Saving Seafood

Record Cobia Tournament Shows a Chesapeake Predator Thriving Alongside Menhaden

August 31, 2026 — Congratulations are in order for the winners and participants in the 2026 Big Man’s Cobia Bonanza.

The ninth annual tournament was held August 14–15 in the Chesapeake Bay, with events based in Norfolk and weigh-ins at Little Creek. By the organizers’ account, it was a record year, with more than 100 boats participating and a top prize of over $38,000, and two runner-up $12,000 prizes. The organizers summed up the weekend with the declaration: “We put Virginia Cobia fishing in the Chesapeake Bay back on top!”

That is worth celebrating. It is also worth considering in the continuing debate over whether the Chesapeake Bay has enough menhaden to support its predators.

Cobia are large predators that spend the summer feeding in Chesapeake waters. Menhaden are part of their prey base and an important forage fish in the same waters where cobia thrive. Scientists and Bay fishing organizations alike have identified menhaden as an important prey species for cobia, and menhaden have traditionally been a preferred cobia bait.

That makes this year’s tournament particularly interesting; the success of a major Chesapeake predator that consumes menhaden is difficult to reconcile with sweeping claims that the Bay lacks sufficient forage for its predators.

The contrast with striped bass is instructive.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission currently classifies Atlantic cobia as not overfished, with overfishing not occurring. Striped bass are also important predators of menhaden, but their stock has followed a different path. In 2024, the peer-reviewed striped bass stock assessment found the stock was overfished. The stock is currently managed with restrictions designed to reduce fishing mortality and rebuild the population.

That history does not mean forage is irrelevant to striped bass, but it does mean discussions about their condition should acknowledge a well-established factor: fishing mortality on striped bass themselves was too high for years.

Menhaden, meanwhile, are already managed with their ecological role in mind. The ASMFC uses ecological reference points specifically designed to account for menhaden as forage and the needs of predators. The Atlantic menhaden stock itself is classified as not overfished, with overfishing not occurring.

Taken together, these facts suggest Chesapeake predator dynamics are more complicated than simply claiming there are not enough menhaden. Cobia and striped bass share the same broader ecosystem and both consume menhaden, yet their stock conditions are very different.

That comparison does not mean menhaden are evenly distributed throughout the Chesapeake Bay or that every predator has equal access to forage at all times. Menhaden are highly migratory schooling fish whose presence in any particular place changes with season, movement and environmental conditions.

Questions about local menhaden movement, seasonal abundance and predator access deserve continued study. And that work is happening.

The federal government, Virginia, and the menhaden industry are all supporting research to better understand menhaden movement, seasonal abundance, predator consumption and fishery interactions in the Chesapeake Bay. Congress has funded Bay-specific research, Virginia has committed funding for work led by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), and the industry is supporting collaborative research involving VIMS, the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory and NOAA.

That is how unresolved questions should be addressed: through cooperative science, not through simple assumptions.

In the meantime, what happened at this year’s Cobia Bonanza deserves attention.

Congratulations to the winners. Their success is a reminder that the Chesapeake Bay forage story may be considerably healthier than some of the rhetoric surrounding menhaden would have us believe.

NOAA Is Seeking Public Input on Where to Locate New Aquaculture Opportunity Areas in the United States

August 31, 2026 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Home (NOAA) from the United States (US) is seeking public input on where to focus while searching places to begin the process of identifying Aquaculture Opportunity Areas (AOA). They are requesting relevant information on specific issues and areas they should consider for future Aquaculture Opportunity Areas. The deadline for comments is September 14, 2026.

According the definition they provided, Aquaculture Opportunity Areas are defined geographic areas that have been evaluated to determine their potential suitability for commercial aquaculture. The AOA identification process takes into account the potential environmental, economic, and social impacts of identifying AOAs and siting aquaculture in those locations drawing from extensive scientific review and analysis. Public input is critical to this process.

As part of the comment period, NOAA will also host three public listening sessions. The sessions will be in English and Spanish, they reported. They look for the citizens attend one of three public listening sessions or provide a written comment through to help inform where NOAA should focus on searching for Aquaculture Opportunity Areas.

