November 3, 2026 — Research led by NOAA Fisheries found that red king crab migrations off the coast of Alaska are impacted by environmental factors, implying that regulators need more flexible tools to effectively manage the species.
In order to research why red king crab populations in Bristol Bay, Alaska, U.S.A. were migrating at certain times of year, researchers conducted satellite tagging research from the late spring of 2021 to the fall of 2024.
November 3, 2026 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
Comment Period open through January 4, 2027
NOAA is committed to addressing the recent decline in fisheries landings and revenue, boosting sustainable aquaculture, reducing the seafood trade deficit, and strengthening supply chain resilience. After considering input from regional fishery management councils, the fishing industry, and the public, NOAA Fisheries sent Regional Priorities guidance in July 2026, providing the councils a clear roadmap of actions to support the goals of the Executive Order on Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness. To complement that guidance, NOAA Fisheries applied the same standard of accountability and results to its own work and announced agency-level actions in support of the EO.
Based on comments received in response to Executive Order 14276, the Secretary of Commerce is considering whether to develop an amendment to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan to allow permit stacking in the limited access scallop fishery. This is an important step in fulfilling the EO’s mandate to reduce burdens on domestic fishing and enhance economic profitability. The Secretary is considering addressing excess capacity in the limited access scallop fishery by allowing two Limited Access scallop permits within the same category and under common ownership or control to be combined on a single vessel. The vessel would be permitted to fish the allocations for both permits, which would reduce business expenses associated with maintaining multiple vessels with low days-at-sea allocations.
NOAA Fisheries will hold five public hearings in November and December 2026 to solicit public comment on this potential Secretarial amendment to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan. The public hearing schedule is as follows:
Boston, Massachusetts
November 17 *4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Hilton Garden Inn Boston Logan Airport, 100 Boardman St., Boston, MA 02128
(*Note: The time of this Scoping Meeting is approximate and will begin 30 minutes after the conclusion of the Joint Scallop Committee and Advisory Panel Meeting)
Please register here.
Webinar
November 23, 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Join the webinar here.
Please register here.
Barnegat, New Jersey
December 3, 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Barnegat Light Volunteer Fire Department, 907 Central Ave, Barnegat Light, NJ 08006
Please register here.
Webinar
December 7, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Join the webinar here.
Please register here.
New Bedford, Massachusetts
December 14, 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology East
836 South Rodney French Blvd., New Bedford, MA 02744
Please register here.
NOAA Fisheries is also soliciting written scoping comments on this topic through January 4, 2027.
To access the scoping document and meeting details, please visit the scallop stacking page.
November 2, 2026 — The number of stocks on NOAA Fisheries’ overfishing list has declined from 23 to 15 – an all-time low.
The agency’s Status of the Stocks report is an annual report to Congress summarizing the overfishing or overfished status of the 522 stocks or stock complexes it tracks. In its fiscal year 2025 report, the agency removed eight stocks from its overfishing list – Atlantic blue marlin; Gulf of Mexico greater amberjack and gag; Mid-Atlantic summer flounder; Western and Central Pacific silky hark; and Southern Atlantic snowy grouper, gag, and blueline tilefish – and added no new stocks. That leaves just 15, or 4 percent, of the 522 stocks on the overfishing list.
November 2, 2026 — For the seventh consecutive year, California officials are delaying the Bay Area’s commercial Dungeness crab season because of the high number of migrating humpback whales already getting ensnared by old crab-pot fishing lines and other gear.
And again this year, conservation groups are expressing frustration with what they say is a too-slow transition to safer fishing methods that would allow the industry to get back on the water earlier.
The 2026-27 Dungeness season normally would start Nov. 15 – meaning Californians traditionally enjoyed crab on Thanksgiving and for the winter holidays.
Instead, commercial crabbing from the Oregon border south to Point Conception in Santa Barbara County has been postponed until at least Jan. 1, 2027, “due to the number of humpback whale entanglements during the 2026 calendar year,” state officials said.
