Saving Seafood

Atlantic Herring Western Maine and Massachusetts/New Hampshire Spawning Closures in Effect Starting September 23, 2026 through November 3, 2026

September 18, 2026 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic herring Area 1A fishery regulations include seasonal spawning closures for portions of state and federal waters in Eastern Maine, Western Maine and Massachusetts/New Hampshire. The Commission’s Atlantic Herring Management Board approved a forecasting method that relies upon at least three samples, each containing at least 25 female herring in gonadal stages III-V, to trigger a spawning closure. However, if sufficient samples are not available then closures will begin on predetermined dates.

 
There are currently insufficient samples from both the Western Maine and the Massachusetts/ New Hampshire spawning areas. Therefore, per Addendum II default closure dates, the Western Maine and Massachusetts/New Hampshire spawning areas will be closed starting at 12:01 a.m. on September 23, 2026 extending through 11:59 p.m. on November 3, 2026.
 
The Western Maine spawning area includes all waters bounded by the following coordinates:
 
43° 30’ N     Maine coast
43° 30’ N      68° 54.5’ W
43° 48’ N         68° 20’ W
North to Maine coast at 68° 20’ W
 
The Massachusetts/New Hampshire spawning area includes all waters bounded by the Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine coasts, and 43° 30’ N and 70° 00’ W.  
 
Vessels in the directed Atlantic herring fishery cannot take, land or possess Atlantic herring caught in either the Western Maine or Massachusetts/New Hampshire spawning areas during this time and must have all fishing gear stowed when transiting through the area. The incidental bycatch allowance of up to 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip per day applies to vessels in non-directed fisheries that are fishing within the Western Maine or Massachusetts/New Hampshire spawning areas. 
 
For more information, please contact Emilie Franke, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 703.842.0740 orefranke@asmfc.org.
 
 

NEFSA’S JASON JOYCE: Before blaming fishermen, Chesapeake Bay needs better menhaden data

September 17, 2026 — The following is an excerpt from an op-ed published today in the Richmond Times Dispatch by Jason Joyce, director of advocacy for the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association:

As a commercial fisherman from Maine, I was troubled by the Washington Post’s article about menhaden and starving osprey chicks in the Chesapeake Bay. It presents a simple story: commercial fishermen catch menhaden, osprey lose their food, and chicks starve. It is compelling. It just is not what the science proves.

The Chesapeake Bay osprey study found that osprey nesting in high-salinity areas are struggling, while birds in low-salinity areas are successfully raising young. But the researchers did not show that commercial fishing depleted adult menhaden at the study sites. The authors acknowledge that there is no independent survey measuring adult menhaden abundance in the Chesapeake Bay, and that they lack the data needed to determine the relationship between harvest and menhaden availability. That is a critical gap before fishermen are blamed, and their livelihoods are restricted.

Ospreys are opportunistic predators. They do not only eat menhaden. The study reports that osprey in low-salinity areas relied primarily on catfish and gizzard shad. Those birds produced more than 1.3 young per pair, while high-salinity sites produced only 0.08 to 0.90 young per pair. In plain English, the osprey successfully raising chicks lived where menhaden were not their primary food. Menhaden matter, but osprey reproduction depends on a broader food web than the article suggests.

Salinity may be the largest unanswered question. The study found a strong association between salinity and reproductive success, but classified sites using the average surface salinity from 1985 through 2018, rather than conditions measured during each nesting season. A 33-year average cannot tell us what changed between successful years in the 1980s and 2024. Was there less rainfall or freshwater discharge, more drought, warmer water, lower dissolved oxygen, poorer water quality, different plankton conditions or fewer alternative prey fish?

The researchers identify plankton, freshwater discharge, predation, competition, temperature, salinity and water quality as possible influences on menhaden and the Bay’s food web. Those variables cannot be acknowledged and then ignored when policy is proposed.

Menhaden are highly migratory. Their abundance in one place cannot establish the condition of the coastwide population. Fishermen throughout Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts report extraordinary concentrations, with many describing abundances not seen in decades. That does not prove why fewer menhaden may be available to Chesapeake osprey, but it is consistent with redistribution rather than coastwide depletion.

Read the full opinion piece at the Richmond-Times Dispatch

Announcing the 2027 Marine Resource Education Program Greater Atlantic Workshop

September 16, 2026 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Managment Council:

The Marine Resource Education Program (MREP) is accepting applications for the next Greater Atlantic Fisheries Science and Management Workshop, scheduled for January 11-15, 2027, in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

Created by fishermen, for fishermen, MREP offers a neutral look into regional fishery science and management. MREP’s Greater Atlantic workshop is tailored to the area. It brings commercial, charter, and recreational fishermen from North Carolina to Maine together with regional scientists and managers to learn the processes, share insights, and network. This workshop will equip you with tools to engage in the management process and participate in collaborative science.

Attending the workshop is free for anyone who fishes or works in associated fishing industries. MREP reimburses travel costs and pays for hotel lodging and meals for accepted participants.

Space is limited, and preference will be given to applications received by November 6, 2026. Accepted participants will be notified by phone and email by late November 2026.

Greater Atlantic Fisheries Science & Management Workshop
January 11-15, 2027 | Falmouth, MA
*Recommended arrival is on Sunday, January 10. The workshop will start on Monday morning and end early afternoon on Friday to allow for travel home on Friday evening.

Apply Now
General questions about the program should be directed to Sophie Swetz, MREP Greater Atlantic Program Manager, at sswetz@gmri.org or (207) 772-2321 ext. 8104.
Visit mrep.gmri.org for more information.

MASSACHUSETTS: ‘Flat is Back’ campaign hopes to put flounder back on people’s plates

September 15, 2026 — Aperol spritzes. Dubai chocolate. Dill pickle, well, everything. Thanks to Instagram and TikTok, food trends have never been more of-the-moment, with even seemingly mundane ingredients like cottage cheese enjoying a sudden resurgence.

Why not the flounder? The first-of-its-kind “Flat is Back” campaign, spearheaded by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, aims to build buzz around the plentiful yet underutilized flatfish called flounder, better connecting what fishermen already catch to what ends up on consumers’ plates. The hoped-for result would be a more economically and environmentally sustainable fisheries model, MassDMF Director Dan McKiernan — one he plans to replicate for all kinds of underappreciated fish.

But first, customers have to bite.

In 2023, over three-fourths of all seafood Americans consumed came from just 10 species, with shrimp, salmon, and canned tuna topping the list. In general, American diners tend to consume fewer species of fish than Europeans and Asians, McKiernan said. That can drive up demand for a few key species while leaving plenty of other fish in the sea.

Cod, for example, remains one of the most popular catches, even after its numbers have drastically declined. Flounder, on the other hand, is abundant and cheap.

“We hope that this program can help people get an appreciation for some of the other species of fish, so that seafood can be, surprisingly, fun,” McKiernan said.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

MASSACHUSETTS: Massachusetts using dye to study how New Bedford wastewater impacts shellfish

September 10, 2026 — Local, state, and federal authorities are collaborating on a new hydrographic dye study to learn how wastewater flowing from the New Bedford Wastewater Treatment Plant into Buzzards Bay impacts shellfish.

“Here in Massachusetts, we pride ourselves on our nation-leading seafood industry, including culturally and economically important traditions of shellfishing in Buzzards Bay,” Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game (DFG) Commissioner Tom O’Shea said in a release. “We look forward to the results of this important study and are grateful for the partnership of researchers and our shellfish industry to make this possible.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Opinion on The Maine Lobstermen Decision and Recent Federal Fisheries Actions

September 8, 2026 — The following opinion was published by Samuel Blatchley:

Three years ago the D.C. Circuit told the National Marine Fisheries Service it could not build a biological opinion on worst-case assumptions. Last week the agency wrote that principle into its own priorities.

In Maine Lobstermen’s Ass’n v. National Marine Fisheries Service, 70 F.4th 582 (D.C. Cir. 2023), the court held that the Service may not, when faced with uncertainty, give the benefit of the doubt to an endangered species by relying on worst-case scenarios or pessimistic assumptions. The ESA calls for an empirical judgment about what is likely. The effects of an action are those reasonably certain to occur, found on clear and substantial information. Projections the agency itself concedes are very likely wrong do not meet that standard. The court reversed, directed judgment for the lobstermen, and ordered the biological opinion vacated as applied to the lobster and Jonah crab fisheries. I was on the case for the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, alongside the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, the State of Maine, and Lodge 207. Our clients were facing regulations that would have taken jobs and boats out of the water.

Two things happened last week that build on it.

On September 1 the House passed H.R. 9436, the Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act, 219 to 196, extending the current regulatory pause for the lobster and Jonah crab fisheries from 2028 to 2035. The Administration issued a statement strongly supporting passage. It now goes to the Senate.

On September 2 NOAA Fisheries issued its agency-level priorities. On the Northeast lobster fishery, the agency states it will not mandate ropeless gear, that any decision support tools or models used by the Take Reduction Team must be independently and empirically reviewed, and that any future Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan will rest on best available data rather than worst-case scenario modeling.

That last clause applies the principle the court enforced in 2023, and returns the agency to the position it had taken itself in 2019 before the biological opinion abandoned it.

Worth keeping the distinction clear. The bill would change a statute. The priorities document is a policy statement that amends nothing and can be withdrawn. What lasts is the record. The Take Reduction Team is building the file the next rule will stand on, and how its models get vetted will matter long after the announcement does.

