Saving Seafood

MAINE: Gratitude for our sea farmers

August 22, 2026 — Cultivating food for human consumption is among the most noble and important jobs in society. Harnessing the resources gifted to us by nature and turning them into delicious meals for our neighbors and visitors is a challenging task, and farmers—of both the land and sea—deserve our gratitude.

Our pristine waters produce the most exquisite seafood on the planet. The flavors of our farmed oysters, mussels, and salmon are desired by the finest chefs in America and envied by seafood producers all over the world. Maine’s sea farmers are the ones who make it possible for us to be nourished by this local, sustainable, and delicious food.

The Maine Farmed Seafood Coalition consists of over 50 businesses and industry support groups—including seafood farmers and dealers, banks, educational institutions, and nonprofits. Our goal is to tell the authentic stories of sea farmers and educate the public about the opportunities aquaculture presents for our economy, communities, and ecosystems.

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News

MAINE: They wanted to restore wild oyster reefs to the Maine coast. Could it be done?

August 19, 2026 — A team in Phippsburg has been working for nearly a decade to get wild oysters to regenerate in Maine’s cold, turbulent waters.

On a sticky August morning in Phippsburg, Cait Cleaver, an assistant professor of environmental studies at Colby College, crouched along a section of rocky shoreline that framed a circular expanse of deep green seawater. She gently brushed aside strands of thick seaweed to reveal a large oyster nestled between two boulders.

“We’ve got 50 percent algae cover, acorn barnacles, and 100 percent rock,” Cleaver reported to her summer intern. “And we’ve got one live 55-millimeter American oyster!”

Less than three inches long, the oyster didn’t look like much. But it was evidence of something Cleaver and her team had been looking for for years: a wild oyster that had successfully grown from free-floating larva and survived the winter.

For the past seven years, Cleaver has helped run The Basin Oyster Project, a collaboration initially started by The Nature Conservancy. The project’s long-term goal is to restore wild oysters up and down the Maine coast. More immediately, that means getting oysters to survive and spawn on their own in the Basin, a deep, protected saltwater inlet on the New Meadows River, creating a self-sustaining reef.

Wild oysters were once prevalent along the coast of Maine, but had largely disappeared by the early 1900s, victims of overharvesting by European settlers, pollution and rising sea levels, which brought in cold water and predators. The state has been trying to re-establish oyster populations in Maine since the late 1940s, but they have struggled to take hold at scale.

Read the full article at the Maine Monitor

ALASKA: Bill introduced by Alaska’s Murkowski aims to promote use of eDNA analysis in fishery management

August 10, 2026 — Federal fishery managers would start analyzing the DNA collected in ocean waters to help inform their decisions, under a bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. Senate, Alaska’s Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said on Thursday.

Called the Fisheries Science Modernization Act, the bill would set up a system for the use of environmental DNA, known as eDNA, in fishery management. The bill would establish a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration pilot program using eDNA to assess fishery stocks, require NOAA to develop an agency-wide eDNA implementation plan and direct the agency to routinely collect eDNA samples and integrate that form of surveillance into its fisheries research and ecosystem monitoring.

Along with Murkowski, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, is a prime sponsor of the measure. Cosponsors are Sens. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska; Jeff Merkley. D-Oregon; Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland; Patty Murray, D-Washington; Angus King, I-Maine; and Adam Schiff, D-California.

Read the full article at KTOO

 

Murkowski and Colleagues Work to Modernize Fisheries Science

August 7, 2026 — The following was released by the Office of U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski:

Today, U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) introduced legislation that would help the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) better assess and protect our fisheries. The Fisheries Science Modernization Act would incorporate environmental DNA (eDNA) and other biomolecular tools into NOAA’s fisheries science programs, allowing for more cost-effective and expanded survey coverage. This would bolster, not replace, traditional stock assessment surveys by providing NOAA with additional scientifically validated tools to improve data collection, expand survey coverage, and strengthen fisheries management.

This bill would establish national standards for this innovative technology while expanding workforce capacity, strengthening interagency coordination, and supporting private-sector innovation without imposing new regulatory burdens. Senators Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Patty Murray (D-WA), Angus King (I-ME), and Adam Schiff (D-CA) are co-sponsors.

