November 3, 2025 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission approved a 20 percent reduction in the catch of “menhaden,” an important lobster bait more commonly known as “pogies.”
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Lobster populations off New England coast are declining, report shows
October 31, 2025 — Lobster populations off the coast of New England have dropped 34 percent since 2018, according to a new report from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.
The findings are raising fresh questions about the long-term outlook for Maine’s lobster industry.
Off the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank, the commission said the current population is at 201 million lobsters, which is below the target of 229 million but still comfortably above the “depleted” threshold of 143 million. That means the stock is not considered depleted, but the decline is notable.
“The number of lobsters in the population has gone down since the last assessment,” said Caitlin Starks, senior coordinator for the commission’s Fishery Management Plan. “Overfishing is occurring, but just barely.”
Lobster Population Falls off New England, Leading Regulators to Declare Overfishing
October 31, 2025 — A new report says America’s lobsters, which have been in decline since 2018, are now being overfished off New England.
The stock has declined by 34% since that year in its most important fishing grounds, the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said Thursday. The commission said it now considers overfishing of the species to be occurring, and that could bring new management measures that restrict fishermen from catching them in the future.
But the lobster population has shown “rapid declines in abundance in recent years,” the commission said in a statement.
The assessment said the decline and overfishing were taking place in fishing areas off Maine and Massachusetts where most lobster fishing takes place. The assessment also considered the southern New England lobster stock, which it said has been depleted for years and remains so.
Stock assessment for US lobster shows population shifts, minor overfishing
October 31, 2025 — A recent stock assessment by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) indicates lobster stock on the East Coast of the U.S. is depleted to record low abundance in Southern New England (SNE), and overfishing of the stock is occurring in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank (GOM/GBK).
The lobster benchmark assessment found the stock in GOM/GBK – which accounts for the vast majority of lobster landings in the U.S. – has declined 34 percent since peak levels in 2018. According to the ASMFC, the GOM region in particular has accounted for an average of 82 percent of annual landings since 1982, while the GBK fishery accounts for 5 percent.
Fisheries commission again holds fire on striped bass limits
October 31, 2025 — With a glimmer of hopeful news about harvest pressure and a warning from commercial fishermen that their economic survival is at stake, East Coast fishery managers have pulled back from ordering another round of catch restrictions on struggling Atlantic striped bass.
Meeting in Dewey Beach, DE, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted Oct. 29 not to require any additional cuts in either the recreational or commercial catch of the migratory finfish known as rockfish in the Chesapeake Bay.
The vote against tightening already-strict catch limits came after more than a year of debate by the panel, which regulates nearshore fishing on migratory species along the Atlantic coast. Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and North Carolina voted for more restrictions.
Widely regarded as the most prized finfish in the Chesapeake and along the Atlantic Coast, striped bass were declared overfished in 2019, with the number of large female fish below what was needed to sustain the population. The commission responded by ordering a series of catch reductions in ensuing years aiming to rebuild the stock by 2029.
Herring count shows more work needed to boost population
October 30, 2025 — Twenty years ago, Massachusetts banned harvesting river herring in an attempt to protect alewife and blueback herring.
Last year the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission released a stock assessment that determined herring populations are stable throughout the coast, including Massachusetts.
Mike Palmer coordinates an annual spring herring count for the Association to Preserve Cape Cod. He said we need to be doing more to help the population rebound.
Palmer said the spring 2025 count showed below-average returns on the Cape. Since then, continuing drought conditions have been tough on river herring that require sufficient river flows to return to the ocean in the fall.
Feds Gamble on Offshore Wind Funding for Future Cleanup
October 30, 2025 — For decades, nuclear power plant owners have been required by law to set aside money for decommissioning at the start of operations, but developers of two New England offshore wind farm projects face no such immediate mandate. The latter, according to a local grassroots organization, puts federal taxpayers at risk of being on the hook.
“BOEM (Bureau of Ocean Energy Management) abdicated its responsibility to the American people by relying heavily on the ‘financial strength’ of the project instead of upholding its duty to protect the environment, public health, and safety,” Thomas Stavola, attorney for Save LBI, said last week.
The group is taking BOEM to task over its 15-year deferral of financial responsibility for the owners of Rhode Island’s Revolution Wind and Massachusetts’ Vineyard Wind.
Stavola called the approvals “patently absurd.”
In an Oct. 16 letter, Save LBI, which has swelled to more than 10,000 supporters, urged the U.S. Department of the Interior “to end the egregious practice of letting operators of offshore wind farms postpone providing financial assurance earmarked for the future decommissioning and removal of turbines and related infrastructure.”
The group said the postponement provides the developers with an exorbitant amount of time to establish the necessary decommissioning funds it will take to remove the planned 127 turbines off the New England coast. Stavola and Bob Stern, Save LBI president and co-founder, signed the letter.
“BOEM authorized a deferral for Revolution Wind on the basis that ‘providing the full amount of its decommissioning financial assurance prior to receiving any revenue under its power purchase agreements would be an unnecessary and unreasonable financial burden on the company.’ However, such revenues are received by the company well before the 15-year deferral given,” according to the letter.
Save LBI is asking BOEM to revoke prior financial deferrals and require future approvals to fully fall in line with the Code of Federal Requirements.
In a statement released earlier this month, Save LBI said BOEM’s action does not take into consideration use of funding for unplanned events, such as Vineyard Wind’s blade failure last year, and heightens the chance developers would not be able to finance the removal of aging turbines from the ocean floor 15 years from now.
Menhaden board cuts amount harvesters can catch along the Atlantic next year
October 30, 2025 — The coastwide catch limit will be reduced by 20%, which is less than environmental and recreational fishing groups had hoped after a recently reported decline in the menhaden population.
Officials who regulate the Atlantic menhaden industry continue to wrestle with how to balance the fishery business with growing concerns about the ecosystem.
After hours of back-and-forth and competing motions, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted Tuesday to reduce the coastwide catch limit by 20% for next year’s season.
The compromise was less than what environmental groups and recreational anglers wanted and more than the industry did. Virginia’s delegation voted against it.
Board members agreed to revisit the topic next fall, with the potential for further cuts for 2027 and 2028.
The commission helps manage fisheries for 15 states along the East Coast, from Florida to Maine. That includes setting the total allowable catch, or TAC, the maximum amount of menhaden that can be harvested along the coast.
Virginia is allocated about 75% of the total because it’s the last East Coast state that permits menhaden reduction fishing.
Ocean Harvesters, which operates a fishing fleet to supply Omega Protein, collects menhaden by using large walls of netting called purse seines. Omega then processes, or “reduces,” them into fishmeal and fish oil at a plant in Reedville.
MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford State Pier businesses to be displaced. Repairs could take up to 4 years.
October 28, 2025 — The state will close State Pier’s south wharf and most of the east wharf within weeks for significant repairs that will cause the displacement of virtually all water-dependent businesses. Repairs could take up to four years.
However, MassDevelopment President and CEO Navjeet Bal said the agency is working on short-term options with Seastreak Ferries and Cuttyhunk Ferry to be able to maintain some level of operations from the pier.
There is a space that’s safe and it’s hoped they can be supported from there, Bal said. Seastreak is currently closed for the season.
Why is the pier closure happening?
Bal said an engineering review of the pier found that the south wharf and most of the east wharf required significant repairs or replacement, necessitating the closure within weeks.
She noted that the north wharf has been closed since 2019 because of needed repairs, and MassDevelopment will be soliciting reconstruction bids for it in the near future.
Trump administration aims to auction offshore oil leases along U.S. coastlines that have been off-limits for decades
October 27, 2025 — The Trump administration is proposing to auction offshore oil drilling leases across new portions of the U.S. coast as soon as 2026, according to internal Department of Interior draft documents viewed by CBS News.
New leases would include waters off New England, the Carolinas and California.
Offshore oil leases are common along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana, as well as parts of Alaska, but there are currently no active oil leases on the Atlantic coast, and California has not had a new oil lease since 1984.
This comes as the Department of Interior formally announced plans this week to reopen 1.56 million aces in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas leasing, reversing a Biden administration decision to limit oil drilling in the Arctic.
That decision drew a strong rebuke from Democrats, including Sen. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, who accused the administration of rewarding the fossil fuel industry for its support of the president. “This decision is not about energy dominance—it’s about donor dominance,” Markey said in a statement. “The Trump administration must immediately reverse its shortsighted decision. The Arctic Refuge is not for sale.”
Read the full article atThe Trump administration is proposing to auction offshore oil drilling leases across new portions of the U.S. coast as soon as 2026, according to internal Department of Interior draft documents viewed by CBS News.
New leases would include waters off New England, the Carolinas and California.
Offshore oil leases are common along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana, as well as parts of Alaska, but there are currently no active oil leases on the Atlantic coast, and California has not had a new oil lease since 1984.
This comes as the Department of Interior formally announced plans this week to reopen 1.56 million aces in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas leasing, reversing a Biden administration decision to limit oil drilling in the Arctic.
That decision drew a strong rebuke from Democrats, including Sen. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, who accused the administration of rewarding the fossil fuel industry for its support of the president. “This decision is not about energy dominance—it’s about donor dominance,” Markey said in a statement. “The Trump administration must immediately reverse its shortsighted decision. The Arctic Refuge is not for sale.”
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