Common sense science is not a slogan. It is what the statute already required, and what it took a court to enforce. The Senate should pass H.R. 9436, and the agency should be held to the standard it has now stated, so the next rule protects both the whale and the communities that fish alongside it.

#FisheriesLaw #Lobster #EndangeredSpeciesAct #RightWhale #AdministrativeLaw

Samuel P. Blatchley is a maritime, fisheries, and insurance attorney and Proctor in Admiralty at Eckland & Blando LLP, where he represents vessel owners, commercial fishermen, marine businesses, insurers, and industry organizations in complex litigation, regulatory matters, marine casualties, coverage disputes, and commercial disputes throughout the United States. His practice includes federal admiralty litigation, fisheries and environmental regulation, marine insurance, limitation of liability, vessel arrests and maritime liens, and matters involving NOAA Fisheries and other federal and state agencies. He has represented fishing-industry interests in significant state and federal litigation, including the D.C. Circuit challenge to NOAA Fisheries’ North Atlantic right whale regulations on behalf of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association. Blatchley is admitted to practice in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, and New York and is a graduate of Tulane University Law School, where he earned a Maritime Law Certificate and served on the Tulane Maritime Law Journal.

MASSACHUSETTS: Where have all the soft-shell clams gone? Scientists and shellfishers seek answers.

September 3, 2026 — Just past sunrise on a warm August morning, Northeastern University marine science professor David Kimbro stood ankle-deep in the waters of Plum Island Sound.

He carried what resembled a stack of white pizza boxes — only they were made of PVC and had black mesh on top. Once the tide dropped, Kimbro and his team rushed to swap the boxes for others that had been sitting in the mud for a month.

In total, the scientists hauled in 45 mud-filled boxes that morning and motored them back to the research station nearby on Massachusetts’ North Shore. Inside, they hoped to find a bevy of soft-shell clams.

Read the full article at GBH

Atlantic Herring Area 1A Days Out Meeting Scheduled for September 21, 2026

September 2, 2026 — Atlantic Herring Management Board members from the states of Maine, New Hampshire and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will meet via webinar on September 21, 2026 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., to discuss Season 2 (October 1 – December 31) days out measures for the 2026 Area 1A fishery (inshore Gulf of Maine). Days out measures include consecutive landings days for Season 2. The webinar and call information is included below:

 
Atlantic Herring Days Out Meeting
Monday, September 21, 2026
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
 
This webinar will use the RingCentral meeting platform. You can join the meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone at the following link: https://v.ringcentral.com/join/475517003.  If you are new to RingCentral, you can download the app ahead of time (click here) or you can join from a web browser. For audio, the meeting will be using the computer voice over internet (VoIP), but if you are joining the webinar from your phone only, you can dial in at650.419.1505 and enter access code 475-517-003 when prompted. The webinar will start at 10:45 a.m., 15 minutes early, to troubleshoot audio as necessary.
 
The 2026 Area 1A sub-annual catch limit (sub-ACL) is 2,401 metric tons (mt) after adjusting for the 30 mt fixed gear set-aside and the fact that Area 1A closes at 92% of the sub-ACL. This does not take into account the possible reallocation of 1,000 mt to the Area 1A sub-ACL based on catch information from the Canadian New Brunswick weir fishery.
 
As of this week, Area 1A landings are estimated to be 203 mt. Days out measures for Season 1 (through September 30) are currently in place as specified in the April 2026 press release. Season 1 landings will be closely monitored and the fishery will be adjusted to zero landing days if the Season 1 quota of 1,748 mt is projected to be reached by September 30. Days out measures for October 1 through December 31 will be posted via press release following the webinar on September 21.  
 
For more information, please contact Emilie Franke, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at 703.842.0740 orefranke@asmfc.org.
 

MASSACHUSETTS: Massachusetts pantry uses haddock chowder to stretch food budgets, and boost protein options

August 27, 2026 — For nearly 700 households that rely on the Family Pantry of Cape Cod each week, one item has emerged as a clear favorite: haddock chowder made with help from local fishermen. The popular meal also shows how a local partnership can stretch food budgets while getting a highly sought-after source of protein to families who need it most.

Here’s what to know

According to the Cape Cod Times, the most sought-after item at the Harwich-based Family Pantry of Cape Cod is frozen haddock chowder provided by the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance.

Instead of operating like a standard food pickup site, the pantry allows clients to choose from a weekly printed list, similar to shopping at a small grocery. That list can include proteins as well as canned goods, cereal, pasta, eggs, and dairy items.

The alliance also provides clam chowder and fish stew, giving pantry clients more prepared seafood options to take home.

Read the full article at The Cool Down