June 3, 2026 — As oceanic temperatures continue to climb, harmful algal blooms have become an increasingly worrisome threat on the seabed floor of the Alaskan Arctic Ocean.
According to NOAA, a Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing-funded project conducted by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) found that warming waters are “causing algal blooms to occur more frequently in the Arctic Sea.”
May 29, 2026 — The Northeast Fisheries Science Center held a two-hour webinar May 22 kicking off a new season of mackerel cooperative research and looking for fishermen to share their skills and knowledge with scientists.
According to Anna Mercer, chief of the NEFSC’s cooperative research branch, fishermen bring valuable experience to collecting and interpreting data, which will help fill research gaps and improve models of reproduction, migration, and the effects of environmental drivers on population dynamics.
Mercer notes that for the purposes of the stock assessment, the most critical information gaps include: how mackerel move between US and Canadian waters; when and where mackerel spawn; whether mackerel exhibit spawning site fidelity; how mackerel abundance and varies from year to year; and what environmental factors—such as temperature, plankton, predators, and others—drive the distribution and abundance of Atlantic mackerel.
May 19, 2026 — This winter, a sudden cold snap led to fish kills around the Chesapeake Bay. Washed up on shores were Atlantic menhaden, and speckled trout. In 2025, a freeze killed young red drum.
Scientists have been studying movements of fish for decades. One team from the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science is in the middle of a three-year study of two of the Chesapeake Bay’s iconic trophy fish– red drum and striped bass.
They’re looking at how warming waters, extreme weather and other factors affect the fishes’ movements in and out of the bay.
Brianna Cahill is a marine ecologist working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She’s monitoring a transponding hydrophone, which is an underwater microphone.
“Okay, talking to it. The status it says armed, so that means that it’s still locked,” Cahill says from the deck of a small boat near the mouth of the bay. “We can go through and activate it.”
The hydrophone is talking to an acoustic receiver anchored to the bottom of the bay some 30 feet below that logs data from tagged fish. She’s telling it to come to the surface for retrieval.
May 19, 2026 — A heatwave in the Pacific Ocean has triggered a legal requirement to protect loggerhead sea turtles, which are endangered species listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
In a bulletin issued Monday morning, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) stated that officials from their office notified the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries of its legal responsibility to close a large area of the Pacific coast off to swordfish drift gillnets.
A drift gillnet is a type of fishing net that is not fixed to the seabed but allowed to drift with the current and is used to catch fish by having them swim into it. Some drift gillnet fleets can be over 10 kilometers (roughly 6.2 miles) long, and several fleets may be fished by a vessel at once, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Now, with the unusually warm waters off Southern California, wildlife officials say the NOAA Fisheries must act before June 1 to avoid a lawsuit.
May 19, 2026 — Federal regulators have determined that Gulf of Alaska Chinook salmon will not be listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), concluding a status review initiated by a 2024 petition.
According to NOAA Fisheries, the agency’s 12-month review found that listing the species is “not warranted” at this time, based on the best available scientific and commercial information.
The decision stems from a petition submitted in Jan. 2024 requesting ESA protections for Gulf of Alaska Chinook salmon. NOAA previously issues a positive 90-day finding, determining that the petition presented substantial information indicating that listing “may be warranted,” prompting a full scientific review.
May 18, 2026 — The odds are in El Niño’s favor right now.
This natural weather phenomenon, part of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, occurs when warmer-than-average water extends throughout most of the equatorial Pacific Ocean just below the surface. That’s happening now. And powerful bursts of westerly wind have pushed immense amounts of warm water eastward, toward the Niño3.4 region where sea surface temperature, along with other atmospheric conditions, is used to assess the state of ENSO.
On May 14, in its monthly ENSO outlook, the NOAA/National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center gave an 82% chance that El Niño will be in place for the period May through July, which implies that it’ll be here within weeks.
El Niño conditions are declared when the atmosphere and ocean are in sync and the Niño3.4 sea surface temperature is at least 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9°F) warmer than the seasonal average.
But just as hurricanes can and do stray from the “cone of uncertainty” at times, it’s vital to remember that El Niño can do much the same. Preparing for the prototypical outcomes is a smart move, as long as you keep in mind that forecasting the El Niño-Southern Oscillation is more a matter of probabilities than certainties.
NOAA now uses a Relative Oceanic Niño Index, or RONI, in which the Niño3.4 value is adjusted relative to the world’s tropical oceans as a whole; the goal is to keep global warming from smudging the signal of El Niño and La Niña events themselves.
Nearly all seasonal forecast ensembles used to predict ENSO at agencies around the world now concur that the imminent event is likely to bring Niño3.4 warming of at least 1.5°C, which would push it into the “strong” category. And some of the ensemble averages are now going well above 2°C, even for the adjusted RONI index. That would put it in the ballpark of the biggest El Niño events in the NOAA database going back to 1950.
Individual ensemble members still cover a fairly broad range, with outcomes varying from a weak event to a record-stomping one, but as shown below, they’re about as close to being unanimous on a significant El Niño as you’re likely to see. (This output is mainly using the traditional pre-RONI index, which tends to run slightly hotter on recent El Niño events.)
May 15, 2026 — The Coonamessett Farm Foundation hosted Scallop Research Share Day, on Tuesday, in cooperation with the New England Fishery Management Council.
Melissa Sanderson, chief operating officer of the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, was one of the presenters. Sanderson said the annual event is a chance to share research progress and results between scientists, fishermen, and fishery managers.
“And it really makes sure that we’re all on the same page,” Sanderson said. “That we’re aware of other projects that we might be able to build upon or learn from. And sometimes it provides new opportunities to collaborate.”
May 14, 2026 — Massachusetts officials are asking for the U.S. Navy’s help in recovering a piece of equipment from the fishing vessel that sunk off the coast of Gloucester earlier this year, believing the video it contains could shed light on what caused the ship to go down.
Seven people, including the ship’s captain and crew and a fisheries observer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, died when the Lily Jean sank on Jan. 30 without sending any distress or mayday call beforehand.
Gov. Maura Healey and state Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, a Gloucester Republican, wrote Monday to U.S. Navy Secretary Hung Cao, requesting help “to uncover all facts related to this incident and bring closure to the families of the F/V Lily Jean while improving safety for those who chose to carry on this beloved tradition in the future.”
“Massachusetts has a long, proud history of seafaring thanks to generations of men and women who risk their lives fishing off our coast and in the North Atlantic,” Healey and Tarr said in their letter.
Healey and Tarr said officials in the Massachusetts State Police received information suggesting that a video recorder and hard drive on the ship remain intact, and that the company that installed the equipment believes the video is retrievable.
May 12, 2026 — South Carolina anglers will have a much longer window to reel in red snapper this summer after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration approved state permits for the 2026 recreational season at the beginning of this month.
Sen. Stephen Goldfinch said the approval means anglers will now have 61 to 62 days to fish for red snapper off South Carolina’s coast and in federal waters, rather than the prior 1 to 2 days.
The permits allow the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources to pilot a program to collect data on how many fish are targeted, harvested and released.
May 12, 2026 — A federal seafood dispute that Eastern Shore seafood companies warned could devastate crab supply chains has now taken a new turn Monday, with federal regulators officially allowing imports from certain countries to continue.
As WBOC previously reported, local seafood companies including Salisbury-based Handy Seafood, Cebu Pacific LLC, and Byrd International joined a federal lawsuit late last year challenging new restrictions tied to the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. The companies argued the rules threatened jobs, production, and the nation’s crab supply because much of the pasteurized crab meat sold in the United States comes from Southeast Asia.