“Without accurate stock assessments, we cannot make the informed, science-based management decisions needed to ensure our fisheries remain sustainable for generations to come,” said Senator Murkowski. “Environmental DNA is an innovative, cost-effective tool that will give our scientists a clearer picture of our fisheries while expanding survey coverage and reducing costs. This legislation is the product of extensive collaboration with NOAA, Alaska fishermen, Tribal partners, academia, and industry to modernize how we assess fish stocks using the best available science.”

“With climate change wreaking havoc on fisheries, researchers need to stay ahead of the curve,” said Senator Whitehouse. “This bill will allow NOAA to harness new technologies to keep fish stocks healthy and robust.”

“Reliable fisheries surveys and stock assessments are the foundation of sustainable fisheries management,” said Sen. Sullivan. “I’ve consistently fought to ensure NOAA maintains robust fisheries survey coverage in Alaska, where changing ocean conditions are impacting our subsistence, recreational, and commercially important species and the communities that depend on them. As fish stocks shift and ocean conditions become more variable, we need to invest in both the traditional surveys that have served us for decades and innovative technologies that can make those surveys even stronger. By thoughtfully investing in and integrating new tools, we can improve the quality of stock assessments, better support our fishermen and communities, and ensure America’s fisheries remain among the best managed in the world.”

“To implement the best possible fisheries management strategies, we need the best available data,” said Senator Merkley. “Our bipartisan bill modernizes federal fisheries science and invests in innovative data collection and analysis. Bolstering our tools to monitor fisheries is critical to supporting both Oregon fishermen and responsible, sustainable fishing for generations to come.”

“Environmental DNA is a promising new tool for fisheries and ecosystem assessment that could improve fisheries management while also lowering costs,” said Linda Behnken, Executive Director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association. “Senator Murkowski’s Fisheries Science Modernization Act will advance this technology while also improving oversight and collaboration.?ALFA supports this bill and applauds Senator Murkowski for her commitment to science-based management of Alaska’s fisheries.”

“The Fisheries Science Modernization Act comes at a pivotal moment for U.S. fisheries management,” said Austen Thomas, Senior Application Scientist. “As an eDNA service provider, Wilderlab USA sees firsthand how environmental DNA can expand monitoring coverage, reduce survey costs, and deliver data on species that traditional methods often miss. This bill’s focus on national standards and predictable procurement pathways is exactly what the private sector needs to invest with confidence in U.S. eDNA capacity. By bringing the private sector into closer partnership with NOAA and other resource agencies, this legislation will help ensure fisheries decisions are grounded in the best available science. We commend Senator Murkowski for this forward-looking legislation and look forward to supporting NOAA’s efforts to modernize how we understand and manage our nation’s fisheries.”

“United Catcher Boats supports the Fisheries Science Modernization Act of 2026 and appreciates Senator Murkowski’s continued leadership in advancing science-based fisheries management,” said Andrea Keikkala, Executive Director of United Catcher Boats. “Senator Murkowski has long demonstrated a deep understanding of the importance of sound fisheries science and the need to ensure NOAA Fisheries has the tools necessary to sustainably manage our nation’s fisheries. We appreciate her leadership in championing innovative technologies that have the potential to strengthen stock assessments, expand scientific capacity, and improve fisheries management. We recommend that Congress ensure NOAA Fisheries has adequate resources to successfully implement these important new responsibilities without reducing investment in existing stock assessments, fishery-independent surveys, cooperative research, observer programs, or other core science activities that are fundamental to science-based fisheries management. Investments in eDNA should complement, rather than displace, the core science programs that have made the United States the global leader in sustainable fisheries management.”

“The United States is a global leader in sustainable fisheries because of our commitment to science-based management,” said Joanna Slaney, Environmental Defense Fund’s Vice President for Political and Government Affairs. “As technology and science continue to advance, it is crucial for NOAA to examine innovative methods to collect fisheries data and further the best available science. EDF appreciates Senator Murkowski and Senator Whitehouse’s leadership to further science that supports thriving ecosystems, fishery resources, and the communities that depend on them.”

“Environmental DNA collection is an exciting new scientific frontier for augmenting our understanding of fisheries and their ecosystems,” said Meredith Moore, Ocean Conservancy’s Senior Director of Fish Conservation. “The Fisheries Science Modernization Act lays a solid foundation for unlocking this new source of data to improve fisheries management.”

