Saving Seafood

‘We’re All Commercial Fishermen’: Maine and Virginia Stand Together on Menhaden

November 5, 2026 — The following was released by the American Small Pelagics Network:

Fishermen from Maine and Virginia are standing together in support of a healthy Atlantic menhaden fishery, calling on fisheries managers to maintain the coastwide quota after a 20% reduction took effect this year.

In a new video, produced by the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA), Maine fishermen Dustin Delano and Jim Wotton join Ben Landry, a spokesperson for the Virginia menhaden reduction fishery, to discuss what menhaden mean to fishing families and working waterfronts along the Atlantic Coast.

“We’re all commercial fishermen,” says Wotton, a fisherman from Friendship, Maine. “I think we need to stick together. We need to work together.”

The video comes as the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) prepares to consider Atlantic menhaden quotas for 2027 and beyond. The Commission’s latest assessment found that the coastwide stock is not overfished and that overfishing is not occurring. Its ecological approach to management accounts for the needs of predators that depend on menhaden.

The ASMFC reduced the coastwide quota by 20% for 2026. When it adopted that quota, the Commission projected a 0% probability of overfishing in 2026.

Wotton says fishermen need time to see how that reduction plays out before managers consider another cut.

“I think we need status quo right now,” he says in the video. “I think we leave it where it is and we can work something out with the different sectors of the fishery.”

Menhaden provide bait for New England lobstermen. In Virginia’s Northern Neck, the reduction fishery supports fishing families and a community whose connection to the water spans generations.

“If you’ve not been to the Northern Neck of Virginia, the menhaden facility there and the fishing operations is the lifeblood of the Northern Neck,” Landry says in the video. He warns that severe restrictions would reach beyond the boats and affect families in a rural coastal community where other jobs are not always available.

Delano, chairman and chief strategist of NEFSA, says fishermen rely on a healthy fishery for their future.

“Fishermen rely on these fisheries for future generations,” Delano says. “But we need to take advantage of this fishery when it’s here.”

The fishermen are asking managers to maintain the quota and give the people who depend on menhaden a voice in decisions about the fishery’s future.

Watch the video: NEFSA: Maine and Virginia Stand United on Menhaden

Sources

About the American Small Pelagics Network
The American Small Pelagics Network represents fishermen, processors, suppliers, and coastal communities connected to fisheries such as menhaden, mackerel, herring, squid, and butterfish. ASPN supports sustainable fisheries management that supports critical fish species, while maintaining economic opportunities for fishermen and fishing communities.

Six Fish These Small Sound-Emitting Tags Are Helping Save

November 5, 2026 — An app tells beachgoers in Massachusetts and Maine if a shark has entered the area. Fishermen in Delaware check their phones to avoid accidentally catching endangered Atlantic sturgeon. Dwindling American shad, once cut off from their spawning grounds by dams, are returning in droves.

Each of these stories became possible in part because of tiny “acoustic telemetry” tags and a vast network of researchers deploying them along the East Coast of the U.S. With acoustic telemetry technology, each tag emits a unique, ultrasonic “ping.”  Along the Eastern seaboard, thousands of electronic receivers are listening for those pings, ready to detect any tagged animal that swims within about half a kilometer.

Researchers in the Atlantic Cooperative Telemetry Network, or “ACT” for short, have been tagging animals for over two decades. Now managed by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, the network unites scientists from over 120 organizations from Maine to North Carolina. Together, they’ve tagged more than 17,000 animals and 92 species. By sharing data from all of their receivers, they’re making discoveries about animal movement no single team could have made on their own.

“Many fish migrate long distances,” says Matt Ogburn, a senior scientist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC). “The ACT Network supports researchers by making it easy and efficient to exchange data across projects as the fish they tagged move along the coast or even across oceans.”

This fall the network published a new paper, its first to highlight  how acoustic telemetry is shaping real-world conservation. From sturgeon to sharks (a lot of sharks), here are six fish the ACT scientists and their tags are helping preserve.

Read the full article at Smithsonian Magazine

MAINE: Maine plans survey around offshore wind sites

October 30, 2026 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) is planning a winter bottom trawl survey around the state’s long-planned offshore wind energy research project, aiming to understand how floating wind turbines may affect the ocean ecosystem and commercial fishing.

