Saving Seafood

Alaska Sen. Sullivan pushes U.S. government to complete key stock surveys, fight illegal fishing amid possible NOAA funding cuts

May 9, 2025 — The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation unanimously passed a seafood bill on April 30 to fight illegal fishing. The legislation would rely on efforts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which Sen. Dan Sullivan said is already struggling to complete key fisheries surveys.

Sullivan co-sponsored the Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvest, or FISH, Act with seven other senators, including Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Sullivan said he hopes it will help fight unfair trade practices and give a boost to Alaska’s fishing industry.

Sullivan said the act takes aim at foreign illegal, unreported and unregulated, or IUU, fishing.

“It would blacklist foreign vessels and owners that have engaged in IUU fishing — it’s mostly Chinese,” Sullivan said. “And it would provide much more enforcement with regard to our Coast Guard’s ability to increase at-sea inspections.”

Any blacklisted vessels would be prohibited from accessing U.S. ports, traveling through U.S. territorial seas, except in accordance with customary international law, making deliveries in U.S. waters, or receiving services from American vessels.

Read the full story at KYUK

Trump administration is ending NOAA data service used to monitor sea ice off Alaska

May 8, 2025 — The Trump administration is ending National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration services that monitor Arctic sea ice and snow cover, leading climate scientists said Tuesday.

NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information has decommissioned its snow and ice data products as of Monday, the National Snow and Ice Data Center announced.

The data collected by that NOAA office is critical to the daily updates provided by the Colorado-based center, which tracks one of the most obvious effects of climate change: the long-term loss of Arctic sea ice.

It is also critical to the regular sea ice reports produced by Rick Thoman at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy, as well as to research done by his UAF colleagues.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Trump’s plan to merge ESA offices could be a hard sell

May 7, 2025 — Businessman Howard Lutnick provided a seemingly straightforward answer when a Democratic senator asked him earlier this year whether he was considering moving NOAA Fisheries out of NOAA.

“No,” Lutnick said.

Strictly speaking, Lutnick’s written answer to a question posed by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) still holds up. Since his confirmation as Commerce secretary, Lutnick has not proposed a wholesale relocation of NOAA Fisheries.

But as part of its new fiscal 2026 budget proposal, the Trump administration revived a proposal to move to the Interior Department the NOAA Fisheries office that handles Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act issues.

The partial merger has been floated before, but it’s never gone very far. If the Trump administration is serious about pursuing the idea now, it will confront entrenched bureaucracies, congressional turf conflicts and a lot of very serious questions, former officials and advocacy organization leaders predict.

“It seems consolidating ESA functions would make sense to ensure consistent application of the law,” said Greg Sheehan, former FWS deputy director in the first Trump administration.

Read the full story at E&E News

Washington State River Restoration Project to Revive Salmon Habitat, Support Local Jobs

May 7, 2025 — This spring, NOAA partner the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership broke ground on a large-scale salmon habitat restoration project on the lower East Fork Lewis River in Washington State. This project will support the recovery of threatened steelhead and salmon on one of the few undammed rivers in the Lower Columbia River watershed. It will also inject millions into the local economy and generate hundreds local jobs in construction, heavy equipment operations, trucking, engineering, forestry, and other industries.

In addition, the work will help maintain fishing opportunities that further contribute to the local economy.

Flooding Destroys Habitat

In 1996, Steve Manlow, Executive Director of the Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board, watched in horror as a 500-year flood event destroyed crucial salmon and steelhead habitat on the lower East Fork Lewis River. Flood waters breached the levees around nine abandoned gravel mining pits, fundamentally shifting the river’s course.

This once-braided, multi-channel river began flowing through the excavated pits. It formed a series of interconnected warm-water ponds that prevent salmon and steelhead from migrating upstream for much of the year. The river channel deepened, cutting off floodplain habitat and causing severe erosion downstream.

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries

Trump administration officially proposes drastic cuts to NOAA, targeting climate-related research

May 5, 2025 — The White House has released its official “skinny budget” for fiscal year 2026, which outlines drastic cuts to NOAA and targets climate-related programs.

“For decades, the biggest complaint about the federal budget was wasteful spending and bloated bureaucracy,” U.S. Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought said in a statement. “But, over the last four years, government spending aggressively turned against the American people and trillions of our dollars were used to fund cultural Marxism, radical Green New Scams, and even our own invasion. No agency was spared in the Left’s taxpayer-funded cultural revolution.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

More than a quarter of staff gone at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center

May 5, 2025 — The Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC)—a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) with an office in Woods Hole—has seen a 27 percent reduction in staff since President Donald Trump took office, according to current and former NOAA employees, who asked not to be named in this story for fear of retaliation.

In addition to the lab in Woods Hole, the NEFSC has four other offices—one each in Rhode Island, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maine. It is not yet clear how many of the departed staff worked in Woods Hole, which is described on the NOAA Fisheries website as the “focal point for the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s operations, management and information needs.”

The 27 percent reduction in staff includes people who took early retirement or voluntary separations. It also includes individuals who were let go as “probationary” employees—new hires or employees who have moved into a new role.

NOAA declined to comment, citing a policy at the agency not to discuss internal personnel matters. This reduction in staff comes as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce federal spending.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Groundfish season opens on time after NOAA passes emergency catch limits

May 1, 2025 — The fishing season for cod, haddock and flounder started on time Thursday after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued emergency regulations this week.

The move came after weeks of delay because of the Trump administration’s cuts to NOAA staff, and controversy over proposed changes to how the agency measures cod populations.

For now, catch limits for these bottom-dwelling fish will remain lower than last season. NOAA said it will delay any decision about the suggested updates to cod fishing regulations until next year.

Read the full story at WBUR

NOAA takes ‘emergency action’ to open Atlantic cod fishery

April 30, 2025 — NOAA will allow fishermen to harvest cod and other high-value species off the Northeast Atlantic coast beginning May 1, averting what could have been a major disruption to one of the East Coast’s most economically important and environmentally threatened fisheries.

NOAA issued “a temporary rule for an emergency action” Tuesday allowing what’s known as the Northeast Multispecies fishery to open on schedule, even though new regulations governing the management of certain species are not yet in place.

“This action ensures the fishery can continue without interruption,” the agency said in a notice.

Read the full story at E&E News

Could planned federal funding cuts jeopardize Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay restoration plans?

April 28, 2025 — The Trump administration’s plans to propose budget cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) could jeopardize efforts to restore the health of Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF).

According to the CBF, the administration’s potential budget cuts would slash NOAA’s total budget by $1.7 billion, from $6.1 billion to $4.5 billion. It would also reduce funding for the National Marine Fisheries Service by approximately 30 percent.

How would the cuts affect the Chesapeake Bay?

The proposed budget plan would significantly reduce NOAA’s financial support and scientific leadership for Chesapeake Bay restoration efforts.

Under the plan, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which currently operates with a budget of $1.1 billion, would be reduced to $789.3 million in fiscal year 2026 under the planned budget.

The NMFS houses NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Office, which leads science initiatives across the region and works closely with the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program on restoration efforts, according to the CBF.

Read the full story at CBS News

Gulf of Maine scallop fishing to be closed a week after area was reopened

April 25, 2025 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced Friday that a section of the Gulf of Maine will be closed to scallop fishing in a few days, as the agency has projected the catch will reach the season quota that was recently set.

NOAA Fisheries said the Northern Gulf of Maine Scallop Management Area will close at 12:01 a.m. Monday, April 28, to all federally-permitted limited access general category scallop vessels. The closure will be in effect until the end of the current fishing year, which lasts until March 31, 2026.

Read the full story at WMTW