Saving Seafood

Restoration Revitalizes Fish Stock, Brings Community Together

May 29, 2025 — In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, commercial fish species in the Gulf of America (formerly the Gulf of Mexico) were significantly impacted. The Oceanic Fish Restoration Project, part of NOAA’s restoration efforts after the spill, partnered with the pelagic longline fishing community to help rebuild robust fisheries in the Gulf.

The Unique Challenges of Restoring Open Ocean Fisheries

For commercial fishermen, the spill halted their business instantly. The plume of oil, and other chemicals, exposed fish at all life stages to toxic levels of contaminants.

It also happened at the worst possible time for some fish: spawning season. Eggs, embryos, and larvae were all especially vulnerable to the impacts of oil and other contaminants. Unable to mature and reproduce, another generation of fish was lost. As Captain Ally Mercier in Pompano Beach, Florida said, after the spill, “the water was so polluted… there was [sic] just no fish.”

Restoration in the deep waters away from coastlines presents a unique challenge. “We can’t just replant fish,” explains Ellen Bolen, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Director of Marine and Coastal Restoration. NFWF is a partner in the project.

The Gulf’s pelagic longline fishery is made up of around 30 vessels along the coast from Texas to Florida. They use longline gear in the open ocean to catch fish like yellowfin tuna, swordfish, and mahi mahi, supplying seafood to the Gulf region and beyond. But longlines often catch juveniles with no commercial value and when caught, young fish typically don’t survive. Reducing this bycatch and increasing survivability rates were the key to replenishing these species.

Rebuilding robust oceanic fish populations would require keeping juveniles in the water longer—and giving them time to reproduce—all the while continuing to support the fishing industry.

Partnering with Industry to Develop a Plan

To help reduce bycatch and support open ocean fisheries, NOAA and partners focused on using a different type of fishing gear. The gear would still catch what the fishermen were after, but would also greatly reduce the number of juvenile fish killed in the process.

To understand more about the fishing community—who they were, how their fishery operated, and what their needs were—the project team connected directly with community members.

Sandy Nguyen came aboard as a critical partner and the project’s first community liaison. She encouraged the fishing community to apply to participate and supported them through the administrative process of coming on board.

Rebuilding pelagic fish populations was a goal shared by federal and state agencies, fishermen, surrounding communities, and more. As the project came to life, another community liaison joined: Bobby Nguyen. “Everybody that’s connected to this project is hoping to give a fighting chance for these fish to come back,” he said.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Washington Students Dive into Salmon Science with NOAA Biologists at Annual Summit

May 29, 2025 — Biologists from the Northwest Fisheries Science Center again participated in the celebration of Pacific salmon held every spring for elementary students from Benton County, Washington. The “Salmon Summit” on April 29–30, 2025, culminated months of learning about salmon life cycles in the classroom.

Fourth graders from several elementary schools first raise juvenile Chinook salmon from egg to par. They learn about the salmon life cycle as part of the Salmon in the Classroom program managed by the Benton Conservation District. The students also work with NOAA Fisheries scientists, who help dissect an adult male and female salmon in class.

“We’ve been visiting classrooms every year since 2011,” said Jesse Lamb, fisheries biologist with Pasco Research Station. “And every year, we love educating students about the thousands, and sometimes hundreds of thousands, of salmon swimming up the Columbia River within just a few miles of their homes.”

This year, Lamb joined fisheries scientist Loren Stearman to visit eight elementary schools to conduct salmon dissections and teach more than 600 students about salmon anatomy.

That prepares them for the 2-day Salmon Summit event in Kennewick, Washington. More than 3,200 students learned about salmon science at 72 hands-on, interactive stations staffed by state and federal agencies, tribes, and nonprofit organizations. At the NOAA Fisheries tagging station, students saw how we use passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag technology to conduct research on salmon and steelhead throughout the Pacific Northwest. With electrofishing and seining gear on display, scientists described how the gear is used to capture juvenile salmon parr in remote streams before they migrate downstream.

“Tagging fish in real time is an eye-opening experience for some of these students. It’s also a chance for us to demonstrate an approach that we’ve been using for more than 3 decades to monitor the movement, growth, and survival of threatened wild Chinook salmon in the Snake River and its tributaries,” said Stearman.

Snake River Chinook salmon are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. NOAA Fisheries biologists use juvenile Chinook salmon from hatcheries that the students have been rearing in their classrooms to demonstrate our research protocol. First they anesthetize the fish, then tag and measure them. Students get to inspect a PIT tag as biologists explain how it provides information about the fish’s movement. The biologists demonstrate how the tag code and fish length and weight data are stored digitally for each unique individual.

Finally, the students release a tagged fish through a special tank and hose that sends it directly into the Columbia River to start its journey.

“The students always have questions about the likelihood of their fish surviving to the ocean and eventually returning to spawn. That’s our chance to pique their interest about the many threats facing salmon throughout their life cycle, and perhaps inspire the next generation to pursue a career in saving salmon,” said Lamb.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

New trawl net to cut costs and boost survey accuracy

May 29, 2025 — A collaborative sea trial aboard NOAA’s vessel Bell M. Shimada has set the stage for a more efficient and cost-effective approach to fishery surveys on the West Coast.

Fishing industry leaders joined NOAA Fisheries scientists in testing an innovative new trawl net designed to gather more accurate data in less time and at lower cost.

Developed in partnership with industry experts, the Multi-Function Trawl (MFT) net is engineered to combine two separate West Coast fisheries surveys that had previously relied on different nets. The Adjustable design allows a single vessel to “more safely gather more data in less time and at lower cost,” according to NOAA.

“The new trawl, which uses the same design features and technologies used by many fishermen, increases our confidence in the survey results,” Greg Shaughnessy, chief operating officer at Ocean Gold Seafoods in Westport, Washington, said. Shaughnessy, a long-time industry collaborator, became interested in the survey process after observing the sudden decline of sardines off the Northwest Coast in 2015. “I needed to understand how these surveys work,” he recalled. “You have to have the best available science to get the management right.”

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Lawsuit filed in effort to protect endangered Rice’s whales in the Gulf

May 22, 2025 — A lawsuit has been filed to force the federal government to protect endangered Rice’s whales in the Gulf. Scientists believe there are fewer than 50 remaining.

Federal regulators recently released a “biological opinion” that found strikes by oil tankers and vessels in the Gulf’s well fields are likely to threaten the existence of Rice’s whales.

The lawsuit is asking for stronger restrictions on speeds and for ships to keep at least 500 yards from visible whales.

NOAA Fisheries Service estimates that nine Rice’s whales would be killed and three seriously injured over the next 45 years. Chris Eaton, an attorney with the environmental group Earthjustice, said that might doom the species.

“The Fisheries Service has said because the population is so low that if just one female dies, that could send the species to extinction,” Eaton said. “And the problem with this biological opinion is that it recognizes that risk, but doesn’t provide adequate measures to prevent that risk to those species.”

The Department of the Interior can lease areas of the Gulf to oil and gas drillers. But first, the Fisheries Service must study how endangered species are likely to be harmed.

NOAA Fisheries said the proposed rule would make lethal vessel strikes “extremely unlikely to occur.”

Read the full article at WUSF

Seafood Producers Cooperative response to WFC lawsuit

May 22, 2025 — On behalf of the nearly 400 members of Seafood Producers Cooperative, who are very dependent on the wild chinook fishery for a large part of their livelihoods, and as such, are very supportive of conservation efforts regarding Chinook, I would like to respond to the recent news of another attempt by the Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC), in their typical fashion of accusations and demands via litigation, to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for not listing Alaska Wild King Salmon stocks under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which the WFC, in their opinion, feels is necessary.

Alaska possesses the largest coastline of all other states combined, over 33 thousand miles, with 19,000 rivers and streams that salmon spawn in. To undertake a scientific study that identifies the Chinook returns to these spawning areas is a huge task, and to complete this with any degree of accuracy could take years. With NOAA currently facing major budget reductions, it is likely that NMFS will be even more challenged in their ability to conduct the studies to determine whether Chinook ESA listing is warranted or not, in a time frame that satisfies the WFC.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Greens sue NOAA over delayed ESA decision on Alaska chinook salmon

May 21, 2025 — Environmentalists are suing NOAA for failing to issue an Endangered Species Act listing decision for Gulf of Alaska chinook salmon within one year of receiving a petition to protect the species.

In a filing before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Wild Fish Conservancy says NOAA’s listing decision delay means Alaskan chinook salmon “are more likely to continue to decline toward extinction.”

