Saving Seafood

NOAA declines ESA listing for Gulf of Alaska Chinook

May 19, 2026 — Federal regulators have determined that Gulf of Alaska Chinook salmon will not be listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), concluding a status review initiated by a 2024 petition.

According to NOAA Fisheries, the agency’s 12-month review found that listing the species is “not warranted” at this time, based on the best available scientific and commercial information.

The decision stems from a petition submitted in Jan. 2024 requesting ESA protections for Gulf of Alaska Chinook salmon. NOAA previously issues a positive 90-day finding, determining that the petition presented substantial information indicating that listing “may be warranted,” prompting a full scientific review.

Read the full article at National Fisheries

What’s a ‘super El Niño’? And other El Niño questions, answered

May 18, 2026 — The odds are in El Niño’s favor right now.

This natural weather phenomenon, part of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, occurs when warmer-than-average water extends throughout most of the equatorial Pacific Ocean just below the surface. That’s happening now. And powerful bursts of westerly wind have pushed immense amounts of warm water eastward, toward the Niño3.4 region where sea surface temperature, along with other atmospheric conditions, is used to assess the state of ENSO.

On May 14, in its monthly ENSO outlook, the NOAA/National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center gave an 82% chance that El Niño will be in place for the period May through July, which implies that it’ll be here within weeks.

How do experts know when El Niño has arrived?

El Niño conditions are declared when the atmosphere and ocean are in sync and the Niño3.4 sea surface temperature is at least 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9°F) warmer than the seasonal average.

But just as hurricanes can and do stray from the “cone of uncertainty” at times, it’s vital to remember that El Niño can do much the same. Preparing for the prototypical outcomes is a smart move, as long as you keep in mind that forecasting the El Niño-Southern Oscillation is more a matter of probabilities than certainties.

NOAA now uses a Relative Oceanic Niño Index, or RONI, in which the Niño3.4 value is adjusted relative to the world’s tropical oceans as a whole; the goal is to keep global warming from smudging the signal of El Niño and La Niña events themselves.

Nearly all seasonal forecast ensembles used to predict ENSO at agencies around the world now concur that the imminent event is likely to bring Niño3.4 warming of at least 1.5°C, which would push it into the “strong” category. And some of the ensemble averages are now going well above 2°C, even for the adjusted RONI index. That would put it in the ballpark of the biggest El Niño events in the NOAA database going back to 1950.

Individual ensemble members still cover a fairly broad range, with outcomes varying from a weak event to a record-stomping one, but as shown below, they’re about as close to being unanimous on a significant El Niño as you’re likely to see. (This output is mainly using the traditional pre-RONI index, which tends to run slightly hotter on recent El Niño events.)

Read the full article at Yale Climate Connections

Scientists share work to understand struggling sea scallop populations

May 15, 2026 — The Coonamessett Farm Foundation hosted Scallop Research Share Day, on Tuesday, in cooperation with the New England Fishery Management Council.

Melissa Sanderson, chief operating officer of the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, was one of the presenters. Sanderson said the annual event is a chance to share research progress and results between scientists, fishermen, and fishery managers.

“And it really makes sure that we’re all on the same page,” Sanderson said. “That we’re aware of other projects that we might be able to build upon or learn from. And sometimes it provides new opportunities to collaborate.”

Read the full article at Connecticut Public

MASSACHUSETTS: Healey asks Navy’s help in recovering video that could show sunken fishing ship’s last moments

May 14, 2026 — Massachusetts officials are asking for the U.S. Navy’s help in recovering a piece of equipment from the fishing vessel that sunk off the coast of Gloucester earlier this year, believing the video it contains could shed light on what caused the ship to go down.

Seven people, including the ship’s captain and crew and a fisheries observer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, died when the Lily Jean sank on Jan. 30 without sending any distress or mayday call beforehand.

