Saving Seafood

News for the New England Region

Gay Head Lighthouse joins right whale protection network

October 20, 2025 —  The Gay Head Lighthouse in Aquinnah has joined a marine safety network meant to reduce the number of vessel strikes for the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.

StationKeeper tracks vessel activity and sends messages directly from shore to vessels. Equipment installed at participating lighthouses makes it possible to warn mariners to slow down when they’re traveling through right whale habitat.

Race Point Lighthouse in Provincetown is a StationKeeper site, and more recently, the Gay Head Lighthouse in Aquinnah has joined the network, Gay Head Lighthouse principal keeper Chris Manning said.

“[StationKeeper] communicates and integrates with NOAA [the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] to receive whale location data, and in turn it sends that information and the speed restriction zones to ships passing nearby,” he said. “As far as our role at the lighthouse, we host the system, but the system really operates and runs all on its own.”

Read the full article at CAI

New Bedford Mayor Urges NOAA to Advance Targeted Scallop Permit-Stacking to Keep Fleet Working

October 17, 2025 — Mayor Jon Mitchell today wrote to Eugenio Piñeiro Soler, Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries, setting forth his position on a proposed rule that would allow full-time, limited-access scallop permit holders to “stack” two permits on a single vessel. New Bedford has been the nation’s highest-value fishing port for 23 consecutive years, since 2001. As the Mayor writes, “the Atlantic sea scallop fishery is one of America’s highest grossing commercial fisheries and is concentrated in New Bedford,” giving the city “a singular interest in policies that govern the allocation of scallop permits.”

Background and changing circumstances

Three years ago, the mayor opposed a proposal that would have authorized leasing of limited-access scallop permits. In his view then, it went further than necessary to address over-capitalization and risked inexorable industry consolidation, costing shoreside jobs and diminishing returns to single-boat owners and their crews, while failing to sufficiently engage the small businesses most exposed. He now notes that changing circumstances have prompted him to revisit his position, given the continued tightening of effort controls and their knock-on effects throughout the fleet and waterfront.

Why the industry needs relief

“The continued decline in available days-at-sea and closed area trips for limited-access permit holders has forced a broad reckoning in the industry that the traditional assignment of one permit per boat is antiquated. It has resulted in scallopers remaining in port for nearly eleven months a year on average – hardly an efficient use of a multi-million-dollar business asset,” the mayor writes. Building on that point, the mayor cites the practical consequences in port: prolonged vessel idling has increased congestion on municipal piers, reducing safety for fishermen; and by cutting average-boat revenues, it has constrained reinvestment in vessels, raising additional safety concerns.

What’s different now

“The new proposal is being advanced by a different group of proponents, who went back to the proverbial drawing board to fashion a more measured approach. In its broadest terms, the proposal would not allow the leasing of permits, but it instead would allow the transfer of permits between two vessels of similar size and common ownership. In practice, this would enable one boat to fish for approximately twice as long in any given year,” the mayor wrote.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

RHODE ISLAND: URI part of finalist team selected by National Science Foundation in Regional Innovation Engines competition

October 17, 2025 — Aquaculture/Fisheries Professor Marta Gomez-Chiarri is leading efforts at the University of Rhode Island to help position New England as a national leader in the seafood industry, hoping to secure final funding through the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Regional Innovation Engines program. URI joins a consortium of regional partners, collectively known as NSPIRE, selected as finalists in the national competition.

Gomez-Chiarri, in URI’s Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Sciences Department, is the lead faculty member on the finalist team in a competitive process which began with almost 300 letters of intent and is now down to just 15 finalists. She’ll work closely with principal investigator Jake Kritzer at Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems (NERACOOS) and a large team of senior investigators from several partner institutions.

“Hearing we were picked as finalists was extremely rewarding,” she says. “It validated all the hard work that our team put into this proposal.”

“I commend URI for being selected to move forward in NSF’s Regional Innovation Engines program. Rhode Island is a leader when it comes to our sustainable aquaculture and seafood harvesters, and this funding will help Ocean State researchers better support our local fishermen and shellfishermen and support resilient growth of this industry across our region,” says U.S. Senator Jack Reed, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee who has delivered millions of dollars in federal investments for Rhode Island’s aquaculture and seafood industries and research.

Read the full article at The University of Rhode Island

NEFMC approves, resubmits controversial cod plan

October 16, 2025 — The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) has revised and resubmitted a controversial plan that will split the New England cod fishery into four individual stocks starting next year.

Amendment 25 would divide the New England cod population – which is currently managed as two stocks – into four distinct stocks for more precise management. Under the new plan, catch limits would be independently set for the four stocks: Eastern Gulf of Maine, Western Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank, and Southern New England. The new plan also slashed the total allowable catch limit across all stocks by 43 percent to 382.9 metric tons (MT).

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NEFMC moves forward on scallop framework

October 16, 2025 — The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) is advancing work on Framework Adjustment 40 (FW40), which will guide scallop fishery specifications for the upcoming 2026 season and establish default measures for 2027.

The Council’s Scallop Advisory Panel and Scallop Committee will meet for a webinar on November 19-20 to review specifications and alternatives and select final preferred options. FW40 will set key parameters, including the overfishing limit, acceptable biological catch, and annual catch limits, days-at-sea allocations, and access area trip allocations for both limited access and limited access general category vessels. The framework will also define the total allowable landings for the Northern Gulf of Maine management area and the target total allowable catch for limited access general category incidental catch, along with observer and research set-asides.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Can robots improve New England’s commercial fishery?

October 14, 2025 — Imagine a troller headed out to sea in search of its catch. Logbooks and experience tell the captain where to look. But ocean conditions are changing, and so is fish behavior. Historical knowledge is not as helpful as it once was.

Today’s fishermen need more information, according to Melissa Sanderson, Chief Operating Officer of the Cape Cod Commercial Fisherman’s Alliance.

“We’re looking primarily at salinity, dissolved oxygen, temperature and chlorophyll-a – so how much phytoplankton is in the water,” she explained. “And those correlate really well with what we think are going to be the environmental triggers for when fish change their behavior.”

Enter the robots. Yes, robots. It turns out robots could be the next tool in the toolbox for local commercial fishermen.

“So they’re about three feet long,” Sanderson said. “They’re sort of in the shape of a torpedo. And the fisherman can just toss them overboard when they get out to sea.”

The fishermen program the robots, tell them what data to collect, then get down to work.

“The fishermen just keep doing what they’re doing,” said Sanderson. “They’re hauling their gear. They’re catching their fish. And the robot will come back when it’s done with its assignment. And when it gets onboard they can have all of the data and they’ll know what the temperature and salinity and the other environmental variables are over in that area.”

Read the full article at CAI

Endangered giants at risk off Cape Cod. Why these animals die here more than anywhere else

October 13, 2025 — Leatherback sea turtles visiting the waters off Cape Cod each year face a higher risk of fatal boat strikes than in any region along the Atlantic or Gulf coasts, according to a new study that includes contributions from three Cape researchers.

Between 2010 and 2022, watercraft struck 88 leatherbacks in waters off the Cape and Nantucket — more than a quarter of the 337 recorded collisions nationwide during the same period.

The largest marine turtle species in the world, leatherbacks are listed as endangered by the state and federal government. Under the Massachusetts Wildlife Action Plan the turtles are a species of greatest conservation needs.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

NEFMC Acts on Monkfish, Scallops, Cod; Updates Key Habitat Protections

October 13, 2025 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

MONKFISH AND SKATES: STABILITY FOR MONKFISH, ADDED FLEXIBILITY FOR SKATE FISHERMEN

The Council approved final actions on monkfish and skate specifications for fishing years (FY) 2026–2028, with minimal changes to current monkfish catch limits through 2028 and increased opportunity for skates with changes in skate wing and bait possession limits.

Monkfish:

The Council recommended maintaining current catch limits for both the northern and southern management areas through Framework Adjustment 17, with no change to the existing days-at-sea or possession limits. The SSC recommended maintaining current catch limits through 2028, with precautionary reductions for the southern stock beginning in 2029. While overall catch limits remain status quo, the total allowable landings (TAL) for the northern area will decline by about 3% due to updated discard estimates; the southern area TAL remains unchanged. The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC) made the same recommendation at their October meeting.

Skate FY 2026–2028 Specifications:

The SSC advised higher near-term catch limits and a gradual reduction through 2030, noting no overfishing but continued rebuilding for thorny skate, which remain overfished, and recommended revisiting catch advice within two years. The Council recommended a 28% increase in the Annual Catch Limit (ACL) over the current FY 2024–2025 ACL (32,155 mt) for FY 2026–2027 (41,282 mt) and a 10% increase for FY 2028 (37,154 mt). The Council usually recommends skate specifications for two years at a time, but for this cycle it recommends three years, aligning the timing of monkfish and skate specification setting moving forward. The Council also recommended modest increases in skate possession limits to improve operational efficiency and offset travel costs around wind farm areas, while avoiding market oversupply. Skate wing limits will rise by 500 lbs. per season (to 4,500 lbs in Season 1 and 6,500 lbs in Season 2), and skate bait limits will increase by 5,000 lbs., to 30,000 lbs. per trip. You can find meeting materials for both decisions here.

Regional collaborative NSPIRE aims to ‘revolutionize’ New England seafood industry

October 10, 2025 — A collaboration between New England fisheries groups, universities, research institutions, government agencies, blue tech businesses, and others is working to level-up the region’s seafood industry. The New England Seafood Partnership for Innovations, Research and Engagement (NSPIRE) is in the running for a big boost from the National Science Foundation.

NSPIRE is working on several fronts to make the local seafood industry more competitive and sustainable. It’s one of 15 finalists in the running for the NSF Engines program, which comes with $15 million in funding over two years.

Read the full article at CAI