Saving Seafood

Council Takes Action on Scallops, Herring, and Habitat; Elects Officers

September 23, 2026 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council met from September 15-17, 2026, in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The following is a summary of actions taken, updates, and other business affecting multiple Fishery Management Plans. Meeting materials, motions, and the meeting audio recordings will be available on the September 2026 meeting page.

COUNCIL ELECTS LEADERSHIP; WELCOMES NEWEST MEMBER

The Council opened its September 2026 meeting with the annual election of officers. The Council reelected Daniel Salerno (New Hampshire) as Chair and Melanie Griffin (Massachusetts) as Vice Chair. The Council filled the three remaining Executive Committee seats by electing Megan Ware (Maine), Michael Pierdinock (Massachusetts), and Jackie Odell (Massachusetts) from a slate of five candidates.

The Council also welcomed its newest voting member, Kirby Aarsheim (Massachusetts), who took the Oath of Office and committed to a three-year term.A partner at Farrell Smith O’Connell Aarsheim Aprans LLP, Aarsheim brings a lifetime of commercial fishing experience and expertise in fisheries management. She has served on the Council’s Sea Scallop and Enforcement Advisory Panels and remains active in regional maritime policy, including leadership roles with the American Bar Association’s Admiralty & Maritime Law Committee and the Propeller Club Port of Boston. She is also a commercial scallop vessel owner in New Bedford.Returning members Daniel Salerno, Terry Alexander (Maine) and Jackie Odell (Massachusetts) were also sworn in for new three-year terms. Council member bios are available here.

HERRING SPECIFICATIONS APPROVED; LEVELS REMAIN LOW

The Council took final action to set Atlantic herring specifications for fishing years 2027–2031. The Council voted to set annual catch limits (ACL) at 6,926 metric tons, a 24% decrease from the 2026 level of 9,134 mt, and at a constant level for each year (2027-2031). The Council recognized the potential for continued negative economic impacts on the fishing industry. The decision factored in the results of the 2026 stock assessment and peer review, the Council’s Risk Policy, recommendations from the Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) and the Herring Committee, with input from the Advisory Panel and Plan Development Team. The Council also discussed a separate action that would modify River Herring and Shad Management through an amendment as part of a multi-year priority. The current river herring and shad catch caps will remain at status quo levels while this work continues.

New England regulators won’t make scallop ‘permit-stacking’ a priority in 2027

September 21, 2026 — The New England Fishery Management Council won’t make a controversial scallop permit-stacking proposal a priority in 2027. That’s despite federal officials directing the regulators to do just that.

The council voted overwhelmingly last week to respond to the federal government’s early July request by saying that it “lacks the operational capacity” to take action on the permitting change next year.

Federal officials handed down six requests for the council to discuss, a byproduct of a 2025 Trump Administration executive order aimed at ending “overregulation” and the “erosion of American seafood competitiveness at the hands of unfair foreign trade practices.”

Only one of them, the permit-stacking request, had this caveat: If the council can’t take up the permit stacking issue, federal officials are prepared to consider doing it themselves.

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light

New England Fishery Management Council implementing measures to respond to Trump executive order

September 21, 2026 — The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) has implemented multiple measures intended to directly address an executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump that included a deregulatory wish list featuring desired changes to fisheries the council manages.

During its September 2026 meeting, the council committed to considering some of the measures that Trump proposed in his order, including opening scallop fishery access to the Northern Edge area of Georges Bank. Trump’s order directly called on the NEFMC to open the Northern Edge area, which would mark the first time in 30 years that fishing for scallops would be allowed in the region.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NEFMC given Trump priorities on scallop fishery, but rollout process remains murky

August 5, 2026 — U.S. President Donald Trump recently sent a deregulatory wish list to the country’s regional fishery management councils, and the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) now has to grapple with how to address his proposed changes to the scallop fishery.

In early July, White House Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing Peter Navarro held a press conference touting the move by Trump and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick as a means of “unlocking the fertile fisheries of America.” Included in that list of requests, the Trump administration is asking the NEFMC to open the Northern Edge of Georges Bank to rotational scallop fishing for the first time in 30 years and to implement permit stacking on commercial scallop fishing boats.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NOAA Report Finds Gulf of Maine Warming Slowed for Now, but Ecosystem Remains Unstable

July 28, 2026 — Maine’s fishing ports are doing well for now, but climate change is destabilizing the Gulf of Maine, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s latest “State of the Ecosystem” report for New England waters. Federal scientists presented the report to the New England Fishery Management Council in April, and published it online last week.

They found that some Maine fishing ports are growing busier, likely driven by the high price of lobster. Stonington, Harpswell and Friendship all see more activity now than they did roughly 20 years ago.

And 2025, like 2024, offered slightly cooler water temperatures after more than a decade of rapid and record-breaking warming in the Gulf of Maine. But the scientists predict that temperatures will warm again this fall, and will continue to rise long-term as the burning of fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

To weather these ongoing changes, fishermen and their communities need to diversify their businesses, experts say.

“Things don’t look particularly stable either in terms of the fishery or the ecosystem,” said Joseph Caracappa, a research biologist at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center who edited the report. “We’re seeing big changes that are sweeping across the ecology of the system and fisheries. Even socially, culturally — how communities are structured, where people are fishing, who’s actually doing the fishing.”

This annual report includes contributions from more than 100 scientists across the Northeast. NOAA has had to make do with fewer resources as the federal government’s priorities have changed under the second Trump administration, but otherwise the report has been prepared and published as usual, Caracappa said. And in fact, this latest report debuted a new section dedicated to forecasting ocean conditions in the year ahead.

Read the full article at U.S. News

New report finds temporary relief for warming Gulf of Maine

July 27, 2026 — Cooler weather in the past 2 years offered some relief to the rapidly warming Gulf of Maine, but it’s not expected to stay that way.

That’s according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) latest “State of the Ecosystem” report on New England’s waters, which was released online last week, and previously presented to the New England Fishery Management Council in April.

While the report found slightly cooler water temperatures in 2024 and 2025, the warming trend is expected to come back this fall and continue to rise long term due to climate change. Scientists attribute the trend to the Gulf Stream, which brings warm water up from the Gulf Mexico, appearing to be getting stronger than in years past.

Read the full story at WGAN

NOAA report finds Gulf of Maine warming slowed for now, but ecosystem remains unstable

July 24, 2026 — Although the climate is changing, scientists say fishermen can find a path forward.

Maine’s fishing ports are doing well for now, but climate change is destabilizing the Gulf of Maine, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s latest “State of the Ecosystem” report for New England waters. Federal scientists presented the report to the New England Fishery Management Council in April, and published it online last week.

They found that some Maine fishing ports are growing busier, likely driven by the high price of lobster. Stonington, Harpswell and Friendship all see more activity now than they did roughly 20 years ago.

And 2025, like 2024, offered slightly cooler water temperatures after more than a decade of rapid and record-breaking warming in the Gulf of Maine. But the scientists predict that  temperatures will warm again this fall, and will continue to rise long-term as the burning of fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

To weather these ongoing changes, fishermen and their communities need to diversify their businesses, experts say.

“Things don’t look particularly stable either in terms of the fishery or the ecosystem,” said Joseph Caracappa, a research biologist at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center who edited the report. “We’re seeing big changes that are sweeping across the ecology of the system and fisheries. Even socially, culturally — how communities are structured, where people are fishing, who’s actually doing the fishing.”

This annual report includes contributions from more than 100 scientists across the Northeast. NOAA has had to make do with fewer resources as the federal government’s priorities have changed under the second Trump administration, but otherwise the report has been prepared and published as usual, Caracappa said. And in fact, this latest report debuted a new section dedicated to forecasting ocean conditions in the year ahead.

Read the full article at The Maine Monitor

Trump administration touts National Scallops Day designation, Georges Bank territory opening

July 13, 2026 – – The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is touting its designation of National Scallops Day, the opening of the Northern Edge of Georges Bank to scallop fishing, and permit stacking as a means of boosting the fishery.

The administration recently sent a deregulatory wish list to regional fishery management councils, which included a range of different recommendations like modernizing fleet capacity in the area managed by the Mid Atlantic Fishery Management Council and shifting the management of red snapper away from the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

New cod regulations could squeeze remaining New England groundfish fleet

July 9, 2026 — New cod fishing regulations in New England will make life more complicated for the region’s groundfish fleet during a period already impacted by high fuel costs.

The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) recently approved a new multispecies fishery management plan that split the management areas for cod in the Northeast U.S. into four separate areas, an increase from the two areas it was previously. That rule, Amendment 25, set separate allowable catch limits for each quadrant, which combines to a total allowable limit of 608 metric tons (MT) across all areas.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NEFMC Meeting Reminder: RSA Share Day – Tue, May 12

May 11, 2026 — The following was released by the Coonamessett Farm Foundation:

Coonamessett Farm Foundation and the NEFMC are hosting the RSA Share Day 2026, on Tuesday, May 12.

This is a meeting for researchers to share findings and discuss ongoing scallop research.

Time & Location

May 12, 2026

9:00 AM – 3:00 PM

Coonamessett Farm Foundation

277 Hatchville Rd

East Falmouth, MA 02536, USA

Format: In-person + virtual attendance available

For more information or to reserve a free spot click here.

 Program info: Scallop Researchers will provide a summary of their research to interested parties. This is an opportunity for scallop researchers to share findings with fishery managers, and to hear from other researchers who are conducting studies on topics that have been identified as RSA research priorities. One objective of this meeting is to better inform scallop managers of the status of current research and help identify future research priority recommendations.