Gov. Maura Healey and state Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, a Gloucester Republican, wrote Monday to U.S. Navy Secretary Hung Cao, requesting help “to uncover all facts related to this incident and bring closure to the families of the F/V Lily Jean while improving safety for those who chose to carry on this beloved tradition in the future.”

“Massachusetts has a long, proud history of seafaring thanks to generations of men and women who risk their lives fishing off our coast and in the North Atlantic,” Healey and Tarr said in their letter.

Healey and Tarr said officials in the Massachusetts State Police received information suggesting that a video recorder and hard drive on the ship remain intact, and that the company that installed the equipment believes the video is retrievable.

Read the full article at WGBH

SOUTH CAROLINA: South Carolina anglers to get longer red snapper season under new permits

May 12, 2026 — South Carolina anglers will have a much longer window to reel in red snapper this summer after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration approved state permits for the 2026 recreational season at the beginning of this month.

Sen. Stephen Goldfinch said the approval means anglers will now have 61 to 62 days to fish for red snapper off South Carolina’s coast and in federal waters, rather than the prior 1 to 2 days.

The permits allow the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources to pilot a program to collect data on how many fish are targeted, harvested and released.

Read the full article at WPDE

NOAA lifts crab import bans from key countries following Eastern Shore seafood industry pushback

May 12, 2026 — A federal seafood dispute that Eastern Shore seafood companies warned could devastate crab supply chains has now taken a new turn Monday, with federal regulators officially allowing imports from certain countries to continue.

As WBOC previously reported, local seafood companies including Salisbury-based Handy Seafood, Cebu Pacific LLC, and Byrd International joined a federal lawsuit late last year challenging new restrictions tied to the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. The companies argued the rules threatened jobs, production, and the nation’s crab supply because much of the pasteurized crab meat sold in the United States comes from Southeast Asia.

Read the full article at WBOC

The missing secret behind West Coast groundfish recovery

May 11, 2026 — For years, rebuilding of West Coast groundfish stocks has been held up as one of the great success stories in American fisheries management. NOAA once called it the “comeback of the century,” celebrating the rebound of stocks that had been declared overfished in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But according to an analysis from University of Washington researchers, there’s another side to that story, one that the industry has long felt firsthand.

“Stocks were rebuilt, but at a great cost to the industry and U.S. food production,” Ray Hilborn, professor at the University of Washington, wrote in an email to National Fisherman.

Hilborn pointed to research he co-authored examining whether West Coast groundfish stocks could have rebuilt under less restrictive management measures, and whether fishermen, processors, and coastal communities paid a steeper economic price than necessary during the recovery process.

“What NOAA doesn’t advertise is that if no rebuilding plans had been implemented, $886 million in additional revenue would have been made by the fishing fleets, and the stocks would have rebuilt, but more slowly,” Hilborn wrote.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

NOAA awards USD 21.6 million for uncrewed systems to support ocean mapping, fisheries surveys

May 8, 2026 — NOAA has announced the purchase of eight new uncrewed marine systems for USD 21.6 million (EUR 18.3 million), which the agency claims will support charting, mapping, and fisheries surveys.

“Uncrewed systems provide more efficiency in data collection, ensuring that our nation remains at the forefront of scientific innovation,” NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs said. “The administration’s focus on integrating emerging technologies into agency operations allows NOAA to serve the public more effectively and demonstrate our leadership in scientific collaboration on the world stage.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

SCEMFIS-Supported Menhaden Research Advances Work Toward a Scientifically Based Chesapeake Bay Harvest Cap

May 4, 2026 — The following was released by the Science Center for Marine Fisheries:

Last October, the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS) funded a team of leading Atlantic menhaden researchers to develop a roadmap identifying the research needed to develop a scientifically defensible and ecologically meaningful Chesapeake Bay harvest cap.

The project brings together experts from the Batten School of Coastal and Marine Sciences & VIMS at William & Mary, the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory (CBL) at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES), and NOAA, combining decades of experience in peer-reviewed menhaden research, stock assessments, ecological modeling, and survey design.

