Saving Seafood

Retiring of Calcasieu Pass brings opportunity for a menhaden bait fisherman

August 31, 2026 — The recent sinking of the Calcasieu Pass in Delaware waters in the Atlantic Ocean to make a reef perhaps speaks more to the changing times of Virginia’s menhaden fishery than to an end of life grave for an old fishing vessel.

The former 180’ menhaden carry-away boat Calcasieu Pass was donated by Ocean Harvesters of Reedville, Va., to Coleen Marine for the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC).

The boat was sunk in August on Delaware’s Del-Jersey-Land reef about 26 miles off Indian River Inlet in the ocean. The vessel will provide new habitat for reef-associated fish and marine life while creating opportunities for anglers and divers.

Ocean Harvesters’ fleet is composed of six large menhaden steamers and four carry-away boats. A carry-away boat is a dedicated transport vessel used to carry menhaden back to the processing plant, allowing fishing vessels to continue to fish longer in active fishing zones.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Oceana loses court appeal challenging Alaska trawling

August 31, 2026 — Environmental NGO Oceana has lost an appeal of its lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated and remanded an earlier decision, instructing the court to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction.

Oceana first sued NMFS in Alaska District Court in 2024, alleging the agency failed to adequately protect the North Pacific seabed from trawl fishing. The lawsuit claimed NMFS wasn’t fulfilling its obligations under the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

FLORIDA: Florida accepting public feedback on Big Bend oyster management

August 26, 2026 — The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is seeking public comments on how it should manage oyster harvesting in the Big Bend region of the state.

Once a successful commercial fishery, the Big Bend lost roughly 66 percent of its oyster reefs between 1982 and 2011. The region also faced additional pressure following the collapse of the oyster population in Apalachicola Bay in 2013, with annual Big Bend harvests peaking in 2017 with 60,000 bags sold. Landings have significantly decreased since, with the total bags sold not surpassing 10,000 bags in either of the last two years. There were only 32 commercial harvesters in 2025.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

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

DELAWARE: Retired fishing vessel sunk as artificial reef off Delaware

August 24, 2026 — Delaware has sunk a retired 180-foot menhaden vessel on its flagship offshore artificial reef, the state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control announced Aug. 18.

The Calcasieu Pass, a former offshore oilfield supply boat that went on to spend more than 30 years in the Atlantic menhaden reduction fleet out of Reedville, Va., was placed on Reef Site 13, better known as the Del-Jersey-Land Reef. DNREC said the vessel went down after environmental remediation and approval by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Coast Guard for environmental cleanliness and safety.

Ocean Harvesters, which operated the vessel, said in a separate announcement that the sinking took place Wednesday, Aug. 12, at a site roughly 26 miles off Indian River Inlet.

The boat measures 180 feet with a 40-foot beam. Built in 1982, it supported offshore oilfield work until 1989, when it was converted to an Atlantic menhaden fishing and processing vessel. Its name comes from Calcasieu Pass, a bend in the Calcasieu Ship Channel near Lake Charles, La., an area DNREC noted for liquefied natural gas production.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Nonprofit sues over U.S. push to auction areas of water around American Samoa for potential mining

August 20, 2026 — A legal environmental group sued the U.S. government on Tuesday to halt the Trump administration’s plans announced last month to auction off sections of water surrounding American Samoa for potential deep-sea mining.

Earthjustice filed the lawsuit against the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on behalf of two groups: Fa‘asao Amerika Samoa and Conservation Council for Hawai‘i.

The legal nonprofit is requesting that a judge order the National Marine Fisheries Service to stop moving forward with its plans and to comply with the Endangered Species Act and other federal laws.

“The United States has never opened its waters to deep-sea mining. Until now,” the lawsuit stated.

It noted that the U.S. plans to sell leases with the intention of allowing mining across 33 million acres of seabed off American Samoa that is rich in minerals including nickel, cobalt and manganese that are used to build batteries, electronics and other products.

Read the full article at NBC 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

DELAWARE: DNREC sinks old oilfield supply ship to expand Delaware artificial reef

August 18, 2026 — The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control has expanded the state’s artificial reef system by sinking the 180-foot Calcasieu Pass at Reef Site 13, creating new marine habitat and recreational opportunities for anglers and divers.

Reef Site 13, also known as the Del-Jersey-Land Reef, is located offshore at a point roughly equidistant from ports in Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland, due east of Bethany Beach. DNREC describes the site as the centerpiece of Delaware’s artificial reef system.

Read the full article at CoastTV