Saving Seafood

New Jersey fishermen challenge monitoring rule again

January 23, 2026 — Following their victory before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2024, commercial fishers from New Jersey are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to vacate a NOAA Fisheries rule requiring them to pay out of pocket for at-sea monitors.

“Forcing fishermen to pay the salaries of government regulators watching them conduct their work is backward,” New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) Senior Litigation Counsel Kara Rollins said in a statement. “The regulation unlawfully places the government’s financial responsibilities onto the governed and without congressional authorization.”

The lawsuit centers on the Industry-Funded Monitoring (IFM) rule introduced by NOAA Fisheries in 2020. The rule requires commercial fishers in multiple fisheries – Atlantic herring, squid, butterfish, and Atlantic mackerel – to pay out of pocket for at-sea monitors to be present on their vessels and observe their operations.

The fishers claimed the requirement would be devastating to their business, with monitors reportedly costing more than $700 per day. According to the NCLA, that cost can eat up any profit the fishers made in a day, and over a multi-day trip, costs could become exorbitant.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Now Soliciting Proposals for 2026/2027 Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside Program

January 23, 2026 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries, in coordination with the New England Fishery Management Council, is soliciting proposals for the Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program under a Notice of Funding Opportunity.

Due to the timing of this announcement, prospective applicants should anticipate that NOAA Fisheries may not issue a 2027 Scallop RSA Notice of Funding Opportunity, and that most, if not all,  of the 2026 and 2027 research set aside scallops may be awarded under this competition. Further, because applicants may not have sufficient time to prepare for field work this year, NOAA Fisheries acknowledges that field work may need to start in 2027.

For more information, visit our application solicitation webpage.

MASSACHUSETTS: Study Says Offshore Wind Could Impact New Bedford Scallop Industry

January 22, 2026 — Scallops are an important contributor to the success of the New Bedford fishing Industry. Without scallops, the industry as we know it would cease to exist.

“The impact of the species in New Bedford is massive,” NPR reported. “About 80 percent of the seafood, by value, that arrives on the docks here comes from scallops, according to a 2020 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries.”

NPR reported about two-thirds of the 500 or so fishing vessels that fish out of New Bedford “are going out for scallops.”

Read the full article at WBSM

The Future of Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management: A Conversation with Senior Scientist Dr. Jason Link

January 21, 2026 — Jason Link has been a scientist with NOAA Fisheries for more than 25 years. In 2025, he was honored with the American Fisheries Society’s Award of Excellence, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the aquatic sciences. You can read the first installment here.

In your own words, what is ecosystem-based fisheries management? How does it differ from more traditional single species management?

Ecosystem-based fisheries management, in one word, is about trade-offs. When folks I encounter in my everyday life ask me what I do, I tell them I’m a scientist who studies fish. They say “What do you do with that?” And I tell them about ecosystem-based fisheries management, and how it’s sort of like managing the restaurant supply chain. We model all the people that eat at Burger King, and that has impacts on what people that eat at McDonald’s do, and it has impacts on what people that eat at Taco Bell do. It has impacts all throughout the restaurant chain.

It’s the same in natural resource management: The trade-offs of any one choice we make have trickle-through effects on everything else. And we’ve always kind of known that and had a sense of that, but we’ve never really formally evaluated what those trade-offs would be. And that’s a lot of what I’ve been trying to do.

Why should people–especially those who aren’t fisheries scientists–care about ecosystem-based fisheries management?

I have a lot of family in the Midwest, and they’re familiar with what I do. I’ll say to them, “Hey, you guys are impacting us. Did you know that?” And they don’t know. But the Mississippi River drains into the Gulf. That hypoxic zone in the Gulf comes from farmland. The Midwest is influencing what we’re able to catch. And what we’re able to catch has huge ramifications on regional and local economies.

It also has huge ramifications on what the national seafood market is—what you’re able to get at a supermarket in Iowa or Illinois or Indiana is impacted. And the challenges that you have in the Midwest or the Great Plains, for example, can influence even the Mountain West and Pacific Northwest and some of the salmon there. There’s probably fewer direct impacts, but it’s all still interconnected. The other thing I emphasize is the market economy and how connected fisheries commodities are with the commodities of other foodstuffs we eat. I don’t think people realize that. I didn’t realize it before I started looking into it.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

US senators demand NOAA Fisheries improve enforcement against illegal red snapper harvesting

January 16, 2026 — A group of 10 U.S. senators have penned a joint letter to NOAA Fisheries demanding the agency do more to prevent illegal red snapper from reaching U.S. markets.

