Saving Seafood

MAINE: MLA lauds announcement from NMFS indicating Maine lobster fishery meets conservation standard

November 9, 2026 — The Maine Lobstermen’s Association is applauding a major shift in federal policy that now says U.S. fisheries may be meeting the federal standard for protecting endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The announcement follows a hard-fought court battle in 2023 in which the MLA argued that the science behind a wave of new regulations for the lobster fishery was badly flawed. The MLA won out, and the ruling required the National Marine Fisheries Service to reconsider how it evaluates fishing impacts on right whales, applying correct legal standards.

Read the full article at Fox 22

MAINE: Maine Lobstermen’s Association welcomes change in federal whale policy

November 9, 2026 — The Maine Lobstermen’s Association says the federal government has changed its whale policy. It says the change comes after a court win over the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) regarding protections for the endangered North American right whale.

In June 2023, an appeals court sided with lobstermen, who argued that the NMFS acted arbitrarily by failing to rely on the best available scientific information and by failing to account for the positive impact of conservation measures already adopted by the Maine lobster fishery. The ruling overturned an earlier ruling in favor of the federal government, which the Maine Lobstermen’s Association appealed in 2022.

Read the full article at WMTW

Virginia Menhaden Fishery Welcomes VIMS Dean Derek Aday’s Call for Science to Guide Chesapeake Bay Decisions

November 6, 2026 — Dr. Derek Aday, director and dean of William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science and the Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences, has offered a thoughtful and timely call for rigorous, unbiased science to guide decisions about Atlantic menhaden and the Chesapeake Bay.

In a column in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Aday described how research supported by Virginia’s newly approved budget will help scientists and managers better understand menhaden abundance, their availability to predators and fishing patterns in the Bay.

“The Chesapeake Bay is too important to manage by assumption,” Aday wrote.

“Dr. Aday has put the focus exactly where it belongs: on rigorous, independent science that can give decision-makers the information they need,” said Monty Deihl, CEO of Ocean Harvesters. “We appreciate his leadership and his recognition that these decisions affect both the Chesapeake Bay and the lives and livelihoods of coastal Virginians. The men and women who work on the Bay want healthy waters, strong fisheries and decisions grounded in sound science, and we are grateful to Dr. Aday and the scientists at VIMS and the Batten School for their commitment to finding answers.”

His message deserves the attention of everyone participating in the menhaden debate. Aday brings scientific expertise, a commitment to independent research and an appreciation of the stakes for Virginia’s fisheries and coastal communities. His clear explanation of why reliable data matter offers a constructive path forward for the Bay and the people who depend on it.

Aday’s leadership and the work at VIMS and the Batten School are welcome. His call for rigorous, independent science reinforces why policymakers should allow the research supported by Virginia, the federal government and the menhaden industry to be completed before imposing further restrictions on a fishery that supports working families and communities across the Northern Neck—especially since Draft Addendum II does not establish a biological problem that its proposed restrictions would solve.

Aday points to the long-term research behind the management of blue crabs and the restoration of eelgrass and bay scallops as examples of the value of establishing baselines, measuring results and letting evidence guide decisions. His column makes a compelling case for bringing that same commitment to the questions surrounding menhaden.

The menhaden industry has invested directly in finding answers. Through the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS), the industry supports a research roadmap identifying practical methods and studies that can produce the information needed for a scientifically defensible Chesapeake Bay harvest cap. Scientists from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, VIMS and NOAA are reviewing existing research and developing approaches for filling information gaps. That work, and the separately funded federal research and the Commonwealth of Virginia’s investment in VIMS research should be completed and their findings considered before additional restrictions are enacted.

The families who fish and process menhaden have a direct stake in the outcome. Their future depends on a healthy Bay, thriving fish and birds, and a sustainable fishery they can pass on to their children and grandchildren. For generations, the fishery has supported union jobs, wages and benefits for Northern Neck families, including many African American workers.

In a letter to Gov. Abigail Spanberger, Virginia NAACP President the Rev. Dr. Cozy Bailey urged the Commonwealth to maintain the existing Chesapeake Bay harvest cap while Virginia-funded scientific research is completed. He emphasized that the fishery provides wages, health insurance, retirement benefits and stability for African American workers and union families, and that comparable jobs cannot simply be assumed to replace them.

UFCW Local 400, which represents menhaden fishermen, has called on lawmakers and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to refrain from additional Chesapeake Bay restrictions until ongoing research establishes their necessity. The union has also called for working people to have a voice in decisions affecting their livelihoods and communities.

Aday’s commitment to healthy waters, strong fisheries and decisions grounded in sound science is an example for everyone involved in the menhaden discussion. His leadership, and the work of scientists at VIMS and the Batten School, will help provide the answers needed to guide the Bay’s future.

About Ocean Harvesters

Ocean Harvesters owns and operates a fleet of more than 30 fishing vessels in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of America. The company’s purse-seine fishing operation is exclusively engaged in the harvest of menhaden, a small, nutrient-dense fish used to produce fish meal, fish oil, and fish solubles. Both its Atlantic and Gulf Menhaden fisheries are certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council. Committed to responsible fishing operations, Ocean Harvesters is proud to be heir to a fishing legacy that extends nearly 150 years.

New NOAA Rule Helps Fishing Crews Reduce Whale Entanglements and Save Time

November 6, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region has finalized a new rule for the groundfish fishery that gives fishing crews new options to reduce the risk of whale entanglements. Fishermen say it will also help them save time and money hauling and buying line.