“Unfortunately,” said senior scientist Geoff Shester, Oceana’s director of fishery innovation, “California is still the nation’s leader – or loser? – with the most entanglements reported of any U.S. state,” according to a recent National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report.
November 2, 2026 — Spanning more than 1.7 million square nautical miles of ocean—larger than the continental United States—the U.S. Pacific Islands region could be defined by its sheer scale.
But island communities have long understood: The vast blue waters between American Samoa, Hawai‘i, and the Mariana archipelagos do not separate island communities; they connect them. Between isolated shoals, atolls, and seamounts stretches a bountiful, living seascape. It’s home to some of the world’s biggest fish and even bigger fishing cultures.
Fishing traditions have shaped the daily lives of Pacific Islands communities for thousands of years. From customary harvests shared across communities, to one of the nation’s highest-value fresh tuna fisheries supplying local and national markets, the ocean remains a key provider in the region.
For 50 years, the Magnuson-Stevens Act has allowed NOAA Fisheries and regional partners to safeguard fisheries that are among our nation’s most prized. This management framework—as dynamic as the region and its resources—enables us to protect fisheries at home while pioneering new standards across the Pacific.
From Coral Reefs to the High Seas
In the Pacific Islands region, a single fishing trip rarely fits neatly into standard categories. A day on the water is often part livelihood, part lifestyle. Some of the morning’s catch may be sold at market. A portion may be brought home for dinner. The rest might be shared across the community, building and maintaining social connections. In addition to these benefits, fishing promotes a personal sense of pride and perpetuates culture and traditions across the Pacific Islands region.
Managing these resources involves navigating incredible complexity. From shallow coral reefs down steep drop-offs to the open ocean, fishermen harvest hundreds of species across the region. Their fishing gear is as diverse as the catch itself: Traditional hand-harvesting methods and modern electronic rigs target everything from deepwater snappers like ‘ōpakapaka to giant billfish.
Commercial fishing also powers the regional economy. Harvesting and processing are fundamental to local livelihoods. In American Samoa, the tuna cannery drives the territorial economy, accounting for 99.5 percent of exports and 84 percent of private sector employment.
November 2, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries is seeking public input on a proposed cooperative research project that would study fish spawning aggregations throughout the Gulf of Mexico, including identifying key spawning locations and monitoring when and where commercially and recreationally important species gather to reproduce.
The agency is accepting comments through Nov. 12 on an application for an exempted fishing permit (EFP) that would allow participating commercial fishermen and recreational charter captains to conduct targeted sampling trips as part of the four-year research effort.
The project aims to verify, characterize, monitor and model multi-species fish spawning aggregations. Researchers hope the findings will help improve scientific understanding of spawning activity and provide information to support fisheries management decisions.
The proposed study would involve up to 120 sampling trips over four years, or approximately 30 trips annually. Trained professional captains would conduct the trips without scientists aboard, working as part of a designated study fleet.
The project also would establish advisory groups and work with fishermen to identify priority spawning locations for research. An initial group of potential sites was identified during a workshop funded through the Restore Science Program. Additional locations would be identified through meetings with small groups of fishermen in 2026 and 2027, as well as throughout the project using information from monitoring databases, bathymetric data, published and unpublished research, seasonal patterns and fishermen’s knowledge.
October 30, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries is pleased to share three of our flagship reports: Status of Stocks 2025 Annual Report to Congress on the Status of U.S. Fisheries, 2024 Fisheries of the United States, and 2024 Fisheries Economics of the United States. Each of these reports is a crucial part of how we track and monitor the state of United States marine fisheries.
The 2025 Status of Stocks is an annual report to Congress on the status of U.S. fisheries. We track 522 stocks or stock complexes to determine their status:
In fiscal year 2025, NOAA Fisheries conducted 173 stock assessments and had two first-time stock status determinations as the result of improved or new scientific endeavors.
The 2025 Status of Stocks report shows positive trends: The number of stocks on the overfishing list decreased to an all-time low and another stock was added to the rebuilt list. That brings the number of rebuilt stocks to 52 since 2000. The number of stocks on the overfishing list dropped from 23 to 15 stocks. Of the 372 stocks with a known overfishing status, 96 percent are not subject to overfishing. The number of stocks on the overfished list remained the same at 42 stocks. Of the 265 stocks with a known overfished status, 84 percent are not overfished.
Notably, Atlantic blue marlin was removed from the overfishing list for the first time since 1998 and Quillback rockfish (California) was added to the rebuilt list in 2025.
Managing fisheries sustainably is an adaptive process that relies on sound science, innovative management approaches, effective enforcement, meaningful partnerships, and robust public participation. Partnerships with the regional fishery management councils, state and international partners, and interstate fisheries commissions are also key to the success of ending overfishing and rebuilding stocks.
October 30, 2026 — When the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) were established in 1970, it was recommended that they become part of their own oceans department or the Department of the Interior. But the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, which preceded NOAA, focused on marine resources as economic assets, so the Nixon Administration put the new agencies in the Department of Commerce, and that’s where they have remained for the last 56 years.
But many people in the industry have noticed the limitations of looking at fish strictly as economic assets, and they will be talking about it on the Fish is Food: Opening Doors for Seafood in Federal Programs Panel at the 2026 Pacific Marine Expo. “For years seafood has been treated as a commodity rather than part of the food system,” says Linda Behnken, executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA). “With Mike Illenberg leading the USDA’s [United States Department of Agriculture] new office of seafood, we have someone who knows the industry and can help fishermen access the programs we need.”
October 30, 2026 — The Bristol Bay red king crab fishery was once one of the largest and most valuable crab fisheries in the world, but it collapsed in the early 1980s. Managers established closure areas to help the population rebound, but the boundaries of these closure areas are fixed and cannot adapt to changing environmental conditions and shifting crab distributions. Previous research has documented northward movements of the Bristol Bay red king crab population. Changes in their seasonal migration patterns may limit the effectiveness of static closure areas like the Red King Crab Savings Area.
In response to this pressing management need, a new satellite tagging study tracked and modeled movements of mature male red king crab in Bristol Bay from late spring through the fall during 2021–2024. The research team’s “movement models” predicted that red king crab generally moved to the west or southwest by the fall—into deeper and cooler areas in central Bristol Bay. In years with warmer bottom water temperatures, crab moved further west. The model’s predictions were validated by commercial catches from the fall Bristol Bay red king crab fishery and researchers are currently applying this approach to other seasons.
Future applications in the winter and spring may provide important insights about movements during mating and molting. These are the times of the year when the crab are more vulnerable. This information will help fishery managers evaluate current closure area boundaries and inform future boundary changes that may be needed to better align with present and projected seasonal migration patterns.
Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries
October 29, 2026 — Squid are shifting to cooler water, young salmon are struggling to find food sources, and concern is growing for Oregon’s $100 million Dungeness crab harvest as a powerful El Niño weather pattern heats up coastal ocean temperatures from California to the Pacific Northwest. Scientists expect the phenomenon to last for several months, leaving fishermen such as Phil Fogle scrambling.
Fogle, who owns two squid fishing boats based in the port of Anacortes, in Washington state, normally would keep fishing until foul weather sets in — his boats operate from Eureka, California, to Kodiak, Alaska. Instead, Fogle tied up his boats last week and furloughed his seven employees. The squid that normally inhabit coastal water have fled offshore for colder, deeper water that are harder to reach for smaller boats.
“Those little buggers are really affected by water temperature,” Fogle said about the squid. “It has been devastating to us.”
He said he’s losing about $50,000 a month.
Fogle said he’s waiting for the El Niño conditions to pass and hoping to get on the water again early next year.
This year’s El Niño, the strongest on record, has led temperatures off the Pacific Northwest coast to jump 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit above the average from 1991 to 2020, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. El Niño’s warmth has arrived on top of an existing marine heat wave in the Gulf of Alaska, according to Steven Bograd, senior climatologist at NOAA.