“The Endangered Species Act sets clear deadlines … to evaluate the risk of extinction and trigger action while recovery is still possible,” Emma Helverson, executive director of Wild Fish Conservancy, said in a statement. “By ignoring those deadlines, NOAA isn’t just breaking the law — it’s perpetuating the collapse of Alaskan chinook and threatening the ecosystems and communities that depend on them.”

Read the full article at E&E News

US government watchdog questions staffing levels for fisheries disaster aid program

May 20, 2025 — As the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump works to reduce staff and resources at NOAA Fisheries, a government watchdog has suggested more staff may be needed to improve the nation’s fisheries disaster assistance program.

The federal government’s fisheries disaster program was established to provide financial relief to the commercial fishing sector when it suffers a qualifying disaster, such as a sudden drop in population or the closure of a fishery for ecological reasons. However, the program has been frequently criticized by both commercial fishers and U.S. lawmakers for its lack of transparency and how long it takes the government to award disaster relief. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a Congressional watchdog organization, it took NOAA Fisheries between 1.3 years and 4.8 years to distribute funding for the 56 most recent fishery disaster determination requests.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Fishery advocates criticize WFC’s Alaskan salmon lawsuit

May 16, 2025 — Alaska fishery advocates are speaking out against a lawsuit filed last week by the Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC), arguing that the legal action will hinder — not help — efforts to protect the state’s salmon populations.

The lawsuit, filed on May 8 against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), informally known as NOAA Fisheries, seeks to compel faster action on a petition to list Gulf of Alaska Chinook — also known as king salmon — under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

On January 11, 2024, WFC petitioned NOAA to grant ESA protections to Chinook salmon from rivers flowing into the Gulf of Alaska. NOAA issued a positive 90-day finding on May 24, confirming the petition presented substantial information that protections may be warranted, triggering a year-long review and public input process. Under the ESA, NOAA had until January 11, 2025, to decide whether Gulf of Alaska Chinook should be listed as threatened or endangered. Now, WFS is suing NOAA for missing this deadline, citing further delays in protections for declining Chinook populations at risk of extinction.

“It should not take a lawsuit to make the federal government uphold its legal responsibility, but with the crisis facing Alaskan Chinook, we are out of time and options,” said Emma Helverson, WFC’s executive director. “The Endangered Species Act sets clear deadlines for a reason, to evaluate the risk of extinction and trigger action while recovery is still possible. By ignoring those deadlines, NOAA isn’t just breaking the law — it’s perpetuating the collapse of Alaskan Chinook and threatening the ecosystems and communities that depend on them.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NOAA deploys AI to help manage Columbia River salmon

May 15, 2025 — Microsoft Corp. has awarded NOAA Fisheries researchers two years of advanced computing power and technical expertise to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) model aimed at improving salmon habitat management in the Columbia River Basin.

The collaboration is part of Microsoft’s “AI for Good” initiative, a program supporting projects that promote sustainability, public health, and human rights in Washington state. The partnership, which coincides with the tech giant’s 50th anniversary, will see NOAA Fisheries tap into $5 million worth of Azure cloud computing credits, helping researchers more accurately and efficiently forecast how changing river flows impact salmon habitats.

“The model trained on high-resolution satellite images should more quickly and easily show salmon and water managers how changes in flows can expand or reduce available salmon habitat along rivers and streams,” said Morgan Bond, a research scientist who leads the project at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center. “This approach should speed that up significantly.”

Until now, gaining such insights required labor-intensive fieldwork and detailed analysis to evaluate even limited areas. With AI processing satellite images across vast regions, scientists expect to cut both time and cost dramatically — while gaining a broader, more detailed view of the watershed.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Local scientists, fisheries and weather forecasters feeling impact of NOAA cuts

May 13, 2025 — Staff and budget cuts are fraying local offices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, according to several scientists inside the agency. The cuts are already leading to degraded weather forecasts and adding chaos to commercial fisheries.

And they said additional cuts proposed by the Trump administration could throw New England commercial fisheries, scientific research and weather forecasting into further disarray, threatening lives and livelihoods throughout the region.

Current NOAA employees describe a “grim” and “chaotic” atmosphere: contracts cancelled without warning; colleagues fired, rehired and fired again; and a brief lapse in a janitorial contract that led to an email request that staffers clean the restrooms.

Read the full article at wbur