This rule now allows commercial fishing vessels to deploy strings of groundfish gear on the sea floor with just one line to a buoy at the surface. Previously each string required two buoy lines—one at each end. The Pacific Fishery Management Council sought the changes to reduce the number of vertical lines in the water. These lines can entangle whales and other marine life in fishing gear along the West Coast.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

NOAA seeks input on scallop permit stacking proposal

November 5, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries is considering changes to the Atlantic sea scallop fishery that would allow fishermen to combine two limited access permits on a single vessel, potentially reducing operating costs for businesses with multiple boats.

The proposal, under consideration by the Secretary of Commerce, would allow two limited access scallop permits in the same category, under common ownership or control, to be stacked on one vessel. That vessel could then fish the allocations associated with both permits, reducing expenses tied to maintaining multiple vessels with limited days-at-sea allocations.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

US data shows shark depredation tripled in Gulf, Southeast Atlantic over 20 years

November 5, 2026 — A NOAA Fisheries analysis shows increased depredation by sharks in the Gulf of Mexico and the Southeast Atlantic.

The analysis looked at data from the Southeast Fisheries Science Center’s Bottom Longline Survey, which focuses on sharks, red snapper, yellowedge and red grouper, and golden tilefish from Brownsville, Texas, to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Conservation group to sue over Kodiak, Gulf salmon management

November 4, 2026 — The Wild Fish Conservancy has sent notice to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and NOAA Fisheries it intends to sue over management of sport and commercial salmon fisheries in Kodiak, Chignik and Alaska Peninsula waters, alleging violations of the Endangered Species Act.

“Nearly nine out of ten Chinook salmon caught in commercial fisheries along the South Alaska Peninsula in 2024 and 2025 originated outside Alaska, according to research from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

“Yet these fisheries operate without federal Endangered Species Act oversight of their impacts on threatened and endangered Pacific Northwest Chinook, even as communities where these fish return face strict fishing limits and invest heavily in their recovery,” WFC wrote in an Oct. 28 letter to ADF&G Commissioner Douglas Vincent-Lang.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

US commercial seafood landings revenue dropped 3.6 percent in 2024

November 4, 2026 — U.S. commercial fishers landed 3.5 million metric tons of seafood in 2024, valued at USD 4.9 billion (EUR 4.4 billion), according to NOAA Fisheries’ latest edition of its Fisheries of the United States report.

That represents a 3.6 percent decline from 2023 revenue, with commercial fishers landing 9.2 percent less in terms of weight. At the same time, commercial fishers received a slightly higher average ex-vessel price for those landings, earning USD 0.64 (EUR 0.57) per pound in 2024 – 6.7 percent more than the year before.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US commercial fisheries landed 7.7 billion pounds in 2024

November 3, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries released three of its flagship reports on U.S. fisheries, showing commercial fishermen landed 7.7 billion pounds of seafood worth $4.9 billion in 2024, while the number of stocks subject to overfishing fell to an all-time low in 2025.

The agency released its 2025 Status of Stocks report alongside the 2024 Fisheries of the United States and 2024 Fisheries Economics of the United States reports, providing a broad look at the biological and economic health of U.S. fisheries.

According to NOAA Fisheries, U.S. commercial fisheries supported 1 million jobs in 2024 and generated $175 billion in sales, $44 billion in income and $70 billion in value-added impacts nationwide. Combined, the commercial fishing, seafood and recreational fishing industries generated $321 billion in sales and supported 1.7 million jobs.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Advancing Active Acoustics: How Scientists Use Sound to Monitor a Three-Dimensional Ocean

November 3, 2026 — The ocean is a three-dimensional world. Life moves vertically and horizontally through the water, often across large areas and at depths scientists cannot easily observe. Active acoustic technology gives researchers a tool to sample what’s hidden under the surface, gathering information that nets and other sampling gear cannot capture.

The use of sound to study the ocean is not new. After the Titanic sank in 1912, scientists and engineers began developing ways to use sound to detect shipwrecks and other objects beneath the surface. Fishermen soon found another use: Early underwater sounders could reveal where fish were. By the 1920s and 1930s, fishermen in Europe were using sounders to direct their fishing efforts.

What began as a practical fishing tool is now an important part of fisheries science. Today, our researchers use active acoustics to survey large areas of the ocean and study the distribution of fish and other organisms. The technology extends the reach of fisheries surveys and complements other forms of data collection, such as biological sampling. The resulting insights provide fisheries managers with the information needed to sustainably manage fish populations that support our nation’s seafood industries and the coastal economies that depend on them.

Dr. Michael Jech, a research fishery biologist at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, has spent nearly three decades advancing the use of underwater acoustics. Since joining the center’s emerging acoustic program in 1998, his contributions to the field have helped refine techniques and expand their applications in fisheries research. “The trick is in the interpretation of the electronic signals,” Dr. Jech explains. “That challenge has shaped much of my career.”

Dr. Jech’s work helped launch acoustics from a specialized technology toward a broader tool for observing fish, plankton, and marine ecosystems. As the former chair of the international Working Group on Fisheries Acoustics, Science, and Technology, his work continues to connect Northeast fisheries research with the international acoustics community. For more than 50 years, the working group has brought together fisheries and plankton acoustics researchers from across the globe to advance methods, technology, and applications for active acoustic technology. Their most recent meeting convened researchers from 26 countries representing all inhabited continents.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries