Saving Seafood

‘This Is a Calamity’: Federal Cuts Decimate NOAA Programs and Threaten Rhode Island’s Blue Economy

March 4, 2025 — As chaos and uncertainty continue to be unleashed on federal agencies thanks to the policies of the Trump administration, the Ocean State’s blue economy is just starting to feel those downstream impacts.

While federal jobs by themselves don’t play an outsized role in the state’s economy, many functions of scientific marine research, marine resource management, and commercial fishing rely heavily on federal initiatives or funding.

The past few weeks have seen 800 probationary employees at the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fired without cause, and further deep cuts to agency staffing are expected by a March 13 deadline issued by the White House to its federal agency chiefs.

Many of the federal grants awarded to states, nonprofits or other nongovernmental agencies remain frozen and inaccessible, despite multiple court orders from multiple district judges to turn the funding spigot back on.

Read the full article at EcoRi News

MAINE: Trump administration terminates Maine Sea Grant

March 3, 2025 — The Maine Sea Grant program was abruptly ended by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, amid sweeping cutbacks to NOAA’s budget.

The news came Saturday during the Maine Fishermen’s Forum, an annual industry gathering in Rockland that Maine Sea Grant first helped organize in the 1980s. The Trump administration budget ax would cut $1.5 million in funding this year, $4.5 million through January 2028 and affect 20 Sea Grant workers at the University of Maine in Orono and the state’s small coastal ports.  

“It has been determined that the program activities proposed to be carried out in Year 2 of the Maine Sea Grant Omnibus Award are no longer relevant to the focus of the Administration’s priorities and program objectives,” stated a notification letter from NOAA to University of Maine officials.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Coastal economies rely on NOAA, from Maine to Florida, Texas and Alaska – even if they don’t realize it

March 3, 2025 — Healthy coastal ecosystems play crucial roles in the U.S. economy, from supporting multibillion-dollar fisheries and tourism industries to protecting coastlines from storms.

They’re also difficult to manage, requiring specialized knowledge and technology.

That’s why the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – the federal agency best known for collecting and analyzing the data that make weather forecasts and warnings possible – leads most of the government’s work on ocean and coastal health, as well as research into the growing risks posed by climate change.

The government estimates that NOAA’s projects and services support more than one-third of the nation’s gross domestic product. Yet, this is one of the agencies that the Trump administration has targeted, with discussions of trying to privatize NOAA’s forecasting operations and disband its crucial climate change research.

As a marine environmental historian who studies relationships among scientists, fishermen and environmentalists, I have seen how NOAA’s work affects American livelihoods, coastal health and the U.S. economy.

Here are a few examples from just NOAA’s coastal work, and what it means to fishing industries and coastal states.

Read the full article at The Conversation

Conservation groups sue NOAA Fisheries over protection for Pacific Northwest spring-run Chinook salmon

February 27, 2025 — Conservation groups are suing NOAA Fisheries after the agency missed the one-year deadline for ruling on a petition seeking Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for spring-run Chinook salmon in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.

“These iconic fish are at risk of disappearing from our coastal rivers forever if [NOAA Fisheries] doesn’t act quickly,” Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) Legal Fellow Jeremiah Scanlan said in a statement. “Spring-run Chinook salmon badly need protections, but instead, the agency has taken the lazy river approach and drifted past its own deadlines.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Oyster Restoration Investments Net Positive Returns for Economy and Environment

February 25, 2025 — A report by the North Carolina Coastal Federation shows that NOAA and our partners’ investment in oyster restoration produces almost double the amount in economic and environmental benefits. The economic report (PDF, 43 pages) found that for every $1 spent on oyster reef restoration, the state sees $1.70 in return. Independent researchers from RTI International assessed the value of restoring the 400-acre Senator Jean Preston Oyster Sanctuary Network in Pamlico Sound.

“Investing in oyster reef restoration means investing in all of the benefits these reefs provide and the benefits of the restoration work itself,” says NOAA Marine Habitat Resource Specialist Stephanie Krug. “This report is vital in telling that story.”

Economic Benefits of Restoration

Between 2013 and 2023, NOAA’s Office of Habitat Conservation, the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, and local partners invested $20 million building the sanctuary network. This work:

  • Supported 143 jobs
  • Generated $34 million* in revenue for North Carolina businesses
  • Provided $8.7 million* in employee wages and benefits

*All monetary figures in 2023 dollars

“This work is a good shot in the arm for a lot of local businesses,” says Will Hollowell, Operations Manager at Stevens Towing Company of North Carolina. The local family-owned Stevens Towing transports and deploys the limestone, granite, and other materials used as a base for oyster reef restoration in the sanctuary network. During the spring and summer months, Stevens Towing employs 10 to 15 skilled contractors to carry out the work.

“There are the local quarries that supply the rock and the truck drivers that haul 43,000 tons of rock to our location. They need fuel, and they need lunch. Our tugboats burn 1,000 gallons of locally purchased fuel a day, and I buy roughly $3,000 worth of provisions and supplies every 2 weeks. That’s a good boost to these rural areas.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

ALASKA: Alaska fisheries observers experience harassment at much higher than reported rates, study says

February 21, 2025 — Fisheries observers in Alaska face workplace harassment, intimidation and assault at much higher rates than are reported, but the true prevalence is unknown as incidents largely go unreported, according to a new multiyear study.

Observers work alongside fishing crews to document scientific fisheries data essential to fisheries management, nontargeted species harvested as bycatch, and potential law violations of commercial fisheries operations, as mandated by federal law. Observers’ assignments can be aboard vessels or onshore locations such as harbors or processing plants, and can range from a few days to several weeks at sea.

The study focused on observers working in Alaska’s North Pacific groundfish and halibut fishery, which spans from the Bering Sea, to the Aleutian Islands and the Gulf of Alaska — the largest fisheries monitoring program in the United States.

“Observers find themselves labeled by industry members as ‘fish cops’ or ‘snitches,’ have been subject to intimidation, harassment, and assault (including sexual assault and rape), and have even gone missing at sea,” according to research cited in the study.

Study results estimate 45% of those who experienced harassment disclosed the issue in a given year, and that true prevalence of harassment varied from 22% to 38% of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration observers each year.

Researchers with the Alaska office of the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, and special agents at the Alaska Office of Law Enforcement, conducted the study from 2016 to 2022. Researchers say this is the first study to estimate rates of victimization and disclosure in a fisheries observer program.

“The goal of the project was really to discover what is the true victimization rate, trying to account for that problem we have in all crimes, which is underreporting,” said Craig Faunce, a study co-author. He is a research fisheries biologist with NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska Fisheries Science Center.

Read the full article at the Alaska Beacon

Gettin’ Jiggy Developing a New Fisheries Survey

February 21, 2025 — Offshore marine development is impacting several of our long-standing fishery-independent surveys. To maintain data continuity, support sustainable fisheries management, and continue improving and modernizing data collections/streams, we’re working with fishermen in our region to develop and test a brand new survey!

Trials and Tribulations

What goes into designing a new survey? Well, a lot of trial and error. The earliest trips, called “shake-down” trips, were dedicated to separating the theoretical from the practical. Sometimes things in theory don’t always work in practice. So, in April, October, and November 2024, we conducted shake-down trips out of Ocean City, Maryland, and Virginia Beach, Virginia. That’s when I got to see a bunch of interesting ways to test out our ideas and adapt to challenges. Here are a few of the things we worked on and tested during our shake-down trips.

One item we’re testing is automatic jigging machines. They consist of fishing reels the size of a large coffee can, a computer screen, and analog buttons. The machines have programmable options for standardization of gear deployment and retrieval including jig pattern and speed, height off the seafloor, and sensitivity to detect fish on the line.

Fine tuning the machine’s fish sensitivity was tricky. The sensitivity function tells the machine how much tension is required before the line is automatically reeled back to the surface. If we set the sensitivity too high, the machines may misinterpret the bobbing lead sinkers or fish nibbles as an actual hooked fish and reel the line up prematurely. If we set the sensitivity too low, they won’t detect small, hooked fish.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

US confirms Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary amid uncertainty over NOAA’s future

February 20, 2025 — The U.S. Senate voted to confirm Howard Lutnick as the secretary of the Department of Commerce despite fears that the Trump administration plans to cut NOAA funding or dismantle the agency altogether.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Commerce, which oversees such agencies as NOAA, was confirmed on a 51-45 vote, with no Democrat senators supporting his nomination.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Longtime NOAA staffer acting as head of fisheries agency amid Trump transition

February 14, 2025 — Longtime NOAA staffer Emily Menashes is currently leading NOAA Fisheries amid a leadership gap following the resignation of Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries Janet Coit last month.

The appointment is part of a temporary churn of leadership positions at the U.S. Department of Commerce as leaders appointed by then U.S. President Joe Biden step down to make room for U.S. President Donald Trump’s picks. As the Biden administration came to an end in January, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, NOAA Administrator Richard Spinrad, and NOAA Fisheries head Coit all resigned, leaving the nation’s top fisheries management positions needing to be filled.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NEW JERSEY: Is NOAA’s Sandy Hook lab at risk from funding freeze? ‘Bad news for fishermen’

February 14, 2025 — NOAA’s James J. Howard Marine Sciences Lab in Sandy Hook is in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump’s freeze on federal funding, Rep. Frank Pallone said this week.

Pallone, a Democrat and ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said $5 million in Inflation Reduction Act funding is unavailable which is putting jobs, research and critical infrastructure at the lab at risk.

The lab’s seawater intake supply infrastructure, essential for the lab’s core function, was set to be rehabilitated using IRA funds. Pallone said the freeze means the system is in jeopardy of total failure by April when contracts for critical maintenance staff expire. He said the system must now be manually shut down each night when maintenance staff leaves.

Read the full article at Asbury Park Press