“America’s 11.8 million saltwater anglers depend on healthy fisheries, and sound fisheries management starts with sound science,” said Mike Leonard, the American Sportfishing Association’s (ASA) Vice President of Government Affairs. “Environmental DNA has shown tremendous potential as a tool to supplement traditional fisheries surveys, improve our understanding of marine fish populations, and help managers make more informed decisions. By testing and validating these technologies before incorporating them into stock assessments, the Fisheries Science Modernization Act takes a thoughtful, science-based approach to strengthening marine fisheries research. Better science leads to better management, which ultimately benefits both fish populations and the millions of anglers who contribute more than $145 billion in economic activity to our nation’s coastal communities. ASA appreciates Senator Murkowski’s leadership on this important legislation.”

The legislation is further endorsed by the Cape Cod Fishermen’s Alliance, the Alaska Ocean Observing System, the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System, the Western Alaska Community Development Quota Program, eDNAtec, the National Estuarine Research Reserve Associationand, the Pacific Seafood Processors Association.

Background

Currently, NOAA’s stock assessment methods are constrained by high operational costs and limited vessel availability, resulting in gaps in survey coverage. The integration of eDNA, already widely used in the private sector, would help close these gaps by enabling sampling in remote or hazardous environments while reducing costs.

The Fisheries Science Modernization Act would provide the federal government with key tools to better protect and grow our fisheries by modernizing how fish stocks are assessed while expanding agencies’ capacity to use eDNA. Specifically, the legislation:

Modernizing Stock Assessments

  • Establishes a NOAA eDNA Fishery Stock Assessment Pilot Program to validate methods across diverse regions and species.
  • Requires NOAA to develop an agency-wide eDNA Implementation Plan detailing how eDNA will be integrated into federally managed fisheries.
  • Directs NOAA to routinely collect eDNA samples during existing surveys to improve accuracy, expand coverage, and build long-term datasets.
  • Integrates eDNA into fisheries research and ecosystem monitoring by amending the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
  • Promotes collaboration among NOAA, fishermen, Tribal Nations, academia, and industry.
  • Requires annual coordination meetings and reports to the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and Congress to ensure accountability.

Building National eDNA Capacity

  • Creates the National Aquatic Biomolecular Coordination Network (NABCN) to develop national standards for sampling, laboratory workflows, quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC), metadata, and bioinformatics.
  • Establishes a coordinated multi-agency framework enabling consistent biomolecular monitoring across freshwater, estuarine, coastal, and marine environments.
  • Expands NOAA’s workforce and laboratory capacity while supporting complementary private-sector services.
  • Trains National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) technicians in eDNA collection, handling, and modeling.
  • Supports research, innovation, and technology transfer across agencies, academia, Tribal partners, and industry.
  • Provides transparent performance standards and predictable procurement pathways to encourage U.S. innovation and commercialization of emerging eDNA tools, including autonomous and AI-enabled sampling systems.

###

eDNAtec and the National Estuarine Research Reserve Association.

Thank you!

Appeals Court Says Fishermen’s Claim in Lobster Defamation Suit Raises First Amendment Questions

August 5, 2026 — A federal appeals court signaled that it might not allow a lawsuit brought by fishing industry businesses and trade groups against a California aquarium to proceed because of the case’s potential impact on free speech.

The New England-based plaintiffs sued the Monterey Bay Aquarium for defamation after the aquarium’s Seafood Watch conservation program placed American and Canadian lobster on its do-not-eat “red list” in 2022. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is deciding whether the lawsuit can go forward.

One of the appellate judges, Judge Seth Aframe, said during oral arguments on July 27 that it doesn’t strike him as a defamation claim and that he finds the case troubling “from a First Amendment perspective.”

“The more you broaden the class of people that fall within this, the more it feels like everybody can sue,” Aframe said.

Seafood Watch placed lobster on its list of seafood to avoid because of the threat posed to rare whales, such as the North Atlantic right whale, by potential entanglement in fishing gear.

The lobster fishing industry, based mostly in Maine, has pushed back, saying the claim inaccurately portrays it as a threat to whales and constitutes defamation that has caused economic harm. It claims that the whales face greater threats from other fishing industries, including the Canadian snow crab fishery.

Conservation groups have long made the case that lobster and crab fisheries are both dangerous to the whales, and government agencies have acknowledged that entanglement in fishing gear is a critical threat to the giant animals.