The importance of the task relies on the fact that the United States imported an estimated USD 12 billion in farmed seafood in 2024, about half of the USD 25 billion in total seafood imports. “Aquaculture creates jobs, uplifts coastal economies, and complements wild-capture fisheries. It provides healthy and sustainable seafood to American families—bolstering domestic food security,” members of NOAA highlighted.

Read the full article at Aquaculture Magazine

NOAA to rebuild historic science lab in Beaufort, North Carolina

August 28, 2026 — Today, NOAA announced plans to fund the reconstruction of a new laboratory in Beaufort, North Carolina. This new lab will replace the former building that was permanently closed in 2024 due to significant hurricane-related structural damage. The project will be funded using $64 million from the 2025 Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act. Design and preconstruction work is expected to begin in early 2027.

Established in 1899, the NOAA Beaufort Laboratory is the nation’s second-oldest federal marine science laboratory, predating NOAA by more than 70 years. Following a routine inspection, NOAA determined the laboratory sustained foundational damage that made building occupancy unsafe. The new facility will be built above the floodplain and designed to withstand storm and flooding events.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Environmental groups take steps to sue to compel new protections for gray whales

August 28, 2026 — Amid a decade of die-offs and a sharp decline in the population of gray whales that swim along the Pacific coast of North America, three environmental groups are preparing to sue the Trump administration over its failure to bring back Endangered Species Act protections for the animals.

The Center for Biological Diversity, the International Marine Mammal Project and Oasis Earth on Tuesday submitted a notice of intent to sue the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration over gray whale protections.

Oasis Earth submitted a petition a year ago to NOAA Fisheries for a threatened or endangered listing to be granted to the Eastern North Pacific gray whale population. But the agency neither issued a 90-day finding on the petition’s validity nor a 12-month finding on the population’s status, as required under the law, the groups’ notice said.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

CALIFORNIA: US lawmakers protest Trump’s move to end California’s say on coastal development

August 27, 2026 — More than 30 federal lawmakers from California are protesting a formal government review of the state’s management of its coastal development, arguing that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is simply removing local control in order to advance the president’s policy preferences.

“This extraordinary federal review which singles out California is based upon a thinly veiled and non-evidential argument. It is an attempt to curb our state’s federally approved authority to evaluate offshore energy, infrastructure, and commercial activities,” the lawmakers stated in a 21 August letter to NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs. “This unprecedented review threatens to disrupt 48 years of successful coordination between the state of California and the federal government to protect California’s coast.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Earth is simmering in its hottest water temps on record, and that’s bad for fish and us

August 25, 2026 — The world’s oceans simmered to their hottest temperatures on record over the weekend and are likely to warm even further in the next few months, putting stress on life in the water and on land too, the European climate service Copernicus announced Monday.

Spurred by a still growing but already supersized natural El Nino and human-caused climate change, the world’s ocean temperatures hit 21.1 degrees Celsius (70 degrees Fahrenheit) on Friday and Saturday, narrowly edging out the average daily record set in March 2024, said Samantha Burgess, strategic climate lead for Copernicus.

“This is yet another sign of our climate system under strain and the ocean under immense pressure,” Burgess said.

Jane Lubchenco, an oceanographer and former chief of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration called the record “very troubling.”

“An ocean this warm destabilizes weather patterns and threatens food security, economic prosperity and marine life,” Lubchenco said in an email. “A warmer ocean is not our friend.”

Read the full article at Associated Press

Mel Allen: Telling the stories of New England

August 25, 2026 — For more than 50 years, Mel Allen has made a career out of telling stories about those in New England.

He has written about fishermen and island communities, sardine packers and chefs, scientists counting fish aboard NOAA research vessels, and people whose livelihoods disappeared as fisheries and working waterfronts changed around them.

So when the former longtime editor of Yankee Magazine stood before a room filled with ocean scientists, researchers, and industry partners at the 2026 Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems (NERACOOS) Annual Meeting, he came with a message that was surprisingly simple.

Tell people a story.

