Saving Seafood

Congress Moves to Preserve NOAA Funding for Fisheries and Climate Research

January 14, 2026 — On Monday, Senators moved a funding package forward that would preserve 2026 funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), despite the Trump administration’s proposed deep cuts to the agency last year.

The appropriations bill, which funds multiple agencies, already passed in the House; the Senate is expected to send it to President Donald Trump’s desk this week.

Last year, Trump requested a $1.5 billion cut to the agency’s roughly $6 billion budget. A memo from his Office of Management and Budget also proposed eliminating NOAA’s office dedicated to research on climate and weather patterns, zeroing out funding for weather and ocean labs, and moving regulation of fisheries to the Fish & Wildlife Service.

Experts warned the budget cuts could have dire consequences for farmers, who rely on weather data, and the country’s fisheries, which rely on NOAA to enforce catch limits, invest in habitat conservation, and preserve coastlines.

Read the full article at Civil Eats

Environmental groups’ excessive court challenges are about raising funds, not protecting fisheries

January 2, 2025 — When you think of environmental groups working to protect iconic wildlife the mind’s eye often provides a romantic setting with activists defending dolphins on the high seas.

In reality, the bulk of that work is done in places like Charlotte, where millions of dollars are raised in boardrooms with those very images as the centerpiece. The story behind the story is that such campaigns may be much more about money than marine mammals.

In 2024 the Natural Resources Defense Council and other groups sued the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), forcing the government to implement a portion of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA.) Now they have rushed back to the court that oversaw their original settlement, ostensibly to complain about separate MMPA litigation.

Having pressured NOAA, after more than a decade of delays, into applying the protective policy, they now object to a different court settlement that allows a small handful of crab fisheries in four countries an additional 180 days to come into compliance with the rule.

Read the full article at the Charlotte Observer

 

National Database Launched to Log Abandoned Vessels, Enhance Navigational Safety

November 20, 2025 — An effort to address thousands of abandoned and derelict boats creating dangerous conditions for marine environments and navigational safety throughout the U.S. is expected to shine a broader light on a growing problem with a new, first of its kind national database that will log locations and track vessel removals.

“When we finally understand the scope of the problem, communities all over the country will be better able to remove abandoned and derelict vessels on their local coastlines,” said Alanna Keating, BoatUS Foundation director of outreach.

The database is a collaborative effort between BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water; and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Marine Debris Program. It will be used to pinpoint the exact location of ditched and derelict boats across the country and U.S. territories, and track their removal.

The database will allow the public to log abandoned and derelict vessels they encounter during their excursions. At some point, the database will highlight the impact of prevention and removal of the vessels by showcasing a decrease in the number of abandoned and derelict vessels.

“With the information the database provides, they will be able to know exactly where they need to dedicate resources, whether that be towards removing vessels or preventing them from becoming abandoned in the first place,” Keating said. “This database is just one part of our critical work that could help make ADVs (abandoned and derelict vessels) a thing of the past.”

Whether the database will log and track abandoned and derelict commercial and recreational vessels or just focus on recreational vessels is unknown. The issue of abandoned boats in the U.S. dates back nearly a century, with many of the original vessels being shipwrecks.

Read the full article at The Sand Paper

Golden Presses Feds for More Maine Lobstermen Representation on Regulation Advisory Panel

March 21, 2022 — The following was released by The Office of Jared Golden:

Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02) called on the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) today to expand representation of lobstermen on its Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team (ALWTRT) by including members of the Maine Lobstering Union Local 207 (MLU).

The ALWTRT is a council of stakeholders charged with making recommendations to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for addressing rising North Atlantic right whale (NARW) mortalities, or takes. However, only four of the members of the 60-person ALWTRT are Maine lobstermen, the workforce whose livelihoods would be most impacted by the group’s recommendations.

“As the only industry organization comprised exclusively of lobstermen with active commercial lobster and crab fishing licenses, the MLU would bring an essential perspective to the ALWTRT,” said Golden. “For nearly a decade, the MLU has engaged with local, state and federal officials as well as the scientific community on various projects to improve our understanding of the distribution of right whales and their potential interactions with certain gear types and fishing effort. They are currently working on new data collection models utilizing fishermen and their fishing gear to obtain vital information about right whale habitat in the Gulf of Maine. This data, if brought to bear, would prove invaluable to the ALWTRT as they continue to assess the underlying causes of right whale serious injury and mortality.”

“The MLU greatly appreciates Congressman Golden’s support in seeking additional Maine seats on the ALWTRT for Local 207,” said MLU Secretary Virginia Olsen. “These are very uncertain times for Maine lobstermen and securing union seats to bring new science forward is vital in protecting our heritage fishery. As new technologies come available, we need to work with fishermen who are on the water day in and day out to be a part of this process, not only conceptually but in data collection too.”

Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), take reduction teams like ALWTRT must be inclusive of “all commercial and recreational fisheries groups and gear types which incidentally take the species or stock.” The MMPA also authorizes NMFS to appoint additional members to a take reduction team if a particular constituency is not adequately represented.

“In order to ensure that the ALWTRT is indeed representative of all commercial fisheries groups, I strongly urge you to appoint representatives from the MLU,” Golden continued. “Their unique makeup as an entirely fishermen-member enterprise that participates in every aspect of the industry make them an indispensable industry participant whose voice deserves to have a seat at the table.”

Maine lobstermen have a history of environmental stewardship and continued commitment to protecting the North Atlantic right whale. Beginning in 1997, Maine lobstermen have implemented costly and labor-intensive gear modifications to protect the NARW. Since then, NARW population growth has doubled. Recent right whale mortalities have been definitively linked to ship strikes and entanglements in Canadian waters with no entanglements affirmatively linked to Maine’s lobster fishery since 2004.

You can read a copy of the letter here.

 

BANGOR DAILY NEWS: Right whales, wrong rules

September 1, 2021 — Federal fisheries regulators on Tuesday announced new rules for the northeast lobster industry. The rules, which are aimed at protecting endangered North Atlantic right whales, are more stringent and extensive than lobstermen and state officials had expected.

The timing of the new restrictions — which include a large area that will be closed to lobster harvesting during the height of the season — is especially problematic. To add to the frustration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration moved ahead with the new rules without essential information about whale deaths that lobstermen, the governor and the state’s congressional delegation have requested for years.

In a draft biological opinion issued earlier this year, the fisheries agency essentially acknowledged the lack of specific data on what causes whale mortality, particularly information on collisions between ships and whales. Yet, it went ahead with the restrictive rules, which also impact New England’s crab fishery.

According to data that accompanied the announcement of the new rules, NOAA was certain of the cause of death in fewer than half of the 13 right whale deaths in the U.S. since 2017. In two of those cases, gear was found entangled on the dead whale. Entanglements were suspected in five other U.S. whale deaths. The agency did not specify where the gear was from or what type it was. Three deaths were attributed to vessel strikes.

The most recent known Maine entanglement occurred in 2004, but the whale survived, the Portland Press Herald reported.

“The leading category for the cause of death for [these unusual mortality events] is ‘human interaction,’ specifically from entanglements or vessel strikes,” NOAA said in an introduction to the data.

This is a very imprecise rationale for rules that will have a significant impact on Maine’s lobster fishing industry, which is the state’s largest and most lucrative fishery.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Feds Announce New Lobster Fishing Restrictions To Protect Endangered Right Whales

September 1, 2021 — America’s lobster fishing industry will face a host of new harvesting restrictions amid a new push from the federal government to try to save a vanishing species of whale.

The new rules, which have loomed over the profitable lobster industry for years and were announced Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), are designed to protect the North Atlantic right whale. The whales number only about 360 and are vulnerable to lethal entanglement in fishing gear.

NOAA said it expects the new rules will result in a reduction in nearly 70% of the risk of death and serious injuries the whales can suffer from entanglement. The rules had long been expected to focus on reducing the number of vertical ropes in the water, and they will.

The rules reduce the number of rope lines that link buoys to lobster and crab traps, NOAA said. The rules will also require the use of weaker ropes so whales can more easily break free if they do become entangled, the agency said. NOAA said the rules also expand the areas of ocean where fishing with trap rope is prohibited or limited.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WBUR

HAWAII: UH Sea Grant shares in award to address marine debris, protect wildlife

August 31, 2021 — To address the devastating impacts of marine debris in the coastal environment, one of the leading causes of injury and death for sea turtles, seabirds and Hawaiian monk seals, the University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program (Hawaiʻi Sea Grant) and Hawaiʻi Marine Animal Response (HMAR), the largest Hawaiʻi-based marine species response and conservation nonprofit organization, received $50,000 from NOAA Sea Grant and the NOAA Marine Debris Program. This grant is matched by $50,000 from non-federal sources.

The funding is one of six new, creative projects to tackle marine debris challenges across the country awarded to Sea Grant programs in Hawaiʻi, Florida, Georgia, Illinois-Indiana, Puerto Rico and Wisconsin. These marine debris projects total $300,000 in federal funding and are matched by non-federal contributions, bringing the total investment to approximately $600,000.