The industry is sticking to that claim despite the judges’ comments during oral arguments, Kevin Lipson, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said Wednesday.

“Monterey Bay Aquarium in their Seafood Watch report didn’t disclose any of the countervailing evidence. In fact, they hid that evidence,” Lipson said.

Read the full article at U.S. News

Maine lobster industry lawsuit against Monterey Bay Aquarium caught in wider First Amendment debate

August 3, 2026 — A lawsuit launched by the Maine lobster industry against the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation appeared before the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals on 27 July, and judges were reportedly concerned about its impact to First Amendment protections.

A coalition of Maine lobstermen including Bean Maine Lobster Inc., the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, Atwood Lobster LLC, and Bug Catcher Inc. sued the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation (MBAF) over its red listing of Maine-caught lobster. The listing was part of a complicated back-and-forth over the Maine lobster industry’s alleged impact on the North Atlantic right whale, a critically endangered species.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MAINE: Scientists have begun to re-deploy ocean monitoring equipment yanked from Pacific Northwest waters by the Trump administration in September.

August 3, 2026 — Every lobsterman expects to lose gear.

Strong tides, boat traffic, and tangled lines make losing lobster traps an unavoidable part of fishing Maine’s rugged coastline. But when those traps settle on the seafloor, they can impact marine life for years, creating problems for both the environment and the state’s most valuable fishery.

That’s why Buzz Scott has made it his mission to bring them back.

Scott has spent nearly two decades as a commercial fisherman off the Maine coast. While he still operates a lobster boat, much of his time is now dedicated to recovering abandoned traps as executive director of the nonprofit OceansWide.

Read the full article at News Center Maine

EPA promotes flexibility for Tier IV implementation

July 31, 2026 — The flex at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) these days is flexibility, and the agency wants fishermen to know that they have options when it comes to meeting Tier IV requirements. When fishermen decide to build a new boat and need more power than the 803 horsepower limit on EPA Tier III engines, they can apply for a waiver that will allow them to install a higher horsepower Tier III engine.

“It’s on a case-by-case basis,” says EPA Region 1 administrator Mark Sanborn. “We work with the boat builder to see if the engine meets the waiver requirements.”

According to Sanborn, the rule change allowing Tier IV requirement waiver went into effect in 2020. “In June, the folks at Wesmac [Wesmac Custom Boats in Surry, Maine] contacted us about installing an exempt 1000-hp engine in a boat that they were building for a fisherman in Chatham, Massachusetts,” Sanborn explains that the EPA Implementation, Analysis and Compliance Division of the Office of Transportation and Air Quality looked at things like the vessel’s operating profile, the depth of its home harbor, the size of its holding tanks and the areas where the owner would be fishing, and made the determination that he was eligible for a waiver.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NOAA Report Finds Gulf of Maine Warming Slowed for Now, but Ecosystem Remains Unstable

July 28, 2026 — Maine’s fishing ports are doing well for now, but climate change is destabilizing the Gulf of Maine, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s latest “State of the Ecosystem” report for New England waters. Federal scientists presented the report to the New England Fishery Management Council in April, and published it online last week.

They found that some Maine fishing ports are growing busier, likely driven by the high price of lobster. Stonington, Harpswell and Friendship all see more activity now than they did roughly 20 years ago.

And 2025, like 2024, offered slightly cooler water temperatures after more than a decade of rapid and record-breaking warming in the Gulf of Maine. But the scientists predict that temperatures will warm again this fall, and will continue to rise long-term as the burning of fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

To weather these ongoing changes, fishermen and their communities need to diversify their businesses, experts say.

“Things don’t look particularly stable either in terms of the fishery or the ecosystem,” said Joseph Caracappa, a research biologist at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center who edited the report. “We’re seeing big changes that are sweeping across the ecology of the system and fisheries. Even socially, culturally — how communities are structured, where people are fishing, who’s actually doing the fishing.”

This annual report includes contributions from more than 100 scientists across the Northeast. NOAA has had to make do with fewer resources as the federal government’s priorities have changed under the second Trump administration, but otherwise the report has been prepared and published as usual, Caracappa said. And in fact, this latest report debuted a new section dedicated to forecasting ocean conditions in the year ahead.

Read the full article at U.S. News