“If you want people to care about something big, whether conflicts between nations, the dilemma of immigration, or our changing oceans, do not show the topic,” Allen said. “Show how people have been touched by the topic. That’s how we relate to each other.”

For NERACOOS, that message comes at an important moment.

NERACOOS helps coordinate sensors, models, data systems, and other technology used to track conditions across New England’s waters. Now, its work is expanding through the new National Science Foundation (NSF) Seafood Engine in New England, an initiative focused on supporting New England’s seafood industry.

The potentially 10-year initiative is designed to build an innovation network across the seafood supply chain, connecting work on the water with processing, distribution, and the consumer. Its focus includes environmental sensing and modeling, technology development, workforce training, and investment.

For commercial fishermen, that puts an industry accustomed to being on the receiving end of scientific data and management decisions closer to the center of a much broader effort to determine how New England seafood adapts to a changing ocean and economy.

But Allen’s keynote reminded everyone what all that technology and investment is ultimately intended to serve.

People.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Beyond Ocean Mapping: Using Uncrewed Vehicles to Advance Ocean Research

August 21, 2026 —  It’s January off of Nantucket Shoals. An uncrewed surface vehicle begins a series of carefully planned transects through Southern New England, collecting data day and night. There are no scientists onboard, but the 30-foot vessel is constantly measuring ocean currents, water temperature, salinity, weather and other ocean conditions. It’s also helping identify areas with high fish and plankton abundance. Every nautical mile traveled adds to a more complete picture of how marine ecosystems function.

These missions reflect NOAA’s growing use of uncrewed systems technology. Traditionally, these autonomous platforms have supported hydrographic surveys, nautical charting, and ocean mapping. But the benefits extend beyond creating better maps. Today, the same technologies are helping scientists answer complex ecological and oceanographic questions. They’re collecting critical, high-accuracy, and time-sensitive data across nearly every mission area.

“Over the last several years, we have been able to expand the applications for how uncrewed surface vehicles can help with various research related to stock, ecosystem, and protected species evaluations and assessments,” explains Dr. Conor McManus, marine development and advanced technology program lead for the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. “With each mission we conduct, we are learning more about the Northeast U.S. Shelf ecosystem, but also how we can better operationalize these technologies to meet our scientific or data needs.”

These technological advances are expanding where, when, and how our scientists collect ocean data. The results allow researchers to observe the ocean more continuously and in places that are difficult to sample with ships alone. These vehicles complement ship-based surveys—filling gaps in data that can arise from challenges like winter weather and limited ship availability.

This year, there were three uncrewed surface vehicle missions in the Northeast—two operated by Chance Maritime Technologies and one using DriX. They demonstrated how the benefits of uncrewed survey technology can answer many different scientific questions.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

ALASKA: Deep sea mining in the Gulf of Alaska

August 13, 2026 — With China reportedly producing around 90 percent of the world’s supply of rare earth elements, and far ahead in processing technology, the U.S. and other countries are searching for new ways to meet demand, and deep sea mining on seamounts in the Gulf of Alaska is on the list of proposals. The Japanese press reported in July that experimental deep sea mining had successfully extracted rare earth elements such as neodymium, dysprosium, and terbium—all vital for fighter jet and missile guidance systems—from 6,000 feet below the surface.

In April of 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14285 “Unleashing America’s Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources,” and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is evaluating whether to advance a competitive lease sale for minerals on the Alaska Outer Continental Shelf. “We don’t know what impact deep sea mining could have on fisheries, but there is cause for concern,” says retired University of Alaska marine professor Rick Steiner, who now runs a consulting company called Oasis Earth.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Trump administration ends NOAA support for annual Arctic Report Card

August 13, 2026 — The Trump administration has pulled federal support from the Arctic Report Card, an annual, peer-reviewed report that has been published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration since 2006.

NOAA will no longer provide administrative support for the report, though NOAA scientists and programs will continue to collect climate data, said a statement released by the agency on Tuesday.

“Coordination of the 2026 Arctic Report Card will not be facilitated through NOAA,” the statement said. “All data historically contributed by NOAA to the product will continue to be collected and will remain publicly available.”

Read the full article at the Alaska Beacon