SCEMFIS, a member of the National Science Foundation’s Industry-University Cooperative Research Program, brings scientists and industry together to fund and conduct applied marine fisheries research. Since the project began, the research team has worked collaboratively online and met in person in February in Solomons Island, Maryland, to review progress and plan next steps.

The roadmap project will produce final recommendations by the end of the year. Those recommendations are expected to include proposed methodologies, timelines, and costs for additional research needed to support development of a scientifically based Chesapeake Bay harvest cap.

At the SCEMFIS spring 2026 meeting in Nashville, Dr. Robert J. Latour, Professor at the Batten School of Coastal and Marine Sciences & VIMS, outlined the work completed so far and described how the team is evaluating potential methods to generate the Bay-specific data needed to support future management decisions for Atlantic menhaden.

Dr. Latour explained that Atlantic menhaden have been the focus of significant scientific and management attention because of their dual role as an important forage species and the basis for a long-standing commercial fishery. In the Chesapeake Bay, managers have sought to balance fishery removals with menhaden’s ecological role, including through the existing Bay landings cap. However, Dr. Latour noted that the current cap is not a scientifically derived biological reference point, but rather a precautionary limit based on average historical catch.

The research team’s work is intended to help identify what information would be needed to move from a precautionary cap toward a biologically-based management framework. That includes determining how to estimate local menhaden abundance, fishing mortality, movement between the Bay and coastal waters, and menhaden availability to predators.

As part of that effort, the team will begin a pilot study to test whether Passive Integrated Transponder, or PIT, tagging can be used to generate information that existing historical datasets cannot provide. PIT tags are small tags that are injected into fish and can be detected later if the fish pass through a receiver system.

“Tagging is one potentially promising option available to us to establish a Bay cap that is grounded in the best available science,” said Dr. Genny Nesslage, Associate Research Professor at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory and leader of the menhaden roadmap project. “We are ultimately looking for research recommendations that prioritize accuracy, timeliness, and efficiency.”

The team is building on historic menhaden tagging work, including large-scale tagging efforts from the 1960s, while adapting modern technology to address current management questions. This type of tagging data can potentially help estimate exploitation and total abundance, two of the central questions surrounding Chesapeake Bay menhaden management.

The proposed tagging pilot project will include two major components.

First, researchers will conduct controlled holding studies at VIMS to evaluate whether the tagging process affects menhaden survival. Fish will be collected from the field, acclimated to captivity, and placed into trials in which all fish are handled the same way, except that some receive PIT tags and others do not. These trials will help determine whether the act of tagging itself affects survival and whether the method can produce reliable data.

Second, on May 12, the research team will visit Ocean Harvesters to begin planning field trials designed to determine whether tagged menhaden can be reliably detected during commercial fishing operations. Ocean Harvesters, which supplies menhaden to Omega Protein, has agreed to open its doors to the research team and work with them to determine how PIT tags could be retrieved on an ongoing basis while the fishery is underway. Researchers will evaluate whether receivers can be placed in the pump hose, on the chute where fish enter the vessel holds, or at Omega Protein’s processing facility as menhaden are processed. The field trials will involve placing known numbers of tagged fish into catches and measuring whether detection systems can reliably identify them under real-world harvesting and processing conditions.

The tagging concept is one piece of the broader SCEMFIS-supported roadmap project. The team is also considering other potential methods for generating Bay-specific data, including acoustic and LiDAR surveys, environmental DNA, stable isotope analysis, and other approaches that could help measure local abundance, movement, and predator consumption.

The tagging feasibility study, if successful, would provide an important early test of whether modern tagging technology can help answer some of the most challenging questions facing Atlantic menhaden management in the Chesapeake Bay.

Project Team

Selected qualifications in Atlantic menhaden and Chesapeake Bay

Robert J. Latour, Ph.D., Professor, Batten School of Coastal and Marine Sciences & VIMS, William & Mary

Quantitative fisheries ecologist focusing on predator-prey interactions, population dynamics, and habitat modeling. Lead/co-author of the 2023 study on female Atlantic menhaden reproductive biology and fecundity and co-author, with Gartland, of Virginia’s 2023 Atlantic Menhaden Research Planning report to the General Assembly and Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources.

James Gartland, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist, Batten School of Coastal and Marine Sciences & VIMS, William & Mary

Quantitative fisheries scientist with extensive experience in the development of fisheries monitoring surveys, prey consumption models, and ecological indicators, including in Chesapeake Bay. Co-author of the 2023 menhaden fecundity study with Latour and Schueller and co-author of Virginia’s 2023 Atlantic Menhaden Research Planning report guiding Bay-specific research priorities.

Genevieve M. Nesslage, Ph.D., Associate Research Professor, CBL, UMCES

Quantitative fisheries scientist with research focusing on Atlantic menhaden spawning locations and larval dispersal, fishery sampling, survey design, overwintering habitat use, and predator-prey modeling. Former Senior Stock Assessment Scientist at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Michael J. Wilberg, Ph.D., Professor of Fisheries Science, CBL, UMCES

Fisheries stock assessment and management strategy evaluation specialist with research focused on Atlantic menhaden movement, mortality, growth, and predator-prey modeling. Lead author of the 2020 survey design for Atlantic menhaden in Chesapeake Bay.

Amy M. Schueller, Ph.D., Research Fish Biologist, NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center

Lead assessment analyst for Atlantic and Gulf menhaden and key contributor to the working group on ecological reference points, or ERPs, that underpin Atlantic menhaden management.

About SCEMFIS

The Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS) brings together academic and industry expertise to address urgent scientific challenges facing sustainable fisheries. Through advanced methods, analytical tools, and collaborative research, SCEMFIS works to reduce uncertainty in stock assessments and improve the long-term sustainability of key marine resources.

SCEMFIS is an Industry-University Cooperative Research Center supported by the National Science Foundation. Industry organizations join SCEMFIS through an Industry Membership Agreement with one of the center’s site universities and contribute both financial support and valuable expertise to help shape research priorities.

Its university partners include the University of Southern Mississippi (lead institution) and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at the College of William and Mary. The center also collaborates with scientists from a broad network of institutions, including Old Dominion University, Rutgers University, the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, the University of Maryland, and the University of Rhode Island. These researchers bring deep expertise in finfish, shellfish, and marine mammal science.

Demand for SCEMFIS’s services continues to grow, driven by the fishing industry’s need for responsive, science-based support. The center provides timely access to expert input on stock assessment issues, participates in working groups, and conducts targeted studies that lead to better data collection, improved survey design, and more accurate modeling-all in service of sustainable, science-driven fishery management.

The New England Fishing Industry Is Helping Scientists To Understand Ocean Changes

May 4, 2026 — For decades, fishing studies typically employed one-on-one mapping exercises, guided by a facilitator who helped fishing industry participants to draw polygons or mark points on a digital or a paper map of an area of interest. Such ocean mapping has a strong temporal component, as it is intended to gather data for multiple seasons or even multi-decade fishing patterns. However, a new intersection of the fishing industry and research scientists is providing much more robust information about the seas below.

A whole slew of fishers have willingly added another task to their long days at sea: collecting essential data information about the changing ocean environment with the helping hand of technology.

Other fishers want in — there’s a waiting list.

Nearly 150 fishermen along the eastern seaboard have given permission to have temperature sensors installed on their traps or trawl nets. As chronicled by the New York Times, it’s one element of a larger non-profit program — one that kicked off in 2001, expanded in 2024 with a $2 million grant from the state of Massachusetts, increased with $200,000 from the Nature Conservancy, and was boosted by $120,000 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A $5,000 package of sensors, software, and tablets that the fishers deploy is paid for by the program.

Read the full article at Clean Technica