After major offshore wind proposals succumbed to opposition from the Trump administration, the modest Maine Research Array Wind Energy Area – a lease area of almost 15,000 acres in the Gulf of Maine – remains in limbo, since a potential developer bowed out in March 2026 over that uncertainty about federal policy.

Maine researchers are still working to build a knowledge base around future wind power and fisheries.

The 55-foot dragger Northern Lights is scheduled to set out from Portland to work from around Jan. 11 through Feb. 28, with 37 sampling tows over nine days. The time frame is weather-dependent and could extend into March, according to an agency statement.

The sampling will help researchers examining fish and invertebrate populations “to establish baseline data that they will then compare with findings collected during the construction and operation” of a floating turbine array, according to the DMR.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Sea Grant invests $1.3 million in next generation of fishermen

October 30, 2026 — Sea Grant is investing $1.3 million in four projects aimed at helping young fishermen enter and advance in the commercial fishing industry, with programs planned in Maine, Virginia, Washington, and the Gulf of America.

The funding comes through the Young Fishermen’s Development Program, established under the Young Fishermen’s Development Act, which was signed into law in 2021. The program is designed to address barriers facing new entrants to commercial fishing, including high financial risks, limited training opportunities, and challenges building a viable career in the industry.

The four competitively selected projects will provide training, technical assistance, and career development opportunities. Award recipients are also required to provide a 25% non-federal funding match.

In Maine, the Maine Lobstermen’s Association received $399,677 for its Young Lobstermen Business and Leadership Advancement Project, led by principal investigator Patrice McCarron.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

The Permitting Bill Fishermen Can’t Afford to Ignore

October 29, 2026 — On November 9, the Senate is scheduled to take up the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026, known as BAAJA (S. 5653). This legislation is not about Mexican sheep; instead, the dense 400-page bill rewrites how the federal government approves energy, mining, and infrastructure projects. Its sponsors, Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Mike Lee (R-UT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM), call it a historic compromise. I call it a historic risk for fishing communities.

The coalition behind BAAJA is unusual. The American Petroleum Institute (oil and gas), the American Clean Power Association (wind and other renewables), and major organized labor groups support it. Tribal nations, historic preservation groups, and ocean conservation organizations oppose it.

Commercial fishermen have been mostly absent from this fight, and that needs to change. BAAJA rewrites the rules for offshore wind farms, export cables, offshore oil and gas, and seabed mining. It changes how those projects are approved, how long the approvals last, and how hard they are to challenge. Nearly every change reduces the leverage fishermen have used to protect fishing grounds historically, and that’s not a coincidence.

The Senate outcome is close to being settled. The House is a different story, and that is where fishermen still have a real opening. But we must make our voices heard, and soon.

What this issue is about

Fishermen have spent more than a decade fighting for a real voice in offshore wind decisions. Lease areas have been granted on productive fishing grounds over industry objections, and project layouts have been set with little regard for how fleets actually fish or what they need for safe transit. Too often, fishermen’s concerns have been treated as a box to check rather than a reason to change course.

BAAJA would shrink what voice fishermen have left in the regulatory process for energy permitting. Its supporters pitch it as protection for clean energy, pointing to the 2025 federal stop-work orders that halted offshore wind projects already holding permits. The bill delivers that protection by making permits nearly impossible to revisit once they are issued, and much harder to challenge before then during the planning process.

The bill doesn’t stop at wind. Its “protections” for energy projects from public scrutiny and challenge cover any federally permitted project with a private sector sponsor, including offshore oil and gas wells and mines. The same rules that would wall off a wind farm from fishermen’s objections would wall off an offshore drilling lease or a seabed mining permit.

More on that in just a bit.

People who work on the ocean deserve a real say in what happens to it, before a permit is issued and after. Whatever the energy source, BAAJA moves decisions further away from coastal communities and closer to developers and their lawyers and lobbyists.

Read the full article at the Fishery Friendly Climate Action Campaign

USDA announces USD 5 billion in loans available for seafood and meat processors

October 28, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced it will be making USD 5 billion (EUR 4.5 billion) in loans available to expand and improve processing capacity for the nation’s seafood, meat, and poultry industries.

