Saving Seafood

Gulf of Maine scallop fishing to be closed a week after area was reopened

April 25, 2025 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced Friday that a section of the Gulf of Maine will be closed to scallop fishing in a few days, as the agency has projected the catch will reach the season quota that was recently set.

NOAA Fisheries said the Northern Gulf of Maine Scallop Management Area will close at 12:01 a.m. Monday, April 28, to all federally-permitted limited access general category scallop vessels. The closure will be in effect until the end of the current fishing year, which lasts until March 31, 2026.

Read the full story at WMTW

Sen. Collins & Sen. King cosponsor bipartisan bill to ban offshore drilling off the coast of Maine

April 25, 2025 — Senators Susan Collins and Angus King are cosponsoring a bipartisan bill to ban offshore drilling off the coast of Maine and New England.

The New England Coastal Protection Act would ban oil and gas leasing off the coast and in protected areas.

NOAA Fisheries reports ocean and coastal industries generate more than $17.5 billion in New England annually.

Read the full story at WABI

Trump unveils executive order to boost U.S. seafood industry

April 23, 2025 — The Trump administration has released an executive order to restore American seafood competitiveness.

The order, released on April 17, states that the U.S imports nearly 90 percent of seafood and has a seafood trade deficit that stands at over $20 billion. So the country must establish an America-First Seafood Strategy to boost its seafood production, sales, and exports.

The executive order directs the Secretary of Commerce to consider taking actions on regulations that overly burden America’s commercial fishing, aquaculture, and fish processing industries.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) was directed to:

  • Incorporate better, cheaper, more reliable technologies and cooperative research programs into fishery assessments.
  • Expand exempted fishing permit programs to promote fishing opportunities nationwide.
  • Modernize data collection and analytical practices to improve the responsiveness of fisheries management to real-time ocean conditions.

Read the full story at Aquaculture North America

CALIFORNIA: ‘Hope dies hard’: Fishing industry reacts to CA salmon season closure

April 21, 2025 — This week, the Pacific Fishery Management Council adopted recommendations for ocean salmon fishing along the West Coast; for an unprecedented third year in a row, the council has recommended closing commercial fishing off the California coast and allowing only limited commercial fishing in Oregon and Washington.

Commercial fishermen and fishing organizations largely affirmed the need to suspend salmon fishing, but noted that three years without a season has been devastating to fishermen and coastal communities that rely on salmon fishing.

Commercial salmon fisherman and Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District Commissioner Aaron Newman said that he had been optimistic after seeing indications that “a lot of healthy jacks” were coming out of the Sacramento region as the Pacific Fishery Management Council planned its recommendation to the National Marine Fisheries Service. But said that analysis of recent trendlines, which take into account the very grim indicator of the past two years, might have scuttled the opportunity for a season.

“Nobody wants to fish on a failing fishery,” Newman said, “but it really looked like it was rebounding.”

Impact on fishermen

“Coastal towns, river communities and thousands of salmon fishery employees depend on the salmon season to generate income and stay afloat — and now, for the third year in a row, they’ve been dealt another devastating impact with an unprecedented closure of the 2025 salmon season,” read a statement issued by U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Raphael). “The last two years of closures have devastated California’s coastal economies — and facing a third consecutive closure marks an unprecedented low point.”

Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations Executive Director Lisa Damrosch lamented a lack of a safety net.

“We don’t have access to the same resources that other food producers have,” she said, noting that commercial fishermen don’t have access to programs like those provided by the USDA. “We have had disasters declared in the past; 2023 and 2024 were both declared disasters, but that’s a very long and onerous process. There still have been no pay-outs to the fishermen from 2023 … There are other programs for agriculture such as subsidies if there is a bad season or subsidies for low prices or low-interest loans or grants; we don’t have any of that to help our fishermen, food producers, when there’s a disaster or an issue.”

Read the full story at the Times-Standard

US proposes looser interpretation of law that protects threatened species

April 17, 2025 — The Trump administration on Wednesday proposed a major change to how threatened species are considered in agency actions by removing regulatory language that seeks to prevent their habitats from being degraded.

The move was aligned with President Donald Trump’s pledge to unwind what he says are burdensome federal regulations for businesses.

The Endangered Species Act is a key regulatory consideration for agencies when considering whether to grant permits for oil and gas, mining, electric transmission and other operations on federal lands and water. Under federal law, agencies are required to evaluate the environmental impact of proposed industry operations that could threaten endangered species.

In a regulatory notice, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service, divisions of the Departments of Interior and Commerce, proposed to rescind the definition of “harm” included in their ESA regulations.

Read the full story at Reuters

California salmon season shuts down for third year in a row

April 17, 2025 — California’s salmon fishery will be closed to commercial fishermen for an unprecedented third year in a row, under a vote Tuesday by fishery managers.

What happened: After an abysmal forecast for this season’s salmon numbers, the Pacific Fishery Management Council approved a proposal Tuesday that would bar commercial fishermen from harvesting salmon due to even lower populations than in 2023 and 2024.

Though the past two seasons have also seen a closure for recreational fishing, this year’s proposal allows a few dayslong windows for sport and recreational anglers under a statewide harvest quota based on a recommendation from NOAA Fisheries.

Read the full story at E&E News

Revitalizing the Gulf: Highlights from 15 Years of Restoration

April 16, 2025 — The Deepwater Horizon oil spill began on April 20, 2010, and resulted in impacts to habitats, natural resources, and communities across the Gulf of America (formerly Gulf of Mexico). Since then, NOAA has taken the lead on more than 60 large-scale projects to restore natural resources. We work with state and local partners, coastal communities, user groups, and other constituents. Below, we’ll highlight key projects that demonstrate the ways we have made progress towards recovery.

Early Restoration

Restoration work across the Gulf began even as damage assessment was ongoing with a large-scale project to restore part of a barrier chain in an area most severely impacted by the spill.

We worked alongside the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority to design and construct the Chenier Ronquille Barrier Island Restoration Project. It improved shoreline stability, restored critical dune features, and created a strong backbarrier marsh platform to support island longevity. The project placed 1.3 million cubic yards of beach and marsh fill designed to prevent island breaching over the 20-year project life. Ongoing monitoring shows that despite severe storm events, the island’s shoreline is intact without new tidal passes. It contributes to coastal protection and restoration in the region.

NOAA also partnered with state Trustees to implement other projects to restore marine resources during the early restoration phase and some of this work continues today. We are:

We work with state and local partners, coastal communities, user groups and other constituents

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

International Coordination Busts Red Snapper Trafficking Scheme

April 7, 2025 — In November 2024, NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement, in cooperation with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, seized more than 12 tons of illegal red snapper in Newark, New Jersey. The shipment of illegal red snapper was returned to Brazil and seized upon arrival last month by our partner, the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources. They also seized more than 40 tons of illegal red snapper destined for the United States at Brazilian ports. Our joint efforts ensure the sustainability of the fishery and compliance with international law.

Red snapper is an important commercial and recreational fishery in the southeastern United States. When illegally fished Brazilian red snapper enters into U.S. markets, it unfairly competes with U.S. fishermen and their legally caught product. Stopping the import of illegal fish and preventing illegally fished products from entering U.S. commerce protects America’s fishing industry and livelihoods.

Brazilian red snapper is also known as Caribbean red snapper and referred to as “pargo” in Brazil. It is listed as threatened under Brazil’s endangered species law and subject to a strictly regulated commercial fishery in Brazil. Despite these protections, Brazilian red snapper is often the target of illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing and trafficking due to its high market value and consumer demand in the United States.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Four-Month Survey Tracking West Coast Marine Mammals Finds Some Shifting North

January 17, 2025 — NOAA Fisheries scientists have completed a 4-month, roughly 4,500-nautical-mile, survey of marine mammals and seabirds off the U.S. West Coast. They collected a trove of some of the most thorough data and biological samples ever on West Coast whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals.

Researchers also saw immense schools of dolphins, an unusual number of sei whales, and rare seabirds. Scientists said several marine mammal species appear to have shifted north along the coast compared to earlier surveys. That change may reflect their response to marine heatwaves and other ecosystem changes that have become common off the West Coast in the last decade.

“We’re definitely seeing things farther north,” said Jeff Moore, chief scientist of the marine mammal survey led by NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center. He said the survey spotted striped dolphins off the Oregon and Washington coasts, beyond their more typical range in California’s warmer waters. The species may be following their preferred water temperatures and prey.

Details from the survey help inform marine mammal stock assessments required by the Marine Mammal Protection Act and decisions on fishing seasons and areas. We also use the data collected by surveys to help assess the risk fisheries and other activities may pose to the protected species. Expanding the number and types of platforms these observations are taken from will ultimately lead to greater efficiencies in how we conduct these surveys.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

More Than $1 Million Recommended for Ruth D. Gates Coral Restoration Innovation Grants Projects

January 16, 2025 — To  restore resilient coral ecosystems, NOAA has recommended more than $1 million in funding for three new projects and one ongoing, multi-year project. These efforts are supported under the Ruth D. Gates Coral Restoration Innovation Grants. The funding will support projects that enhance coral resilience and improve the long-term success and efficiency of shallow-water coral reef restoration in the face of climate change, including continued heat stress.

Globally, coral reefs are rapidly declining in health. We have learned much about how to scale up coral restoration efforts in the past several years. We must continue to develop innovative interventions to restore resilient, genetically diverse, and reproductively viable coral populations at a larger scale.

Read the full article at NOAA