Saving Seafood

News for the New England Region

Black sea bass tagging study tracks shifting range in MA waters

January 7, 2026 — Black sea bass, once considered primarily a mid-Atlantic species, has become increasingly common in Massachusetts waters over the past several decades. As biomass has grown, fishing effort has followed, particularly in southern New England, where the species is now a staple for recreational anglers and an emerging consideration for commercial fisheries.

Recreationally, between 250,000 and more than one million black sea bass are caught each year in Massachusetts, with much of that activity concentrated in Buzzards Bay, Nantucket Sound, Vineyard Sound, and along Cape Cod. The fish typically arrive in state waters in mid-spring, when they aggregate to feed and spawn. Several spawning aggregations in Buzzards Bay are well known and consistently draw in fishermen, while new spawning locations continue to be identified. However, the timing and location of other feeding and spawning aggregations remain less understood.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

MAINE: How fisheries in Maine are restructuring amid warming waters

January 6, 2026 — Fisheries in Maine are a vital resource in our state. They provide thousands with jobs and millions with sustainable protein. But now warming waters are making it more difficult to manage the ins and outs of the industry.

The Gulf of Maine continues to be the fastest-warming body of water—2024 went down as the 12th warmest year on record. Changes like this are affecting marine life and causing local fisheries to conduct research and restructure in order to remain successful.

That is the focus of Jonathan Labaree, the Chief Community Officer at GMRI. Understanding how the industry is adapting reveals the complex challenge facing Maine’s fishing communities. “When we think about fisheries, we think about it in sort of four pieces,” Labaree explains. “The first piece is the resource itself. So the fish themselves and the people who harvest the fish, the place in which that’s happening, and then the kind of gear, the resources that they use to harvest those fish.”

Climate change is having different kinds of impacts on fisheries. The major one is that species are shifting their location. Fish are very responsive to temperature, so they have a tendency to move to find optimal temperature ranges for themselves.

These shifting species create a new dynamic around predator and prey relationships, fundamentally altering the ecosystem that fishermen depend on.

Read the full article at WMTW

Offshore Wind Projects Challenge Trump Administration’s Order to Stop Work

January 5, 2026 — Developers of five offshore wind farms that were ordered last week by the Trump administration to halt construction are suing to restart work on at least three of the projects.

The Interior Department on Dec. 22 ordered companies to halt work on five wind farms in various stages of construction along the East Coast. They were: Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind, both off the coast of New York; Revolution Wind off Rhode Island and Connecticut; Vineyard Wind 1 off the coast of Massachusetts; and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind off Virginia.

The administration cited unspecified national security concerns about the projects.

On Thursday, Orsted, the Danish energy giant that is building Revolution Wind, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. On Friday Equinor, the developer of Empire Wind, did the same.

Both companies said they are seeking preliminary injunctions that would allow construction to continue as the litigation proceeds. Orsted is also building Sunrise Wind and said it was considering a similar legal challenge to restart work on that project, too.

Read the full article at The New York Times

 

MAINE: Hard-shell clam project aims to diversify aquaculture and shellfish harvesting in Maine

January 5, 2026 — An effort to diversify Maine’s aquaculture and shellfish industries is getting a boost from a hard shell clam farming project near Brunswick.

The project, led by the conservation science group Manomet, involved seeding some 400,000 quahogs in floating upweller systems that are commonly used in oyster farming, said senior fisheries director Marissa McMahan.

Read the full article at Maine Public

RHODE ISLAND: Oysters remain king in Rhode Island’s aquaculture economy

January 2, 2025 — A boom in oyster sales is fueling Rhode Island’s aquaculture industry to its most successful period since data tracking started in 1995, according to the state Coastal Resources Management Council.

In 2024, oysters remained the most popular aquaculture product with 11,595,512 pieces sold for consumption, according to the CRMC annual report. The number of aquaculture sites, the farm-gate value, total farm workers and more all increased during the year.

In 1995, the total dollar value of all aquaculture was $83,518. Fast forward to 2024, when that figure skyrocketed to $8,795,493, a 9.37% increase since 2023, according to the report. Oyster seeds sales also saw a jump of 4.41%.

While farmers also grow crops such as sugar kelp, clams and scallops, Eastern oysters remain the backbone of the state’s aquaculture industry.

Read the full article at The Independent

Four Governors Protest Latest Wind Farm Stoppage

January 2, 2025 — Gov. Kathy Hochul and the governors of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts have written to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to demand rescission of the Trump administration’s Dec. 22 pause of leases for five wind farms under construction, including Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind off New York and Revolution Wind off Rhode Island and Connecticut.

In the latest round of on-again, off-again whiplash with respect to offshore wind, the Dec. 22 announcement escalates the president’s hostility to the renewable energy source, which he has criticized by citing multiple falsehoods. The latest rationale, according to the Interior Department, is that wind farms could interfere with radar systems.

The five wind farms “have already been subject to extensive federal review, including an assessment that expressly addressed national security considerations,” the governors wrote to Mr. Burgum on Dec. 24. “Neither the Department of the Interior [Bureau of Ocean Energy Management], nor any other federal agency, including the Department of Defense, informed our respective States of any purportedly new risk prior to these suspensions nor did they account for our States’ substantial reliance interests — our States’ economies are dependent on the power that these projects will generate — in these vital projects that already have undergone many federal approvals, including from the DoD. The absence of such notice undermines our ability to plan effectively and violates basic principles of cooperative federalism. The sudden emergence of a new ‘national security threat’ appears to be less a legitimate, rational finding of fact and more a pretextual excuse to justify a predetermined outcome consistent with the president’s frequently stated personal opposition to offshore wind.”

Read the full article at The East Hampton Star

$400K worth of stolen Costco lobster meat being investigated in connection to other New England seafood thefts

December 31, 2025 — Imagine the buffet.

Forty-thousand oysters, lobster worth $400,000 and a cache of crabmeat all were stolen in separate incidents within weeks of each other in New England.

The first seafood vanished on Nov. 22 in Falmouth, Maine, where authorities suspect someone stole 14 cages full of oysters from an aquaculture site in Casco Bay. Many of the oysters were full-grown and ready for sale, and together with the cages were worth $20,000, according to the Maine Marine Patrol.

“This is a devastating situation for a small businessman,” said Marine Patrol Sgt. Matthew Sinclair.

The other two thefts happened in Taunton, Massachusetts, about 160 miles (255 kilometers) away. First, a load of crab disappeared after leaving the Lineage Logistics warehouse on Dec. 2. Then, on Dec. 12, lobster meat destined for Costco stores in Illinois and Minnesota was stolen by a fraudulent trucking company, according to the broker who arranged the pickup.

Read the full article at The New York Post

MAINE: After 53 years, Maine’s fishing voice falls silent

December 29, 2025 — This month marks publication of the last issue of Commercial Fisheries News, a regional newspaper based in Stonington, Maine, highly regarded throughout its 53-year run for its comprehensive and eloquent coverage of the fishing life in its home state and throughout the Northeast. It’s a sad passing, and it says as much about how we consume information as it does commercial fishing or the changing face of coastal Maine.

Although in many respects a so-called trade publication, CFN was at its heart a community newspaper, albeit for a community that came to stretch hundreds of miles, from Eastport, Maine, to the Mid-Atlantic. Originally called Maine Commercial Fisheries, the paper was renamed as its coverage — and influence — expanded.

“I always felt like we were part of the community we were covering,” says Brian Robbins, who over the past 40 years has written, sold ads, and most recently served as CFN’s editor.

Maine has proved to be fertile ground for fishing publications. As a boy, I scrounged old copies of Maine Coast Fisherman, first published in its own right in 1946. Billing itself “the mariner’s newspaper,” it was a celebration of coastal life Down East that, in addition to fisheries news, featured reports from lighthouse keepers, God’s Tugboat, and other columns.

In 1960, Maine Coast Fisherman acquired National Fisherman – not the other way around, I would note — and christened itself Maine Coast Fisherman combined with National Fisherman. Longtime NF editor David Getchell said giving breath to the seven-word title was “an awful struggle,” and eventually the paper settled on National Fisherman.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

MAINE: Investigation continues into massive fire in Portland’s Old Port

December 29, 2025 — The investigation continues into a fire that tore through the historic Old Port waterfront in Portland, Maine, on Friday, damaging aging buildings and several boats.

Flames and smoke spread easily through structures along the Custom House Wharf, a 19th- and 20th-century hub for Portland’s fishing industry that now includes seafood restaurants, authorities said. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Two firefighters sustained minor injuries but did not require hospitalization.

Read the full story at NBC Boston

Trump Halts Revolution Wind Work for Second Time

December 23, 2025 — The Trump administration on Monday ordered a halt to construction on five East Coast offshore wind projects, including Rhode Island’s Revolution Wind.

The Interior Department said it is pausing all leases for large-scale offshore wind projects that are currently under construction, affecting the Vineyard Wind 1, Revolution Wind, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind 1 projects.

U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner of Rhode Island, a member of the House Natural Resources Committee, said Monday, “At a time when working people in Rhode Island are struggling with high costs on everything, Trump should not be canceling energy projects that are nearly ready to deliver reliable power to the grid at below-market rates and help lower costs.”

The Revolution Wind project, located 15 miles off Rhode Island’s shore and 85% complete, was expected to deliver enough electricity to the New England grid to power 350,000 homes, or 2.5% of the region’s electricity supply, beginning in 2026. Revolution Wind was projected to save Connecticut and Rhode Island ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars over 20 years.

Christian Roselund, co-leader of Climate Action Rhode Island’s Yes to Wind campaign, said Monday, “Donald Trump is getting desperate. The Trump administration’s new attempt to freeze offshore wind projects under construction – after courts quickly threw out the last stop work order on Revolution Wind – shows again that he doesn’t understand what it means to be a U.S. president and that he wants instead to be a dictator.”

Read the full article at EcoRI