Saving Seafood

For many, striped bass fishing is a way of life. But the iconic species could face collapse

October 30, 2026 — Striped bass fishing has been Bill Jakob’s passion for more than 60 years, and he remembers an era when he’d spend all night casting his line into the crashing waves off Montauk and get eight or nine fish ranging up to 40 pounds (18 kilograms), a big catch by anyone’s standards.

Then, after years of heavy fishing, the big runs of stripers stopped.

“I’m part of the problem, back in the years. I ran party boats, we slayed fish with reckless abandon,” said Jakob, president of the Montauk Surfcasters Association on the easternmost tip of Long Island.

Increasingly, fishermen like Jakob fear the good days of catching striped bass are coming to an end. The fish aren’t showing up like they used to, and young stripers are becoming harder to find.

Scientists who study striped bass say anglers on the East Coast are right to be concerned, and they say years of overfishing are just part of the problem. The fish have experienced eight consecutive years of poor reproduction in their most critical habitat in the Chesapeake Bay, regulators said last week, and the population has declined along much of the Atlantic coast.

Read the full article at The Associated Press

Offshore wind job training built for a boom is facing down a bust

September 22, 2026 — This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. ​

A former Navy sailor and union laborer from Local 1298 on Long Island, William “Billy” Bishop jumped at the chance to work on the water again when he learned two years ago about job opportunities on offshore wind construction projects.

After earning a safety certification from the National Offshore Wind Training Center — a collaboration between Long Island’s Suffolk County Community College, the Long Island Federation of Labor, and multinational wind farm developer Orsted — Bishop worked on a wind farm near Rhode Island. Now he’s doing structural inspections and maintenance on Sunrise Wind, which is under construction off the coast of Long Island in New York.

But the Trump administration’s efforts to crush offshore wind projects, part of its broader assault on clean energy, have created deep uncertainty for training programs like NOWTC and workers like Bishop.

“I would definitely do this forever, and I’ve looked into it since getting the job. But I see contracts are falling through nonstop now in America,” said Bishop. “This might be the last one for a while.”

In 2021, the Biden administration set a target to generate 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by the end of the decade, starting from almost zero, which jump-started a massive effort to train people for jobs in the industry. That rapid ramp-up would have required an estimated 77,000 workers — to build the wind farms, connect the turbines to the grid, operate and maintain the facilities, manufacture the rugged steel components, and more.

Read the full article at Grist

NEW YORK: Drone Footage Shows Massive Schools of Baitfish Off New York Coast

July 21, 2026 — Massive schools of menhaden (also called baitfish) were spotted lining the shore of Southampton, New York, on July 17.

Aerial footage by drone pilot Joanna Steidle shows dense clusters of the fish swimming just off a beach on Long Island.

Steidle advised swimmers to avoid the areas where baitfish are congregating because larger predators often hunt there.

Menhaden are a keystone species and provide an essential food source for the coastal ecosystem, according to Steidle. Credit: Joanna Steidle via Storyful

Read the full article at Yahoo! News

Putting the Fishing Industry First at the Cooperative Research Summit

April 27, 2026 — On April 1 and 2, we held our fourth annual Northeast Cooperative Research Summit in Riverhead, Long Island, New York. We had more than 150 participants, including more than 30 commercial and recreational fishermen—the largest gathering to date.

The Summit is an annual event focused on building partnerships between the fishing and science communities to address science and management needs. It prioritizes active participation of commercial and recreational fishing industry members and includes:

  • Learning about ongoing cooperative research initiatives
  • Small group activities to practice active collaboration
  • Large group discussions of shared research priorities

This year, the Cornell Cooperative Extension Marine Program joined the effort, organizing the Shinnecock port tours, opening and closing receptions, and lending other support. “Cornell Cooperative Extension was very happy to jointly organize the 2026 Summit. Our staff has attended each Summit since it started in 2023. It’s informative, engaging, and fun,” said Scott Curatolo-Wagemann, senior educator for Cornell Cooperative Extension. “We‘re extremely honored and proud to be a bigger part of the Summit this year. Each year, the extension staff and I come away from the Summit with a feeling of optimism and renewed dedication to cooperative research.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Long Island Wind Farms Respond to Federal Suspension

December 23, 2025 — Two of the five offshore wind farms whose leases were paused by the Trump administration on Monday are designed to power Long Island’s electric grid, and wind farm companies here have begun to respond to the news.

