pentony, regional administrator for NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, the managers called the delay in approving Framework 69 “frankly ridiculous,” noting that there are only nine weeks (now eight weeks) left in the fishing year and that vessels are already being forced to stop fishing in the Gulf of Maine.

“We the undersigned Northeast groundfish sector managers petition for relief from the frankly ridiculous delay in what should have been a belated but routine approval of groundfish Framework 69,” the letter states.

Framework 69, approved by the New England Fishery Management Council in December 2024 and submitted to NMFS in March 2025, would increase the Gulf of Maine haddock quota by roughly 50 percent over the prior fishing year. But with the action still awaiting final signoff in Washington, D.C., that additional quota remains inaccessible on the water.

In the meantime, sector managers say they are running out of options.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Gulf of Maine haddock quota stalled as boats near tying up

February 23, 2026 — For commercial fishermen in the Gulf of Maine, spring typically means fresh haddock.

It’s the time of year when the fish show up thick, boats can finally make steady trips, and crews start to see paychecks that carry them through the lean months. But this year, instead of chasing the fish, Gulf of Maine (GOM) groundfishermen are waiting and watching their quota meters hit zero.

Framework 69, the regulatory vehicle that would increase the GOM haddock quota by 50 percent due to assessments of the stock, is stuck in federal review at NOAA’s level, despite being approved by the New England Fishery Management Council and signed on Dec. 4, 2024.

In the meantime, boats are nearing the limit of haddock they’re legally allowed to land.

“We were, for instance, four weeks ago, on track at the current quota level to be out of Gulf of Maine haddock quota right around the end of this year,” said Hank Soule, manager of the Sustainable Harvest Sector. New England sectors are self-managed groups of commercial fishing vessels holding limited access permits for Northeast multispecies (groundfish), including haddock.

“Right now, we’re on track to run out of Gulf of Maine haddock quota by late March,” said Soule. For groundfishing, that means a year reset on May 1, which is beyond devastating to fishermen.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

MAINE: What warming waters could mean for Maine’s fishing economy

February 10, 2026 — Fishing is a major part of Maine’s economy, with commercial fisheries generating about $709 million in 2024, according to state data. But what happens when a warming climate begins to collide with business?

Scientists consider the Gulf of Maine to be one of the fastest-warming ocean regions in the world — and changing conditions have already reshaped parts of the industry.

In Maine, warming waters have contributed to long-term declines in northern shrimp populations. Shrimp fisheries in the Gulf of Maine have been closed for more than a decade, after regulators imposed a moratorium on shrimping — a ban that has now been extended until 2028.

And it’s not just shrimp.

Graham Sherwood, a senior scientist at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, says warming waters could begin to affect Maine’s billion-dollar lobster industry, even as the fishery remains strong today.

Marketplace’s Sabri Ben-Achour spoke with Sherwood. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Read the full article at Marketplace

What zooplankton can teach us about a changing Gulf of Maine

February 10, 2026 — Karen Stamieszkin, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, was out on the Gulf of Maine three years ago when she saw red pooling in different directions beneath the waves: a large spring bloom of plankton.

“You could see these plumes of this fat, rich copepod population right at the surface,” said Stamieszkin, referring to a type of tiny crustacean. “That is what drives the Gulf of Maine’s iconic fisheries.”

She was examining the masses of an organism that plays a central role in the Gulf of Maine’s ecosystem, feeding on plant-like plankton and then transferring that energy up the food chain, thereby fueling the region’s cod, herring, and tuna populations.

Read the full article at Seacoastonline 

Maine Sea Grant receives $2M in new NOAA awards to support innovative American lobster research, outreach

January 21, 2026 — The Maine Sea Grant Program at the University of Maine has received $2 million in funding.

$1.4 million of the funding comes from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), awarded to support research and outreach activities of the NOAA Sea Grant-funded American Lobster Initiative. Another $600,000 has been provided in second-year support for four 2025-26 American lobster research awards.

With this new four-year NOAA award, Maine Sea Grant and its regional partners will support collaborative research to address complex challenges facing the American lobster fishery, according to UMaine News, in a news release. The initiative will also synthesize research findings so they are accessible and actionable for fishermen, policymakers and the public, and support place-based technical assistance within the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank and Southern New England region.

The American lobster (Homarus americanus) is among the nation’s most valuable fisheries, with approximately 113 million pounds landed in 2024, valued at $715 million. The industry supports thousands of Maine families across the fishing and seafood supply chain and faces growing uncertainty driven by environmental and market change.

