August 18, 2025 — Susan Linder was hunting for buried treasure.
Every spring, the crabs clickety-clack ashore for a massive orgy timed to the rise and fall of the tides, depositing millions of eggs in the sand.
More catch restrictions due in 2026 to help struggling striped bass
August 18, 2025 — Amid signs that a hoped-for recovery of Atlantic striped bass may be faltering, East Coast fisheries managers are moving to further tighten already restricted catch limits on the popular but beleaguered migratory fish.
At a meeting on Aug. 6 in Arlington, VA, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s striped bass management board voted to proceed with a plan to impose a 12% reduction in 2026 on both recreational and commercial catch of the prized species.
The plan, if adopted later this year, would trim the commercial harvest quota by that amount, while it would require East Coast states to curb the recreational catch by shortening the fishing season or adjusting the size limits for legally catchable fish.
Striped bass are found in the Atlantic from Maine to the Carolinas, but the Chesapeake Bay, where they’re also called rockfish, is the primary spawning and nursery ground for 70% to 90% of the entire stock.
The coastwide striped bass population is currently struggling to recover from years of being overfished, a problem exacerbated by poor reproduction in the Bay — for six straight years in Maryland waters and for the past two years in Virginia. Striped bass spawning tends to vary year to year, but it has never been this low for this long, and scientists aren’t sure why.
The fisheries commission ordered catch restrictions in the Bay and along the coast in 2020 and again in 2024 to halt overfishing and rebuild the stock. But higher-than-expected recreational fishing in 2024, mainly along the Mid-Atlantic coast, cast a shadow over the projected recovery, lowering the odds the stock could reach a healthy level by 2029, as federal law requires.
NEW JERSEY: New Jersey revokes approval for Atlantic Shores offshore wind farm; company calls it ‘a pause’
August 14, 2025 — New Jersey utility regulators on Wednesday canceled their preliminary approval of the Atlantic Shores offshore wind energy project as the industry continues to struggle with financial challenges and an all-out assault from President Donald Trump.
But the company called the action “a pause,” not necessarily the end of the project.
The state Board of Public Utilities terminated the Offshore Wind Renewable Energy Certificate for Atlantic Shores, a proposed two-phase wind farm between Atlantic City and Barnegat Light with 197 wind turbines capable of powering 1 million homes.
On June 4, Atlantic Shores asked the BPU to do so, saying the project is “no longer viable” due to Trump’s war on wind power and economic challenges facing the industry.
But it also indicated it might seek to revive the project in the future, calling the cancellation “a reset period.”
NEW JERSEY: New Jersey energy regulators delay offshore wind infrastructure, cancel approval for Atlantic Shores project
August 14, 2025 — The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities on Wednesday delayed offshore wind power transmission infrastructure in the state by more than two years.
The BPU, which regulates utilities and helps shape the state’s energy policies, said the decision follows President Donald Trump’s move to block plans for offshore wind development.
“Today’s action is a direct response to a shift in federal policy under the current administration, which has created significant uncertainty and potential for offshore wind project delays,” said BPU President Christine Guhl-Sadovy in a statement.
The board also canceled its approval of the Atlantic Shores wind project, a two-phase wind farm between Atlantic City and Barnegat Light that aimed to power nearly 1 million homes.
The move was expected, as wind developer Atlantic Shores asked the BPU in June to cancel its contract for the 195-turbine project. The company called the move a temporary “reset” amid financial difficulties and industry uncertainties under a Trump administration that has vowed to increase coal, oil and gas production.
The BPU’s decisions are the latest blow to New Jersey’s plan to cut carbon emissions and reach 100% clean energy by 2035.
“At the end of the day, it’s very hard to lose 1,500 megawatts of electricity at a time when we need not just clean electricity but more electricity, so it’s tough,” Guhl-Sadovy said after the BPU canceled its approval of the Atlantic Shores project.
New York judge sides with Oyster Bay in aquaculture lease renewal decision
August 13, 2025 — A court in the U.S. state of New York has ruled in favor of the Town of Oyster Bay on Long Island, New York, dismissing a long-term aquaculture leaseholder’s complaint that the town didn’t renew its lease for 1,800 acres of shellfish harvesting area.
“A reading of the town code makes it clear that the town was not required to renew the lease,” Nassau County Supreme Court Judge Gregg Roth said in his decision dismissing the former leaseholder’s claims.
Bluefin tuna off limits for recreational and charter anglers due to federal shutdown
August 13, 2025 –If you were hoping to catch and keep a bluefin tuna off the coast of Long Island this summer, you’re out of luck. A new federal shutdown of the bluefin tuna fishery for recreational and charter anglers is now in effect — and it’s already having a ripple effect across the local fishing industry.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ordered the closure, citing the need to stay within international conservation limits.
“This inseason action is needed to ensure the United States Atlantic bluefin tuna quota is not exceeded and is consistent with the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) requirements,” a NOAA spokesperson said in a statement.
While commercial bluefin fishing can continue, the shutdown applies to all recreational and charter boat fishing. That means charter captains like Greg Gargiulo, of Patty Ann Charters based at the Captree Boat Basin, will have to drastically shift their business model by targeting yellowfin tuna instead, which are farther off shore.
NEW JERSEY: Belford Seafood Co-Op President Says Why He Joined Lawsuit Against Empire Wind Farm
August 12, 2025 — Middletown’s Belford Seafood Co-op joined a host of New Jersey commercial fishing companies in a federal lawsuit against Empire Wind, a wind farm owned by the Kingdom of Norway that is currently under construction 19 miles (17 nautical miles) off Long Branch.
And now today — for the first time — Belford Co-op president and fishing boat captain Richard Isaksen talks about why he is against the wind farm.
“It’s going to interfere with our fishing grounds. We fear we will be stopped from fishing there,” said Isaksen, who lives locally in Middletown. “It changes by season, but those are our prime grounds for fluke, flounder and squid. The underground cables could also disrupt fish.”
NEW JERSEY: New Jersey fishermen net millions of dollars worth of fish, but diners demand more
August 11, 2025 — Sitting in a Point Pleasant Beach dockside eatery on a summer day, one can take in the sights and sounds of a lively fishing village at work. Sea gulls squawking, commercial boats coming and going, nets drying and lobster pots stacked up on the planked docks.
The aroma of sauteed shrimp and scallops, steam lobster and blue claw crabs water one’s mouth as a waitress or waiter brings you a menu full of seafood delicacies.
But the odds those menu items came from the where the fleet just returned are slim. In fact, this $3.2 billion New Jersey industry supplies just a fraction of the state’s ravenous appetite for seafood, especially when tourism drove more than 123 million to New Jersey last year — 20 million to Monmouth and Ocean counties alone. These visitors spent more than $14 billion on food and drinks, the state’s Division of Travel and Tourism reports.
To make up the difference, restaurants and fish markets must bring in seafood from other states and foreign countries.
Ocean Harvesters Responds to Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s August 7 Press Release
August 8, 2025 — The following was released by Ocean Harvesters:
A press release issued yesterday by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) continues a multi-year pattern of gross dishonesty, as it presented an incomplete and misleading narrative regarding menhaden management in the Chesapeake Bay. CBF’s misleading release includes a statement from Virginia Executive Director Chris Moore that ignores and disparages the established science, and the regulatory framework that ensures the fishery remains sustainable and responsibly managed.
In response, Ocean Harvesters has issued the following:
The CBF release refers to “growing warning signs around the Chesapeake Bay”:
“There are clear signs of peril in the Chesapeake, and menhaden are one of the connecting threads.“
This claim is not supported by any independent, peer-reviewed science, but rather represents the biased opinion of a special interest group. The assertion that “there are clear signs of peril in the Chesapeake, and menhaden are one of the connecting threads” overstates both the available scientific evidence and the known ecological dynamics of the Bay. While ecosystem concerns merit monitoring, attributing broad Chesapeake Bay challenges to already conservative menhaden harvest regulations is not supported by the best available science.
In 2024, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) presented data to the ASMFC on osprey populations which showed osprey reproduction challenges and nest failures occurring on both the Atlantic and Pacific Coast, including many areas with no menhaden fishery at all. In a letter to Congress earlier this year, USGS said it found no direct link between regulated menhaden harvests and declining osprey populations. The federal agency emphasized that multiple, complex factors, including weather, predation and prey access, contribute to ecological trends in the Bay.
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey present a slide to the ASMFC showing that the recent leveling-off in Maryland and Virginia osprey populations, after years of explosive growth, is a phenomenon also being seen in states across the nation, on both the East and West Coast.
Ocean Harvesters menhaden fishermen.
The statement includes: “This new timing of intense fishing pressure may be contributing to the problems facing the Chesapeake Bay.”
Any adjustment in the timing of Bay fishing is minor and reflects natural shifts in the seasonal population dynamics of menhaden, not a quantifiable increase in harvest pressure or ecological harm. No scientific evidence has established any link between this timing shift and the broad ecological challenges described in the release.
While the press release references anecdotal concerns from Maryland fishers, it omits mention of well-documented water quality issues in Maryland that may also explain the localized fishery observations cited.
Another claim in the statement reads: “One foreign-owned company consistently prevents progress in Virginia, and now coastwide at the ASMFC.”
This statement is inaccurate. Omega Protein is a Virginia-based processing company, and the menhaden are harvested by Ocean Harvesters, a separate American-owned and operated company whose crews are overwhelmingly local, unionized, and multi-generational, represented by UFCW Local 400, AFL-CIO. This domestic fleet works in full compliance with harvest controls, vessel reporting, and ecosystem-based management thresholds set by the ASMFC. CBF is clearly attempting to mislead the audience with distorted information and is crossing a very serious ethical line of misinformation that merits further scrutiny.
CBF’s repeated implication that the industry has obstructed scientific research misrepresents the actual facts. Ocean Harvesters supported a comprehensive ecosystem study of the menhaden fishery developed by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) in 2021. However, the proposal that later emerged in the Virginia General Assembly used a lower cost, novel methodology that had not undergone scientific peer review. The industry raised legitimate concerns-not about research itself, but about relying on an untested approach for such a politically charged issue. CBF has repeatedly and inaccurately characterized this as blanket opposition to science. In fact, the industry continues to support the original, science-based study design developed by ASMFC, and no menhaden research could be conducted without longstanding industry cooperation.
The statement concludes: “The Chesapeake’s fisheries and predators can’t wait. Menhaden are key to a thriving Chesapeake Bay, and a healthy, productive Chesapeake is vital to the entire Atlantic coast.”
There is simply no Chesapeake Bay crisis that would threaten fisheries or predators. The menhaden fishery is already one of the most scientifically scrutinized in the United States.
The menhaden fishery is currently:
- Not overfished, and overfishing is not occurring, as confirmed by repeated stock assessments.
- Certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)
- Governed by ecosystem reference points that account for predator-prey relationships
- Subject to real-time reporting, seasonal harvest caps, and rigorous monitoring under ASMFC’s management plan
Here is the true threat: CBF’s statements add up to nothing more than scare tactics that threatens the livelihood of hundreds of blue collar, multi-generational employees, many of whom are minority and UFCW Local 400 union workers, in Virginia’s Northern Neck.
About Ocean Harvesters
Ocean Harvesters owns and operates a fleet of more than 30 fishing vessels in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. The company’s purse-seine fishing operation is exclusively engaged in the harvest of menhaden, a small, nutrient-dense fish used to produce fish meal, fish oil, and fish solubles. Both its Atlantic and Gulf Menhaden fisheries are certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council. Committed to responsible fishing operations, Ocean Harvesters is proud to be heir to a fishing legacy that extends nearly 150 years.
USDA announces USD 6 million to increase catfish production around Chesapeake Bay
August 8, 2025 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced USD 6 million (EUR 5.2 million) in grant funding to increase catfish processing in the Chesapeake Bay region as part of an ongoing state and federal effort to manage the invasive species.
First introduced as a recreational fish in the 1960s, blue catfish quickly spread throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed, predating on and taking resources from native species and upsetting local ecosystems. State and federal governments, as well as local nonprofit organizations, have worked to remove catfish from the waters, incentivizing fishers to land more of the invasive species, encouraging consumers to eat more, and finding new applications for the fish.
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