The U.S. Department of the Interior said Monday it was “pausing” the leases for 90 days due to what it described as “national security risks identified by the Department of War in recently completed classified reports.”

“Today’s action addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies, and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects with proximity near our East Coast population centers,” said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum in a statement Monday. “The Trump administration will always prioritize the security of the American people.”

On Long Island, the Danish wind farm giant Ørsted is in the middle of construction for Sunrise Wind, a 924 megawatt, 84-turbine offshore wind farm about 30 miles off the coast of Montauk. Its transmission cable is slated to come ashore at Smith Point County Park, where it is being installed down William Floyd Parkway and a series of other roads to a substation in Holbrook.

Read the full article at the East End Beacon

 

NEW YORK: Dredging operations underway at Lake Montauk Harbor

November 5, 2025 — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) New York District has begun dredging operations at Lake Montauk Harbor in East Hampton, N.Y., with work expected to continue through January 2026.

The federally maintained navigation channel is being dredged to restore safe passage for commercial fishing vessels, while sand from the project will be used to rebuild eroded beaches west of the harbor’s western jetty.

“Equipment and the dredge have arrived, and work will begin soon to restore safe navigation in the harbor and maintain access for Montauk’s fishing fleet,” the Town of East Hampton said in a social media post.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Studies find “troubling decline” of horseshoe crabs in Long Island Sound

September 18, 2025 — Researchers at Norwalk, Connecticut, U.S.A.-based The Maritime Aquarium claim new studies show a “troubling decline” in the horseshoe crab population within Long Island Sound.

“Horseshoe crabs are a cornerstone of estuarine ecosystems, and their decline is alarming in its own right but also has cascading consequences for other animals and ecological processes,” Maritime Aquarium Vice President of Conservation Sarah Crosby said in a release.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NEW YORK: East Hampton To Use Offshore Wind Fund to Offset Federal Shortfalls for Montauk Inlet Dredging

September 16, 2025 — East Hampton’s windfall from the South Fork Wind Farm is being used by the town to commence a much-needed federal dredging of the inlet to Lake Montauk, the biggest commercial fishing port in New York State.

According to East Hampton Town, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ bids to perform the long-planned Lake Montauk Harbor Navigation Improvement Project this fall came in $1.1 million higher than expected, and the agency informed the town it would need $1.1 million by Sept. 10 in order to go forward with the dredging, which can only be done between Oct. 15 and Jan. 15.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez announced Monday that the town has allocated $1.1 million from its Host Community Agreement, which in 2022 allowed South Fork Wind to place its transmission cables from its offshore wind farm under town roads in exchange for $28.9 million over the following 25 years.

The money, she said in a statement, would “fill a federal funding gap and ensure the dredging of Montauk Inlet moves forward, after Washington fell short on delivering the full commitment.”

Read the full article at East End Beacon

Hurricane Erin churns up dangerous waves and closes beaches along US East Coast

August 19, 2025 — Hurricane Erin churned slowly toward the eastern U.S. on Tuesday, stirring up treacherous waves that already have led to dozens of water rescues and shut down beaches along the coast in the midst of summer’s last hurrah.

While forecasters remain confident the center of the monster storm will remain far offshore, the outer edges are likely to bring damaging tropical-force winds, large swells and life-threatening rip currents into Friday.

Warnings about rip currents have been posted from Florida to the New England coast, and the biggest swells along the East Coast are expected over the coming two days. Rough ocean conditions already have been seen along the coast — at least 60 swimmers were rescued from rip currents Monday at Wrightsville Beach, near Wilmington, North Carolina.

New York City closed its beaches to swimming on Wednesday and Thursday, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered three state beaches on Long Island to prohibit swimming through Thursday. Several New Jersey beaches also will be off-limits.

Read the full article at the Associated Press 

New York judge sides with Oyster Bay in aquaculture lease renewal decision

August 13, 2025 — A court in the U.S. state of New York has ruled in favor of the Town of Oyster Bay on Long Island, New York, dismissing a long-term aquaculture leaseholder’s complaint that the town didn’t renew its lease for 1,800 acres of shellfish harvesting area.

“A reading of the town code makes it clear that the town was not required to renew the lease,” Nassau County Supreme Court Judge Gregg Roth said in his decision dismissing the former leaseholder’s claims.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource