Saving Seafood

Canadian-Led Operation Reveals Scope of Illegal Fishing in North Pacific

August 7, 2026 — A Canadian-led operation aimed at cracking down on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing has again exposed how the vast North Pacific continues to be a hotspot for criminal activity that poses a major threat to fish populations, marine environments and global seafood supply chains.

Following the completion of the annual multinational mission known as Operation North Pacific Guard (Op. NPG), which involved more than two months of patrolling North Pacific waters at sea, in the air and by satellite, the reality is that IUU fishing remains a deeply rooted menace.

The mission, which is led by Canada and brings together a range of partners including the U.S., Japan and Korea, saw Canadian fishery officers and crew aboard the multipurpose coast guard ship Sir Wilfrid Laurier patrol more than 23,000 kilometers of North Pacific waters.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

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

ALASKA: State denies Ketchikan tribe’s request to open green crab fishery

August 4, 2026 —  The Ketchikan Indian Community submitted an emergency petition to the state’s Board of Fisheries in March, asking to reclassify European green crabs from a Class A to a Class B banned invasive species.

This change would allow anybody to transport dead European green crabs for harvest or consumption. Currently, the invasive can only be possessed or transported for scientific or educational purposes by those with an Aquatic Resource Permit.

“This isn’t an issue that’s going anywhere, and it seems to be largely ignored throughout much of the state,” said Emily Halsell, a fisheries and wildlife biologist with the Ketchikan Indian Community.

Halsell is leading a green crab monitoring and removal program, which officially kicked off last fall. The tribe has removed about 1,500 green crabs from Ketchikan beaches so far this year.

In its petition to the state, the tribe cites the species’ damaging impacts to the local ecosystem and economy. The adaptive critter can burrow and destroy eelgrass beds, which are nurseries for native species like Dungeness crabs and juvenile salmon. They can also compete with native crab species for the same resources.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

Conservation group asks New Jersey to take action over biomedical bleeding of horseshoe crabs

August 3, 2026 — More than a dozen conservation groups have petitioned the U.S. state of New Jersey to take action on the bleeding of horseshoe crabs by a biomedical company, claiming the practice injures the shellfish in violation of state law.

“On paper, New Jersey is one of the best state protectors of horseshoe crabs, but look under the hood and you’ll find it’s actually allowing a company to kill and injure horseshoe crabs in huge numbers,” Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) Senior Attorney Danny Waltz said in a release. “New Jersey must act quickly to fulfill the promise of its own laws and protect these highly imperiled animals and the endangered birds that depend on healthy crab populations.”

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

MASSACHUSETTS: Horseshoe crab populations hit record highs in Cape Cod waters after decades of protection

July 31, 2026 — Horseshoe crab populations in Massachusetts waters are reaching record highs, a sustained rebound that marine biologists attribute to decades of strict harvesting limits and expansive spawning protections.

According to July report from the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF), data from three distinct surveying methods show significant increases in the species’ abundance, reversing a downward trend that persisted until roughly 2010.

The decline that preceded the recovery alarmed wildlife managers because horseshoe crabs play a critical role in both the coastal ecosystem and modern medicine. According to Cape Cod National Seashore, the animals are harvested for bait in eel and whelk fisheries, while their blue blood is used to produce Limulus amebocyte lysate, a substance used to detect bacterial contamination in injectable drugs, vaccines and implantable medical devices.

Read the full article at MassLive