“By preventing marine debris, we can reduce the impacts of this global problem,” stated NOAA Marine Debris Program Director Nancy Wallace. “We are pleased to partner with NOAA Sea Grant to provide support for projects that will help stop trash and fishing gear at their source.”

Read the full story at University of Hawaii News

NOAA Fisheries rules limiting lobstering draw harsh criticism from fishing, environmental groups

August 31, 2021 — NOAA Fisheries has announced a set of new regulations intended to protect the North Atlantic right whale from entanglement-related incidents. The regulations will cost the Northeast lobster fishery between USD 9 million and 20 million (EUR 7.6 million and 16.9 million) to implement.

The new regulations are in response to the ongoing decline of the highly endangered whale, of which only a few hundred remain in the wild. The species is currently undergoing what NOAA has dubbed an “unusual mortality event,” with 34 right whales having died since 2017.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NOAA Offers Online Webinars for Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish and Coastal Migratory Pelagic For-Hire Permit Holders (Topic: Southeast For-Hire Integrated Electronic Reporting Program Vessel Monitoring System Requirements)

August 31, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Key Message:

NOAA Fisheries’ Southeast Regional Office is in the process of implementing Phase 2 of the Southeast For-Hire Integrated Electronic Reporting Program, requiring a position reporting device, or vessel monitoring system (VMS), to be permanently affixed to a vessel and transmitting at all times.  A series of constituent webinars will be held in September 2021 in order to assist the public with preparing for the implementation of this requirement.

When:

Webinars:

  • Tuesday, September 7th, 2021, 6:30-7:30 PM, ET
  • Thursday, September 16th, 2021, 2:00-3:00 PM, ET
  • Wednesday, September 22nd, 2021, 6:30-7:30 PM, ET
  • Tuesday, September 28th, 2021, 10:00-11:00 AM, ET

To register for the webinars and access additional meeting information go to: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/southeast/recreational-fishing-data/southeast-hire-electronic-reporting-program.

Why:

These webinars will provide program participants information about the new VMS requirement for the federally permitted Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish and Coastal Migratory Pelagic for-hire participants.  The webinars will include information such as timelines, approved VMS units, and reporting requirements.  There will also be plenty of time for questions.

The position reporting requirement is essential for validating the information collected through the Southeast For-Hire Integrated Electronic Reporting Program.  The data collected from the VMS units are expected to result in enhanced tracking of recreational catch limits in the Gulf of Mexico; thereby, improving fisheries management.

Read the full release here

Pot/Trap Fisheries Regulations to Help Save North Atlantic Right Whales Announced

August 31, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries and our partners are dedicated to conserving and rebuilding the North Atlantic right whale population, which is endangered, declining, and experiencing an ongoing Unusual Mortality Event.

Entanglement in commercial fishing gear is a primary cause of mortalities and serious injuries of North Atlantic right whales. Working with the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team—a group of advisors consisting of fishermen, scientists, conservationists, and state and federal officials—we have completed Phase 1 of the modifications to the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan to continue to reduce whale entanglements.

Today, we are announcing the final rule to modify the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan. The gear modifications required by the rule will go into effect May 1, 2022, which is the start of the American lobster/Jonah crab fishing year. The changes to the seasonally restricted areas will go into effect 30 days after the publication of this rule.

We would like to thank the many stakeholders who submitted more than 200,000 public comments on the proposed rule. The comments guided us in modifying the final rule to allow more flexibility for fishermen, while still achieving the necessary risk reduction to make a real difference for right whales. These measures will reduce the deaths and serious injuries to North Atlantic right whales due to entanglements in U.S. commercial fishing gear, and will contribute to the recovery of this endangered population.

Final Rule Measures

The rule modifies regulations for the Northeast lobster and Jonah crab trap/pot fisheries as follows:

  • Modify gear marking to introduce state-specific colors for gear marks and increase the number of gear markings and areas requiring marked lines.
  • Modify gear configurations to reduce the number of vertical lines by requiring more traps between buoy lines.
  • Require weak insertions or weak rope in buoy lines.
  • Modify existing seasonal closure/restricted areas to allow ropeless fishing.
  • Add two new seasonal restricted areas.
  • Following changes made by Massachusetts, extend the Massachusetts Restricted Area (MRA) to add state waters north to the New Hampshire border.

For More Information

For more information on the rule’s specific measures and to see outreach guides and videos please visit the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan website, or read our web story.

Questions?

Industry: Contact Marisa Trego, Take Reduction Team Coordinator, 978-282-8484

Media: Contact Allison Ferreira, Regional Office, 978-281-9103