“This underscores the need for collaborative research to understand how lobsters are responding to changing conditions and how best to sustain the fishery,” said UMaine, in the release.

Read the full article at Penobscot Bay Pilot

On the Frontlines of Ocean Warming, Maine Plans for What Comes Next

January 16, 2026 — The Gulf of Maine, often referred to as a sea within a sea, extends along the eastern seaboard from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to New Brunswick, Canada. Teeming with a bounty of fish and lobsters, the watershed serves as a recipe for abundance. Nutrients from the warm Gulf Stream, the cool Labrador Current, and counterclockwise coastal currents gush into the bay, stratifying into varying temperate zones. But things have changed.

The Gulf of Maine is warming at a rate faster than nearly any other ocean surface on the planet, leading to shifts in the distribution of marine species and contributing to sea level rise. Think of it like a bathtub with hot and cold taps. As the Labrador Current weakens, accelerated warming has increasingly been impacting marine life and economic activities on Maine’s working waterfront.

According to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute’s (GMRI) latest report, the watershed experienced its twelfth-warmest year in 2024. Climbing temperatures, though incremental, are poised to have drastic impacts on fisheries and New England communities.

In Hot Water

Maine is combating the effects of global warming in real time and, in doing so, helping researchers better understand the global ocean.

The Gulf of Maine is home to beloved wildlife, from North Atlantic right whales and seabirds to iconic fish stocks and lobsters, all of which are threatened. Warming waters have already affected cold-water species, like herring, which are declining, and warm-water species, like butterfish.

Shifts in the food web have a ripple effect. Puffins are in limbo, forced to change what they feed to their chicks. And invasive species like green crabs have settled in, killing essential eelgrass beds that juvenile crustaceans rely on for protective habitat.

The impact rising tides have on coastal infrastructure are not less noteworthy. In 2020, Maine published its climate action plan, dedicating an entire section to better understand how a warming, rising Gulf will impact marine resources and communities. There’s great emotional value in both sectors, not to mention $528 million in yearly revenue from the state’s lobster industry and $9 billion in tourist revenue.

Read the full article at Earth.org

Adventures of a Field Scientist in the Gulf of Maine: So What Do You Do Out There?

January 16, 2026 — Another survey season has just wrapped up for the Gulf of Maine Bottom Longline team. While going to sea and working on these surveys can be fun and exciting, it also drastically disrupts our social and biological schedules. During survey season—April and May in the spring and October and November in the fall—I tend not to make any land-based plans, or see many people from my non-working life. Our schedules are highly dependent on weather conditions and can change at a moment’s notice. At the end of every survey season, when I announce my return from sea in various text messages and emails, I invariably get asked: “So … what do you do out there?”

Sampling the Gulf of Maine’s Rocky Bottom

The Gulf of Maine Bottom Longline Survey focuses on rocky bottom areas in the Gulf of Maine that are challenging for the Bottom Trawl Survey to sample. Using longline gear, we are able to get better data on groundfish species that live around rocky crevices that trawl nets might get hung up on. Each season, we partner with two commercial fishing vessels to sample 45 locations in the Gulf of Maine. We gather data that goes into stock assessments that help us understand what our fish stocks look like today and what they might look like in the future. Data collection at each station includes:

  • Counting, weighing, and measuring every single fish that we catch
  • Assessing age and maturity stage of certain species
  • Gathering biological samples for researchers back on land
  • Tagging and releasing some larger species like sharks and skates

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Lobstermen’s knowledge offers critical insight into the Gulf of Maine

January 14, 2026 — Maine’s lobster fishery brought in more than half a billion dollars in revenue last year, but the long-term health of the fishery remains under pressure as warming waters reshape the Gulf of Maine ecosystem, according to reporting from Northeastern Global News.

As ocean temperatures rise, invasive and southern species are moving into traditional lobster habitat, competing for resources and preying on native lobsters. Understanding how those changes play out on the water may depend heavily on the people who spend the time there: lobstermen themselves.

Jonathan Grabowski, a professor of marine and environmental sciences at Northeastern University, led a study examining lobstermen’s ecological knowledge in Maine and Massachusetts. Through detailed surveys and in-depth interviews, Grabowski and his team documented how fishermen understand food-web relationships and species interactions across different habitats.

Read the full article at National Fisherman