Saving Seafood

Long-awaited Framework takes effect for Northeast groundfish fleet

August 4, 2026 — After months of uncertainty that left New England groundfishermen planning around regulations that had yet to take effect, NOAA Fisheries has cleared the second major regulatory hurdle for the 2026 fishing year.

The agency published an interim final rule Aug. 4 implementing Framework Adjustment 72 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan, making updated catch limits, revised sector allocations and other management measures effective immediately while accepting public comments through Sept. 3.

The action follows NOAA’s June implementation of Amendment 25, which restructured Atlantic cod management into four biologically distinct stocks. Together, the two rulemakings complete the regulatory changes that many fishermen and sector managers had been waiting on since before the start of the May 1 fishing year.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Fishing Vessel Joins Trained Team to Free Injured Humpback Whale 20 Miles off Oregon Coast

August 4, 2026 — An Oregon team joined by experts from Washington and a local fisherman freed a severely entangled humpback whale about 20 miles off the Oregon Coast on July 26. While the team removed all of the gear from the whale, the entanglement left the young whale’s jaw permanently open, leaving it unable to feed and unlikely to survive.

Oregon State University research assistant Craig Hayslip spotted the whale from a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter surveying the coast for whales and fishing gear three days earlier. He reported the whale anchored by heavy fishing gear to NOAA’s West Coast Entanglement Hotline, which activates trained responders across the region.

Responders asked local fisherman Poggy Lapham to join the effort and help lift the gear with the hydraulic winch on his boat, F/V Michele Ann. That gave responders access to free the whale from the gear. An online photo catalog identified the whale as a young humpback previously sighted in British Columbia in 2024.

The fishing vessel recovered a tangle of more than 3,000 feet of line, five sablefish pots, and individual commercial Dungeness crab traps from Oregon and Washington. Responders and the fishermen worked together to analyze the gear and evaluate the entanglement. The condition of the gear indicated that it could be derelict or lost gear. NOAA Fisheries is following up with gear owners for more details.

Lapham said the entanglement should be a wake-up call for the fishing industry to ask, “How can we better incentivize gear retrieval and tracking of lost gear to reduce this risk?”

“This is truly a heartbreaker because of the whale’s injuries, but we will learn so much from this case that can help us prevent future entanglements,” said Lauren Saez, who helped coordinate the response for NOAA Fisheries’ West Coast Region. “We disentangled the whale safely, got all the gear back, and had great collaboration with the fishing industry. Additionally, we got whale DNA samples from the gear to help identify which population it belongs to. All this information is crucial to understand what happened and what we can do to help prevent future entanglements.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

NOAA Fisheries Sets Management Measures for Northeast Multispecies

August 4, 2026 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is approving Framework 72 developed by the New England Fishery Management Council that sets or adjusts catch limits for Northeast multispecies (groundfish) stocks for the 2026 fishing year (May 1, 2026 – April 30, 2027), including the three stocks managed jointly with Canada. Framework 72 revises catch limits of 12 groundfish stocks based upon the results of stock assessments conducted in 2025 and are intended to help prevent overfishing and rebuild overfished stocks. It revises status determination criteria for Georges Bank yellowtail and modifies the process for the Regional Administrator to set recreational management measures for Atlantic cod and haddock stocks that do not have a recreational allocation.

We are accepting public comment on this interim final rule as published in the Federal Register and submit your comments through the online portal. The comment period is open through September 3, 2026.

Questions?
Industry: Contact Liz Sullivan, Regional Office, 978-282-8493

Media: Contact GARFO Public Affairs

WASHINGTON: Rise of the Black Cod, Once seldom sought, sablefish becomes a best seller in Ilwaco

August 3, 2026 — A once seldom-sought deepwater fish is rapidly rising to the top of local seafood demand.

Sablefish — also known as black cod, butterfish, skil, beshow or coalfish — are a deepwater species native to the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. They are a tasty source of protein, rich in omega-3 fatty acids and fetch a high price in local markets.

“Black cod is the thing we’re really bringing in right now,” said Eryn Domeyer, director of operations of Tre-Fin Seafood Market, now in their fourth year of operation at 213 First Ave. in Ilwaco. “It’s kind of unlike anything else — it’s incredible.”

Going deep

Sablefish are commonly caught off the Washington coast by commercial harvesters using otter-trawls, jig handline and longline gear, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

They are a robust fish with an elongate body and two dorsal fins, capable of growing to over 30 inches in length and living to more than 90 years.

They are often referred to as black cod, even though they are not actually part of the cod family, according to NOAA Fisheries.

Adults are blackish or greenish gray above, usually with slightly paler blotches or a chainlike pattern on the upper back and more pale below. The Washington state record black cod is 30 pounds, caught off the coast of Grays Harbor County in 1994 by Jeff Rudolph.

The fish range from Japan north into the Bering Sea and south through Alaska and British Columbia to Mexico, with highest concentrations in Alaska. Adults can be found on mud bottoms in depths of 300 to 1,500 meters (984 to 4,900 feet).

Sablefish have been identified as a potential species for commercial farming in the Pacific Northwest, according to NOAA Fisheries, where they are the target of a sustainably managed commercial and recreational fishery. The United States currently does not produce farmed sablefish, but researchers are experimenting with raising them in hopes of creating a viable commercial aquaculture industry.

Read the full article at Chinook Observer

Gulf partnerships shape the future of commercial fisheries

July 31, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries is highlighting decades of collaboration between commercial fishermen, state agencies and federal fishery managers as a driving force behind sustainable fisheries and stronger coastal economies in the Gulf of America, part of an eight-part series commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. According to NOAA, the Gulf supports the nation’s second-largest commercial fishing revenue and a $20 billion annual fishing economy, with partnerships across the region helping balance commercial and recreational fisheries management.

The feature points to several examples of collaborative management, including improvements to fisheries data collection, joint fishery-independent surveys and coordinated efforts between NOAA Fisheries, the Gulf Fishery Management Council and Gulf states.

One example is the Gulf Fishery Independent Survey of Habitat and Ecosystem Resources (G-FISHER), launched through a partnership between NOAA Fisheries and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. Since standardizing survey methods in 2019, annual sampling has expanded from roughly 600 to 700 sites to approximately 2,000 sites each year. NOAA says the data have supported 37 stock assessments covering 20 species.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NOAA Fisheries highlights challenges in applying MMPA to foreign fisheries, seeks suggestions

July 30, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries recently said a law requiring it to ban imports from foreign fisheries that don’t align with U.S. marine mammal protections has been a useful tool in reducing bycatch but admitted it is very difficult to execute.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) has long required U.S. commercial fishers to take steps to reduce marine mammal bycatch, but a similar requirement to ban imports from foreign fisheries that do not take action to reduce marine mammal bycatch has not been consistently enforced. Amid growing pressure from conservation groups, in 2016, NOAA Fisheries finalized a rule laying out how it would assess those foreign fisheries. Under the rule, NOAA Fisheries would conduct a comparability finding for every single foreign fishery to ensure it met U.S. standards for protecting marine mammals and reducing bycatch. Those denied a comparability finding would be banned from exporting their products to U.S. markets.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NOAA holds first-ever international cooperative research gathering

July 28, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries recently held what it is describing as its first-ever international cooperative research knowledge exchange with Scotland.

NOAA hosted 16 members of the Scottish Fishermen’s Association in a three-day event which involved tours of multiple ports, fishing vessels, and seafood processing facilities. The goal of the exchange was to share fisheries knowledge between the two organizations, which share management of multiple fisheries species in the Atlanic including Atlantic cod, Atlantic pollock, haddock, Atlantic mackerel, and Atlantic herring.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Balancing Energy Production and Aquatic Resources in the Roanoke River

July 23, 2026 — At the Roanoke Rapids Dam, a hydroelectric facility on the Roanoke River in North Carolina, NOAA Fisheries collaborated with Dominion Energy and partners to evaluate how adjusting the flow of water affects migratory fish and mussel populations in the river. Monitoring results are helping to ensure these aquatic organisms have the water flow and habitat they need, while maintaining robust energy production.

When large hydroelectric dams are constructed, the natural river flow is often modified. Water may be diverted through a hydroelectric powerhouse to generate electricity, then into an engineered channel. As a result, portions of the natural river may be cut off or receive less frequent water flow. This alters the river habitat below the dam, which can affect fish and aquatic organisms.

Since the Roanoke Rapids Dam was built, dam operators have diverted a majority of the water flow through a constructed channel so it can be used for electricity generation. This cut off water flow in a portion of the natural river, which became known as the bypassed reach.

In 2004, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a new license to Dominion Energy to operate the hydroelectric dam. At that time, NOAA Fisheries worked with Dominion Energy and other state and federal resource agencies to develop a new, multi-staged water flow pattern for the bypassed reach. Water flow would be increased during certain times of the year to ensure enough habitat was present for American shad and other migratory fish downstream. Three flow levels were planned for the first 20 years of the license: low, medium, and high. The new license also called for regular surveys to monitor the response of fish and aquatic organisms to the different flows.

In 2024 and 2025, scientists evaluated how the three flow levels had affected American shad, eel, and mussels. The results showed that populations in the bypassed reach increased during the medium and high flows, compared to the low flow level. However, the benefits of the high flow pattern were not significantly different from the medium flow pattern. That meant more water could be diverted to the powerhouse for energy production, without negatively impacting fish and mussels.

Based on these findings, Dominion Energy will use the medium flow pattern for the remaining 18 years of the hydroelectric license at Roanoke Rapids Dam. This allows them to generate more electricity during periods of peak demand, while also providing enough water in the river for migratory fish, like American eel and American shad, and other aquatic organisms like mussels during critical stages in their life cycles. The result is a win-win between resource agencies and industry, with parties coordinating closely and recognizing the importance of balancing power production and aquatic resources.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Scottish fishing leaders look to Northeast cooperative research model

June 21, 2026 — A delegation of commercial fishing leaders from Scotland toured ports across the Northeast last month to study how cooperative research between fishermen and scientists is shaping fisheries management, with hopes of applying similar approaches as Scotland revises its own fisheries policies.

According to NOAA Fisheries, 16 members of the Scottish Fishermen’s Organisation participated in the agency’s first international cooperative research knowledge exchange, visiting four ports over three days. The group toured 12 commercial fishing vessels, six seafood processing facilities and dealers, a net manufacturing company in Point Judith, R.I., and the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center.

The delegation focused on fisheries shared by the United States and Scotland, including Atlantic cod, haddock, Atlantic pollock, Atlantic mackerel, Atlantic herring, dogfish, and shortfin and longfin squid.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NOAA Fisheries Announces a Negative 90-day Finding on A Petition Request to Revise the Critical Habitat Designation for the North Atlantic Right Whale

July 21, 2026 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries received a petition from Save Long Beach Island, Inc. to revise the critical habitat designation for North Atlantic right whales under the Endangered Species Act. The petition requests a revision to the current critical habitat designation to include a migratory habitat in waters between Maine and Georgia.

NOAA Fisheries reviewed the petition, references provided by the petition, and information readily available in our files, and found that the petition does not present substantial scientific information indicating a revision to North Atlantic right whale critical habitat may be warranted. Therefore, a negative 90-day finding was made.

Read the notice as filed in the Federal Register today.

Questions?

Industry: Jean Higgins, Protected Resources, 978-281-9345

Media: Contact GARFO Public Affairs