Saving Seafood

NOAA researchers use genetic tools to improve understanding of Alaska’s Pacific cod stocks

May 1, 2026 — NOAA researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Alaska BioMap have been working on identifying genetic stocks of Pacific cod in Alaska to build a cost-effective genetic database full of assessments.

Breaking the population into four stocks – Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska, Aleutian Islands, and Pacific Coast – the assessment found that none of the four have been or are subject to overfishing threats, as measured by estimating the spawning biomass, or the number of females able to reproduce, according to a release by NOAA.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Proposed NOAA cuts get bipartisan pushback

April 30, 2026 — NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs on Tuesday argued that proposed budget cuts would not curtail his agency’s research projects, as he sought to assuage members of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee over the Trump administration’s fiscal 2027 request.

The Subcommittee on Environment reviewed the proposed $4.4 billion budget, a reduction of $1.6 billion over the current year. The White House said the cuts would target climate work.

Lawmakers on both sides raised concerns about forecasting for weather incidents specific to their districts — like flooding, wildfires and hurricanes — as well as broader reductions, like the elimination of the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR).

Read the full article at E&E News

See the 1-in-50-Million Split-Color Lobster Caught Off the Coast of Massachusetts. It’s Carrying Two Sets of Genetic Information

April 28, 2026 — On April 16, the crew aboard the Timothy Michael spotted an unusual-looking lobster in their haul while fishing off Cape Cod. One half of its body—stretching from head to tail—was orange-red, while the other half was dark brown, with a straight line dividing the two hues, a rare 1-in-50-million example of a “split-color” lobster.

Wellfleet Shellfish Company, which pulled in the rare lobster, decided not to sell it. Rather, the company donated the creature to the Woods Hole Science Aquarium, a Cape Cod institution operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries.

“Instead of heading to market, she’s heading somewhere even more special,” the company wrote on social media.

The aquarium, established in 1875 and the nation’s oldest public marine aquarium, is currently closed for repairs. But once it reopens early next year, the split-color lobster will be “one of the first animals going back into the aquarium,” Julia Studley, an aquarium biotechnician, tells the Cape Cod Times’ Heather McCarron.

Read the full article at the Smithsonian Magazine

MARYLAND: U.S. Rep. Andy Harris is angling to relax rules for Maryland fishers

April 28, 2026 — With fishing season approaching, Maryland fishers face uncertainty.

Right now, there are all kinds of different restrictions on size limits and season dates based on whether someone is fishing off the Eastern Shore in state or federal waters.

But Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) is trying to change that. Most recently, he sent a fiery letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration about delays in publishing proposed recreational fishing measures.

He wants the agency to clear up the confusion by approving a set of regulations that would establish one set of rules for fishers in both state and federal waters.

Read the full article at The Southern Maryland Chronicle

Whale deaths are up on Oregon and Washington coasts, but what’s causing them?

April 22, 2026 — A stranded whale was found on Seaside Beach last week. It was the fourth whale found on the Oregon Coast this year.

The number of whales washing up on Oregon and Washington coasts have started to raise concerns for both scientists and beachgoers alike, who wonder why the giant mammals seem to be dying more frequently.

“The last month has started to get a little unusual in terms of the number of strandings of gray whales in particular,” said Michael Milstein, a spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Science Center.

Two of the whales found in Oregon recently were Gray whales. In Washington, there have been 13.

Read the full article at KOIN 

NOAA delay threatens 2026 sea bass, flounder rules for Maryland anglers

April 22, 2026 — Maryland and Mid-Atlantic fisheries officials are warning that delays in updating federal recreational fishing rules could disrupt the 2026 season for black sea bass and summer flounder, threatening anglers, charter operations and coastal businesses already strained by a difficult year.

The concern follows a string of setbacks for Maryland watermen, including a collapse in the oyster market, a severe winter freeze, a major sewage spill in the Potomac River, and ongoing uncertainty surrounding rockfish regulations and blue catfish.

In letters sent last week, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and U.S. Rep. Andy Harris urged the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to complete rulemaking tied to recreational measures for summer flounder, scup, black sea bass and bluefish.

Officials say the delay could force anglers and charter boats to operate under older, more restrictive federal rules just as the season begins. That scenario, they argue, would create confusion between state and federal waters, eliminate expected easing of black sea bass limits, shorten fishing opportunities and undermine years of work toward more stable management.

Read the full article at Yahoo! News

AFSC researchers use AI to do more with less

April 21, 2026 —  Scientists at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) in Juneau are increasingly using artificial intelligence to better track fish as climate changes, says Bob Foy, science and research director.

“We’ve been using AI for decades,” Foy said. “It is getting better and better,” he said on Thursday, April 16, while presenting on NOAA-AFSC data collection modernization at 2026 ComFish Alaska in Kodiak, the state’s annual largest fisheries and trade show.

All this is a process of doing more with less, as AFSC works to better monitor fisheries and make abundance surveys better.

“Things are changing in the ocean so fast that now is the time to change the gears, he said. “We are changing survey design.  Some of it is AI and it is getting better,” he said, as AFSC spreads its research efforts over about 100,000 square nautical miles, not including the Arctic.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

US Celebrates 50 Years of the Law of Fisheries Management — the Magnuson-Stevens Act

April 17, 2026 –This week, fisheries managers, conservation activists, harvesters, processors and those who love seafood have cause to thank the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation Act (MSA), keystone legislation to sustainably manage the nation’s fishery resources, which turned 50 on Monday.

Led by the late US Senators Warren Magnuson (D-WA) and Ted Stevens (R-AK) in the Senate and Representatives Gerry Studds (D-MA) and Don Young (R-AK) in the House, Congress outlined a road map to expel foreign fleets from our waters and rebuild the fish stocks that were collapsing around the country. The Act also extended US jurisdiction from 12 nautical miles to 200 nautical miles and established eight regional councils to protect the nation’s federal waters.

In 1976, Alaska’s Ted Stevens was a relative newcomer to the Senate, and Washington’s Warren Magnuson was nearing the end of his career.

“I had the distinct pleasure of serving as a member, chair, and vice chair of the Caribbean Council for many years,” remembered NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Eugenio Piñeiro Soler on Monday. “In fact, it is the job title that I most cherish. I also had the good fortune of meeting Senator Stevens on a number of occasions, and something he told me has always stuck with me: ‘We don’t only manage fish. We manage people.’ This is why the councils and the commitment of its members are so important.”

Read the full article at SeafoodNews.com

Magnuson-Stevens turns 50 as NOAA cuts raise concern

April 14, 2026 —  The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) turns 50 today, marking a milestone for a law that has shaped nearly every aspect of modern U.S. commercial fishing.

Signed into law on April 13, 1976, by President Gerald Ford, the MSA laid the groundwork for federal fisheries management at a time when foreign fleets were working just off U.S. shores and domestic stocks were in steep decline. For many fishermen, the law’s legacy is tangible: rebuilt fisheries, more stable quotas, and a system that—while often debated—has brought a level of structure to an industry once defined by a race for fish.

Since its passage, dozens of previously depleted fish stocks have rebounded under management measures tied to the act. By 2000, more than 50 stocks had been rebuilt, and today fisheries like Atlantic sea scallops and Pacific widow rockfish stand as examples of how science-based management can restore both abundance and opportunity on the water.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NOAA closing Northern Gulf of Maine Scallop Management Area on Monday morning

April 13, 2026 — Just a dozen days after it opened, NOAA Fisheries is closing the Northern Gulf of Maine Scallop Management Area to all federally permitted limited access general category scallop vessels effective Monday at 12:01 a.m.

As of Monday, no scallop vessel fishing under federal scallop regulations may fish for, possess, or land scallops in or from the Northern Gulf of Maine Scallop Management Area, NOAA said.

NOAA set the total allowable landing limit at 484,753 pounds for the season, down from 675,563 pounds in 2025. Scallop regulations require closure of the management area once NOAA projects that 100% of the 2026 Northern Gulf of Maine Set-Aside — 437,867 pounds in 2026 — will be taken. The closure will be in effect until the end of the fishing year on March 31, 2027.