“The continued ability to sell illegally harvested red snapper into the U.S. market is a powerful financing source for the [Mexican] cartel and undermines both U.S. fisheries management and national security,” the senators stated in their letter. “We would appreciate NOAA Fisheries’ action in more aggressively applying its existing authorities to ensure that illegally harvested red snapper is not sold in the United States.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

New Tools Help Alaska Communities Prepare for Future Changes in Pacific Cod Distributions

January 16, 2026 — Scientists conducted a new socio-economic risk assessment, combined with statistical modeling, on the risk of coastal Alaskan fishing communities to changes in Pacific cod distributions. Their insights may help these communities prepare and adapt to these changes.

Fishing is central to life in Alaska. North Pacific fisheries, including Pacific cod, support local, state, and national economies. They strengthen cultural ties and food security in coastal communities. The economic and social benefits derived from Alaskan fisheries are deeply connected to the resilience of fishing communities facing changing environmental conditions.

Alaska’s commercial fisheries account for roughly 60 percent of the U.S. seafood harvest, and supply seafood to the United States and the globe. They also provide employment for one in seven Alaskan residents.

Communities Reliant on Pacific Cod Most at Risk

Pacific cod is one of the largest and most important commercial fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska and Eastern Bering Sea. It’s also the lifeblood and economic mainstay for many small coastal fisheries and rural communities across the state. A declining Pacific cod fishery could have significant impacts on these communities.

Alaska Fisheries Science Center scientists found that coastal communities along the southeastern Bering Sea are most vulnerable. They are at greater relative risk if Pacific cod populations shift northward in response to environmental changes. At highest relative risk were those communities within the Aleutians East Borough and Bethel Census Area. The research was conducted as part of the Alaska Climate Integrated Modeling project.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Adventures of a Field Scientist in the Gulf of Maine: So What Do You Do Out There?

January 16, 2026 — Another survey season has just wrapped up for the Gulf of Maine Bottom Longline team. While going to sea and working on these surveys can be fun and exciting, it also drastically disrupts our social and biological schedules. During survey season—April and May in the spring and October and November in the fall—I tend not to make any land-based plans, or see many people from my non-working life. Our schedules are highly dependent on weather conditions and can change at a moment’s notice. At the end of every survey season, when I announce my return from sea in various text messages and emails, I invariably get asked: “So … what do you do out there?”

Sampling the Gulf of Maine’s Rocky Bottom

The Gulf of Maine Bottom Longline Survey focuses on rocky bottom areas in the Gulf of Maine that are challenging for the Bottom Trawl Survey to sample. Using longline gear, we are able to get better data on groundfish species that live around rocky crevices that trawl nets might get hung up on. Each season, we partner with two commercial fishing vessels to sample 45 locations in the Gulf of Maine. We gather data that goes into stock assessments that help us understand what our fish stocks look like today and what they might look like in the future. Data collection at each station includes:

  • Counting, weighing, and measuring every single fish that we catch
  • Assessing age and maturity stage of certain species
  • Gathering biological samples for researchers back on land
  • Tagging and releasing some larger species like sharks and skates

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Congress Moves to Preserve NOAA Funding for Fisheries and Climate Research

January 14, 2026 — On Monday, Senators moved a funding package forward that would preserve 2026 funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), despite the Trump administration’s proposed deep cuts to the agency last year.

The appropriations bill, which funds multiple agencies, already passed in the House; the Senate is expected to send it to President Donald Trump’s desk this week.

Last year, Trump requested a $1.5 billion cut to the agency’s roughly $6 billion budget. A memo from his Office of Management and Budget also proposed eliminating NOAA’s office dedicated to research on climate and weather patterns, zeroing out funding for weather and ocean labs, and moving regulation of fisheries to the Fish & Wildlife Service.

Experts warned the budget cuts could have dire consequences for farmers, who rely on weather data, and the country’s fisheries, which rely on NOAA to enforce catch limits, invest in habitat conservation, and preserve coastlines.

Read the full article at Civil Eats

NORTH CAROLINA: NOAA-backed grants help expand knowledge on farmed seafood

January 14, 2026 — A series of community-driven education projects supported by NOAA Fisheries is helping bridge the gap between seafood producers and the public, highlighting how domestic aquaculture supports working waterfronts, food security, and healthy coastal ecosystems.

Nine projects funded through the eeBLUE Aquaculture Literacy Mini-Grants Program wrapped up in July 2025. The program is a collaboration between NOAA and the North American Association for Environmental Education, designed to strengthen public understanding of sustainable seafood and aquaculture through hands-on learning and local partnerships.

Across the country, the projects paired informal learning institutions with aquaculture businesses and NOAA experts to reach diverse audiences- from students and teachers to chefs and coastal residents. Through farm tours, classroom programming, podcasts, and culinary events, participants learned how seafood is grown, why ocean health matters, and how domestic aquaculture contributes to the U.S. seafood supply.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman