Saving Seafood

Marine debris team completes latest Papahanaumokuakea cleanup mission

September 1, 2026 — A marine debris cleanup crew has returned to Honolulu after another mission to protect the fragile ecosystems of Papahanaumokuakea.

The Papahanaumokuakea Marine Debris Project completed its second mission of 2026 on Friday after a 21-day expedition to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

The team removed 48,680 pounds of ghost nets and other plastic marine debris from Lalo, Kamokuokamohoaliʻi, Kamole and Kapou.

The mission was temporarily paused Aug. 19 as Hurricane Lala moved through the region.

Read the full article at Hawaii News Now

Climate change may halve omega‑3 fatty acids in fish and the organisms they eat

August 31, 2026 — You’ve probably heard eating fish and other seafood is good for your health. One of the main reasons is that seafood is an excellent source of two important omega-3 fats called EPA and DHA.

EPA and DHA are critical for the development and function of brains, eyes and healthy hearts. They also reduce chronic inflammation, which is linked to many chronic diseases. They can also reduce the risk of premature births and perhaps even some types of cancer.

While humans can produce EPA and DHA from ALA (an omega-3 fat found in plants) and it’s possible to get them from foods such as linseed and walnuts, seafood is the main source for most people.

However, our new study shows many fish and other seafood will become less rich in omega-3s over time, due to rising ocean temperatures as the climate changes. In fact, we found omega-3 could drop by 50% under very high warming scenarios.

This is very bad news for human health but also for the health of other animals in the food web.

Read the full article at The Conversation 

El Niño is disrupting the Pacific’s marine food web from the bottom up

August 27, 2026 — As the 2026 El Niño strengthens in the equatorial Pacific, satellites are capturing the first major signs of disruption to the marine food web.

According to by NASA’s Earth Observatory observations, satellite measurements show a substantial drop in surface concentrations of chlorophyll across the Central Pacific compared with neutral conditions in June 2025. Chlorophyll is the pigment that helps plants absorbs sunlight to generate energy, and its reduction indicates a decline in phytoplankton, the base of the ocean’s food webs.

Hyung-Gyu Lim, an associate professor of oceanography at Chonnam National University in South Korea, told Mongabay by email that a developing El Niño can slow the process of upwelling, where nutrient-rich cold waters rise from the ocean depths to the surface. “This may trigger less nutrient supply. It is not surprising for me,” Lim said.

Read the full article at Mongabay

Beyond the salmon crisis: Northwest may face broad loss of freshwater species

August 27, 2026 — Using eDNA to map and save lower-profile species crucial to the ecosystem, researchers say

According to a recent Convention of Migratory Species Report, migratory freshwater fish populations have dropped 81% worldwide since 1970. While Northwest Washington species face many of the same pressures as other species across the planet, the story here is a bit more nuanced, and researchers point to a unique interagency collaboration in the state as a pathway forward.

Salish Sea Chinook salmon populations are down 60% since the Pacific Salmon Commission began tracking salmon abundance in 1984, according to the 2024 State of Salmon in Watersheds report.

Around the Salish Sea, Chinook salmon provide immense ecological, cultural and economic value. According to the report, Puget Sound was once home to larger populations of Chinook and other salmon, with a greater diversity of traits than populations existing today. Only 22 of at least 37 historic Chinook salmon populations remain in this ecosystem. The remaining Chinook salmon populations are at about 10% of their historic numbers. Between 2000 and 2018, the total number of Chinook returning to the Salish Sea has shown a relatively stable trend.

These salmon populations face the same pressures as freshwater fish listed in the global report: habitat loss, harvest rates and climate change.

“All the research, all the science, all the data that’s been analyzed shows us that habitat is by far the leading threat,” said Annitra Peck, executive director of the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association. “You’ve got hydropower, you’ve got harvest management, you’ve got these other pieces that have so much to do with it, and they all definitely intersect, but habitat is in large part the driving concern. Salmon are an anadromous species; they utilize freshwater and saltwater, they need to be able to travel back and forth in their unique life cycle, and if they don’t have the habitat to do that, then that falls apart. It prevents that life cycle from continuing and that reproduction for salmon to be able to replace themselves essentially.”

Read the full article at the Salish Current

Invasive green crabs are bad for the environment so New Englanders are starting to eat more of them

August 26, 2026 — As a morning fog lifted over Maine’s York River, Mike Masi and his two interns stood on a dock sorting through a mound of one of the region’s most despised crabs and hoped to find a few that would end up on a gastronome’s plate somewhere in New England.

The trick is to identify invasive European green crabs that are about to shed their hard shell, or molt, revealing a softer exterior that has the feel of a leather couch, and are popular at restaurants. Not only do these green crabs fetch more money — Masi can get $3 a crab at market compared to as little as 8 cents for a hard shell — but catching them provides a service of sorts to the ocean’s ecosystem.

“Just about everyone hates them and we’re trying to turn them into a premium seafood product,” said Masi, whose company, shell+claw, is the only one that commercially cultivates these crabs.

Masi, a 45-year-old former marine science teacher, is part of a growing movement across New England aiming to lessen the crabs’ destructive impact by developing new markets. Others are putting green crabs in pet treats, fish sauce and even a line of green crab whiskey in New Hampshire.

The green crabs, Carcinus maenas, made their way from Europe to the East Coast in the ballast waters of ships hundreds of years ago. Numbering in the tens of millions, they outcompete Atlantic rock crab and juvenile lobster, destroy eelgrass beds and undermine salt marsh banks. They also are costing the region’s shellfish industry tens of millions of dollars each year, as they eat mussels, oysters and soft-shell clams.

Read the full article at ABC News

Earth is simmering in its hottest water temps on record, and that’s bad for fish and us

August 25, 2026 — The world’s oceans simmered to their hottest temperatures on record over the weekend and are likely to warm even further in the next few months, putting stress on life in the water and on land too, the European climate service Copernicus announced Monday.

Spurred by a still growing but already supersized natural El Nino and human-caused climate change, the world’s ocean temperatures hit 21.1 degrees Celsius (70 degrees Fahrenheit) on Friday and Saturday, narrowly edging out the average daily record set in March 2024, said Samantha Burgess, strategic climate lead for Copernicus.

“This is yet another sign of our climate system under strain and the ocean under immense pressure,” Burgess said.

Jane Lubchenco, an oceanographer and former chief of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration called the record “very troubling.”

“An ocean this warm destabilizes weather patterns and threatens food security, economic prosperity and marine life,” Lubchenco said in an email. “A warmer ocean is not our friend.”

Read the full article at Associated Press

Environmental review of seabed mining to come after leases are sold

August 25, 2026 — The federal agency pushing to open the seabed near the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to mineral mining confirmed Saturday that it will not conduct a full environmental study of the actual mining process until after companies already hold leases, a disclosure that has done little to ease objections from Guam senators.

The Marine Minerals Administration, formerly the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, responded to questions from The Guam Daily Post about its decision to publish a proposed leasing notice for the Marianas sale, known as PACM-2, three months ahead of the schedule the agency had previously given Congress.

Asked why it moved up the notice, the agency said the release “reflects the agency’s response to executive orders that prioritize the development and secure supply of critical minerals.” The agency apologized for the delay in responding to the Post but did not elaborate further on the shift in timing.

On environmental review, the agency confirmed that the leasing stage only grants companies the right to hold a lease and conduct preliminary work such as bathymetric, geological and geophysical surveys, which it maintains carry no significant environmental impact. A full environmental impact statement, the agency said, will wait until “a lessee submits detailed plans with more precise details regarding the location, equipment size, scale, and specific methodologies for developing the seabed resources.”

Read the full article at The Guam Daily Post

Guam shut out as CNMI seabed mining sale advances in ‘race to the bottom,’ governor’s office says

August 24, 2026 — Guam’s exclusion from the formal comment process on a proposed seabed mining lease sale near the Northern Mariana Islands, paired with pointed new criticism from Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero’s administration, is adding fresh tension to a federal push that critics say is moving faster than anyone can properly weigh the risks.

The Marine Minerals Administration published a proposed leasing notice Monday covering five lease blocks along the edge of the Mariana Trench. Under the notice, only the CNMI governor holds a formal right to submit comments before a final leasing notice can be issued. Guam’s governor has no such standing, even though the waters sit next to the island.

CNMI Del. Kimberlyn King-Hinds said she does not understand the restriction. “I don’t know, and I’m not sure why she would not be since these waters are adjacent to Guam as well,” King-Hinds said in an interview with The Guam Daily Post on Wednesday.

Leon Guerrero’s administration had already raised concerns after the notice came out this week. In a follow-up email Thursday responding to additional Post questions, the administration went further, faulting federal regulators for moving without adequate study.

Read the full article at The Guam Daily Post

Opinion: Seabed mining would strip mine fishermens’ future

August 24, 2026 — As a family of lifelong commercial fishers, we’ve always done our best to take care of the ocean off Virginia’s coast. But right now, an out-of-state company wants to dig out the foundation of our fishing grounds.

The federal government is considering a recent proposal by a Florida-based mining company to dredge Virginia’s seabed. If granted, our entire Eastern shore – 2,500 square miles – could be opened up to mining that would tear up the ocean bottom and crush the marine life that depends on it.

The two of us have saltwater running through our veins.

As for me – Jim – I fell in the water when I was two and have been driving a skiff since I was eight. My great uncle was a crabber, and my great aunt was picking crabs. I always knew I wanted to be a commercial fisherman here – just fell in love with fishing.

And as for me – Katie – my neighbor in Freeport, Long Island, threw me in the water and told me to swim when I was three. At about nine, I’d take the neighbors’ dog out on a paddle boat at six am to grab mussels off the pylons and stay out until dark. Neighbors would tell my parents they’d seen me.

Today, we are Virginia’s largest harvesters of black sea bass and flounder, fishing over 100 trips per season. Jim, the tech whiz with a chemistry degree, recently designed and built our own boat and fishes all day with our 24-year-old son, Matt. Katie takes care of lobsters in the tank and delivers our product every Saturday to people’s houses. Around Chincoteague, some people know us better as “Jimmy Neutron” and “The Lobsta Lady.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Lobsters and acidic seas: can shellfish help neutralise one of the greatest threats to the ocean?

August 21, 2026 — For many in the US region of New England, the lobster roll is synonymous with summertime. Loaded into a toasted bun, chunks of the sweet meat are served hot and soaked in butter, or chilled and slathered in mayonnaise with celery and herbs.

The only thing more debated than the recipe is the price: the once-humble roll now routinely fetches $30 (£22), or even $50, in a sign of the changing times – and seas.

A third-generation lobster fisherman, Scott Lord spends his days hauling traps on the Gulf of Maine, which is warming faster than 99% of the world’s oceans. “Whether you agree with who says why it’s happening, it is happening,” he says.

Bycatch that was once plentiful, such as sea urchins, sand dollars or starfish, are increasingly rare. And, most concerning, Lord has noticed the number of inshore lobsters dropping dramatically over the past 15 years, pushing fishers farther and farther offshore.

Motivated to find a remedy, Lord joined a regional shellfish committee. “Why are there not clams where there used to be clams? Why are they not coming back, no matter what we do?” he asks.

Hundreds of miles to the south in Massachusetts, on a sandy crook of land that spins out to form Cape Cod, Adam Subhas, a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, is trying to find the answers.

Read the full article at The Guardian