“From our crabbers in Alaska, to the lobstermen in Maine, to the great shrimpers in the Gulf of America, our nation is blessed with incredible men and women who work to bring this bounty to our plates. The Trump administration has recognized their incredible efforts and is working to provide all the necessary tools for them to succeed with our America First Seafood Strategy,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in a release.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Research vessel goes adrift while monitoring Gulf of Maine algal bloom

October 28, 2026 –Researchers say a research vessel that went adrift while monitoring a harmful algal bloom in the Gulf of Maine has been recovered, with more details expected soon.

The bright-yellow SeaTrac autonomous vessel lost communications with its operators on Oct. 12 while holding position about 30 nautical miles southeast of Frenchman Bay, Maine. Researchers later offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to its recovery.

Researchers with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and NERACOOS re-established communication with the SeaTrac on Oct. 23, when it was roughly 90 miles off Gloucester, Massachusetts. The vessel has since been recovered.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

MAINE: $1 million for Maine working waterfront projects

October 27, 2026 — SEA Maine has awarded $1 million to five projects to strengthen working waterfront infrastructure and support Maine’s commercial fishing and seafood industries.

The funding, awarded through the Seafood Infrastructure Adaptation Fund (SIAF), will support projects in Tremont, Rockland, Freeport, Swan’s Island, and Boothbay Harbor. Grants range from $126,693 to $300,000 and will pay for improvements including cold storage, docks and floats, ice-making equipment, energy upgrades, and waterfront planning.

“I’m pleased to see these projects benefit from SIAF funding and am optimistic that this funding will result in a stronger, more vibrant future for Maine’s commercially harvested and farmed seafood resources,” said Togue Brawn, SEA Maine co-chair and owner of Downeast Dayboat.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Trapped: Soaring fuel costs hurt Maine lobster industry before midterms

October 26, 2026 — Lobsterman Steve Train starts every workday before dawn about $1,000 in the hole, a hike in expenses driven by soaring fuel costs that are hammering Maine’s flagship maritime industry ahead of US midterm elections.

Before hauling a single trap from picturesque Casco Bay, north of Portland, the 59-year-old lobsterboat captain counts the costs: Thirty gallons of diesel at $6.49 per gallon — nearly 45 percent up from one year ago — and three drums of increasingly expensive bait at $260 a pop.

“It’s hard to make a business plan with so many uncertainties and so much change,” Train, who works with his brother, told AFP aboard their 36-foot (11-meter) single-engine boat named “Moira Bay.”

They had just finished unloading 430 pounds (195 kilograms) of American lobster at the Portland pier. “We had a good day,” Train said.

But a storm is brewing — and the fuel costs affecting Maine’s lobster industry feature prominently in November’s midterm vote, where the state’s veteran Republican Senator Susan Collins is fighting a strong challenge from Democrat Troy Jackson.

Read the full article at Yahoo! News

How Northeastern is helping shellfishers and diners of a New England speciality

October 26, 2026 —

It was a beautiful morning on the Parker River.

The sun peeked through the clouds from the previous weekend’s nor’easter, giving the golden marsh grasses an extra autumnal sheen.

Frenetic yellow-legged shorebirds took flight as the small boat navigated the curves of the meandering river, and even the looming Route One bridge could not mar the pastoral scene, as little traffic passed after the motor was cut and the boat drifted along the shoreline.

Unfortunately, Northeastern University graduate student Grace Abe was not exactly enjoying her surroundings. She had just sunk up to her knees in mud.

“I had it too easy with the first one,” Abe said, while prying a wooden box out of the mud.

The container that emerged was 1-foot-square and several-inches tall, made primarily of wood composite with a mesh screen on its top and landscaping fabric on its bottom.

It did not look too high-tech. In fact, it looked like it might contain a small pizza.

But for the last six months, the Beal Box – named after its inventor, University of Maine marine ecologist Brian Beal – had been sitting in the mud flat and acting as a nursery for an iconic and delicious New England species, the soft-shell clam.

“The soft-shell clam has been a staple fishery in New England for generations,” said David Kimbro, associate professor of marine and environmental sciences at Northeastern.

But the species is under pressure.

Read the full article at Northeastern Global News