Saving Seafood

Reports indicate Trump planning to gut NOAA, transfer fisheries functions to US Fish and Wildlife Service

April 11, 2025 — The Trump administration is planning to make severe cuts to NOAA Fisheries, transferring most fisheries services to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS), according to internal documents obtained by CNN.

“This is ludicrous! Whether you live on a coast or in the heartland, these proposed cuts to NOAA will impact you,” Oceana Vice President for the United States Beth Lowell said in a statement. “Eliminating funding and staffing won’t just cause chaos and confusion within NOAA – it would undermine people and businesses across the country.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Ocean conditions mixed for salmon, leading to average salmon returns

April 11, 2025 — All signs point to mixed ocean conditions for salmon over the past couple of years, which fisheries biologists said could lead to average salmon runs.

The ocean is where salmon spend a large part of their lives. That’s why it’s super important to know what’s going on out there. It helps scientists better understand and predict how salmon are doing.

For a long time, scientists have studied what salmon eat. They also know where salmon go and know a lot more about their survival in the ocean. However, that could change if scientists no longer have funding for research on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration vessels.

“ It’s important to recognize if we’re not out there, continually studying this changing system, it can revert to a black box. It could become this thing we no longer understand how things are working,” said Brian Burke, a biologist with NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center.

Burke spoke at a Northwest Power and Conservation Council meeting. The council helps with regional fish and wildlife planning.

Read the full article at Northwest Public Broadcasting 

NOAA closes Northern Gulf of Maine Scallop Management Area midseason

April 11, 2025 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shut down the Gulf of Maine’s scallop fishery Friday.

“As of April 11, 2025, 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’s announcement reads. “The scallop regulations require that we close this area once we project that 100% of the 2025 Northern Gulf of Maine Set-Aside will be taken.”

Members of Maine’s fishing industry have been anticipating the closure, saying regulators delayed finalizing this year’s catch limits amid their transition to the Trump Administration.

“It hasn’t been as easy to get information this year from NOAA fisheries,” said Togue Brawn, a Member of the New England Fishery Management Council and the founder of Downeast Dayboat and Dayboat Blue. “As we know, things are changing with the government, people are getting fired, people are afraid to talk. It’s a little dystopian, and frankly unsettling, and it does a disservice to the fishermen and the employees that are there trying to manage the fishery.”

The fishery shuts down every year once projections show the allowed set-aside for the year will be met, but this closure marks the first time NOAA has closed the fishery in the middle of the season — which some believe poses uncertainty for fishermen who traveled to the southern reaches of the Gulf of Maine fishing area off of Massachusetts.

Read the full article at Spectrum News

Pacific halibut fishery gets off to a slow start with high prices

April 10, 2025 — Bad weather and some last-minute paperwork scrambling at NOAA Fisheries combined to produce low catches during the first weeks of the Pacific halibut fishery.

By April 1, just 3 percent of the 23.79 million pound fishery limit for 2025 had been harvested since the March 20 opener. That poundage applies to the catches for commercial fishermen, sport charter operators, anglers, and subsistence users along the west coast and British Columbia/Canada to the far reaches of Alaska’s Bering Sea.

Alaska always gets the lion’s share of the annual commercial halibut catch and for 2025 it totals 19.7 million pounds, a 2.7 percent decrease from 2024. Reports by NOAA Fisheries show that 873,366 pounds were taken by Alaskan fishermen through April 7, compared to 1,223,849 pounds taken during the same time in 2024, a drop of nearly 29 percent.

As always, the first fresh halibut of the year fetched high prices, although early information was sketchy due to the low landings. Many ports have had so few deliveries that the data remain confidential.

At Seward, prices to fishermen started out at $7 per pound across the board, according to Alaska Boats and Permits in Homer.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Gulf of Maine scallop fishery likely to close for first time in over 15 years

April 10, 2025 — Fishermen are likely to be restricted from hauling scallops from federal waters in the Gulf of Maine for several weeks because regulators have delayed finalizing annual catch limits.

The temporary closure, expected in the next five days, would mark the first time the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has shut down the regional fishery midseason since the regulations were put into place 16 years ago. Those who dive for scallops near Maine’s coast are unaffected; federal waters begin 3 miles offshore.

NOAA typically passes annual rules by April 1, when the federal scalloping season kicks off. But without them, there is a stopgap measure in place that permits a limited amount of fishing. That limit has almost been reached.

Members of Maine’s fishing community say regulators at NOAA Fisheries have been challenged by the transition to a new presidential administration, a typical problem, and the federal staffing cutbacks that are part of President Donald Trump’s initiative to slash government spending.

Read the full article at the Portland Press Herald 

US ports to use Covid-like tests to identify illegally trafficked seafood species

April 7, 2025 — Last year, a colleague of Diego Cardeñosa sent the international shark trade researcher a few pieces of shark fin taken from a bowl of soup in New York City. Using a PCR test similar to those used during the Covid-19 pandemic to test for the virus, Cardeñosa was able to identify the species behind the fin as sandbar shark, an endangered species found in tropical and warm-temperate waters.

Now, Cardeñosa and other scientists from Florida International University, alongside law enforcement officials from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), plan to deploy the tests at ports across the country in order to crack down on seafood fraud and fish trafficking.

Illegal fishing adversely affects legitimate commercial fishers as well as fish populations. Almost a third of shark species are threatened or near threatened with extinction and the value of world trade in shark parts is almost $1bn a year, according to the UN.

At the same time, US consumption of seafood is increasing, rising by more than 30% in the decade from 2002. About 80% of this comes from foreign exports – mostly from Canada, Chile, India, Indonesia and Vietnam, according to the US department of agriculture.

Read the full article at The Guardian 

Court case against New England offshore wind approvals can proceed

April 4, 2025 — A sweeping legal challenge to federal agency approvals for an offshore wind project under construction in New England has cleared an initial legal hurdle.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled this week that a number of legal claims could move forward against the Interior Department, NOAA Fisheries and the Army Corps of Engineers for approving the Revolution Wind Farm and the Revolution Wind export cable project in Rhode Island.

The case led by the Green Oceans nonprofit group alleges that the agencies violated a slew of environmental laws — from the Endangered Species Act to the National Historic Preservation Act — when they approved the 65-turbine Revolution Wind project 15 miles off the coast of Block Island. Construction began on the wind farm in 2023 and is projected to be completed next year, when it would provide 304 megawatts to Connecticut and 400 MW to Rhode Island.

Read the full article at E&E News

ALASKA: Internal memo outlines stark impacts of federal downsizing on Alaska regional fishery agency

April 4, 2025 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has long struggled to compete with corporate America to recruit tech workers to maintain the complicated computer systems that track the federal seafood harvests off Alaska.

These chronic staffing shortages at NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska Region have been greatly exacerbated by the Trump administration’s efforts to cut the federal workforce.

As of mid-March, the Alaska Region had 29% of its staffing positions vacant, and the Information Services Division, staffed largely by tech workers, had a vacancy rate of 45%, according to an internal agency memorandum obtained by the Alaska Beacon.

Read the full article at the Anchorage Daily News

NOAA chief of staff elevated to acting administrator

April 3, 2025 — The Commerce Department has elevated NOAA Chief of Staff Laura Grimm to lead the agency, replacing acting Administrator Nancy Hann, who will remain with NOAA as deputy undersecretary for operations.

The leadership change, first reported by Axios, was confirmed Wednesday by two NOAA employees who had knowledge of the move but were granted anonymity because they are not authorized to speak about it. One other agency staffer said news of the move was circulating among staff but no official announcement of the changes had come as of Wednesday morning.

Grimm, who formerly worked for the nonprofit World Wildlife Fund as director of ocean markets and the Pew Charitable Trusts as an international fisheries specialist, has been at NOAA since January, according to her LinkedIn page.

Read the full article at E&E News

ALASKA: Alaskan Communities Use Flexibility in Snow Crab Fishery Regulations for Economic Relief

April 1, 2025 — The Alaska Bering Sea snow crab fishery is open for the first time in 2 years after a sharp decline in the crab population caused fishery closures. Participants have banded together with NOAA Fisheries to use regulatory flexibilities to help the fishery operate smoothly. While the species shows signs of recovery, it is still in low abundance. There are continued challenges for harvesters, processors, and small coastal communities who depend on the fishery for their income and way of life.

We estimate that more than 10 billion snow crabs disappeared from the Bering Sea from 2018 to 2021 due to a marine heatwave and ecological shifts in the region.

The snow crab fishery is an important economic driver in Alaska, generating an average of $150 million annually from 2012 to 2021. Disaster relief funding from the Department of Commerce in 2022–2023 provided some assistance to fishing communities. With lower available stock and decreased processing capabilities after years of closures, the industry and hard-hit communities looked to existing federal regulations for new solutions to economic recovery.

Managing the Bering Sea Snow Crab Fishery

The State of Alaska and NOAA Fisheries jointly manage the commercial Bering Sea snow crab fishery with recommendations from the North Pacific Fishery Management Council under the Federal Fishery Management Plan for the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands King and Tanner Crab Fisheries.

In 2004, the Council recommended the Crab Rationalization Program to allocate resources among harvesters, processors, and coastal communities for nine Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands crab fisheries.

NOAA Fisheries implemented the program in 2005 and developed regulations to support the process consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Act and associated laws. We issue quota shares to harvesters and processors for Crab Rationalization fisheries, including the Bering Sea snow crab fishery.

The Crab Rationalization Program also sets regional delivery requirements for Bering Sea snow crab. Portions of the harvester quota must be delivered for processing in two regions—North and South—to support communities who have historically processed crab. But those delivery requirements can pose a challenge during periods of low abundance.

Through the Council, NOAA Fisheries establishes an annual catch limit for each Crab Rationalization stock and develops rebuilding plans for overfished crab stocks. We conduct an annual trawl survey to estimate the total number of mature snow crab in the Bering Sea. We use data collected from the survey to establish annual harvest specifications including an annual overfishing limit and an acceptable biological catch limit.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game determines whether fisheries can open based on the annual harvest specifications and state harvest strategies. It also sets the total allowable catch. This is the maximum amount of crab that can be harvested for the season so that all crab removals remain below the amount needed to sustain the species. Using the TAC for each crab fishery, we annually issue individual fishing quotas and individual processing quotas to fishery participants.

The State of Alaska, through the Alaska Board of Fisheries process, also implements other regulations such as observer coverage and gear requirements.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries