Saving Seafood

NOAA refuses petition for right whale migration corridor

July 27, 2026 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration turned down a petition to designate ocean waters along the U.S. East Coast as a “primary historic migration corridor of the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.”

The petition filed in late March 2025 by Save Long Beach Island, a New Jersey community group, sought to have the waters from Maine to Georgia recognized as “critical habitat” under the federal Endangered Species Act, and exclude offshore wind energy projects.

NOAA rejected the petition July 2, with a lengthy explanation “that the petition does not present substantial scientific information indicating a revision to North Atlantic right whale critical habitat may be warranted.”

That outcome was anticipated by Save Long Beach Island with a lawsuit May 4 to compel action by the Department of Commerce.

Despite “multiple follow-up letters, NOAA has not acted on the request, despite the mandated 90-day deadline for doing so,” the group said in announcing its lawsuit May 4.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NOAA report finds Gulf of Maine warming slowed for now, but ecosystem remains unstable

July 24, 2026 — Although the climate is changing, scientists say fishermen can find a path forward.

Maine’s fishing ports are doing well for now, but climate change is destabilizing the Gulf of Maine, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s latest “State of the Ecosystem” report for New England waters. Federal scientists presented the report to the New England Fishery Management Council in April, and published it online last week.

They found that some Maine fishing ports are growing busier, likely driven by the high price of lobster. Stonington, Harpswell and Friendship all see more activity now than they did roughly 20 years ago.

And 2025, like 2024, offered slightly cooler water temperatures after more than a decade of rapid and record-breaking warming in the Gulf of Maine. But the scientists predict that  temperatures will warm again this fall, and will continue to rise long-term as the burning of fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

To weather these ongoing changes, fishermen and their communities need to diversify their businesses, experts say.

“Things don’t look particularly stable either in terms of the fishery or the ecosystem,” said Joseph Caracappa, a research biologist at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center who edited the report. “We’re seeing big changes that are sweeping across the ecology of the system and fisheries. Even socially, culturally — how communities are structured, where people are fishing, who’s actually doing the fishing.”

This annual report includes contributions from more than 100 scientists across the Northeast. NOAA has had to make do with fewer resources as the federal government’s priorities have changed under the second Trump administration, but otherwise the report has been prepared and published as usual, Caracappa said. And in fact, this latest report debuted a new section dedicated to forecasting ocean conditions in the year ahead.

Read the full article at The Maine Monitor

Can killing seals save salmon? Conservationists and Washington lawmakers disagree

July 23, 2026 — A marine wildlife hospital based in the Pacific Northwest is worried about an alarming trend: seals coming to them alive, but gravely injured.

Earlier this month, the organization treated its third seal in less than a year with a gunshot wound. That seal pup, named Waffles, was found over Fourth of July weekend. It had to be euthanized once it was determined its injuries were too severe.

“It’s not uncommon for us to see animals that have been shot,” said Casey Mclean, executive director and veterinary nurse at SR3 SeaLife Response + Rehab + Research. “Historically, we often found those animals dead. Now we’re starting to see more of them alive and suffering from gunshot injuries.”This trend, Mclean believes, is being fueled by misinformation about the role marine mammals play in Washington’s continually struggling salmon populations.

Her concern is amplified by a congressional bipartisan bill from two Washington lawmakers, U.S. Rep. Michael Baumgartner, a Republican, and U.S. Rep. Emily Randall, a Democrat. The Northwest Endangered Salmon Predation Prevention Act (H.R. 9621) would expand the ability of federal, state, and tribal authorities to remove seals and sea lions, known collectively as pinnipeds, from Washington waters in an effort to boost salmon recovery.

In statements to KING 5, both sponsors of the bill lambasted the shooting of the seal pup as illegal, but insisted it should not be confused with what they’re proposing.

“Joe Schmo or any person off the streets shouldn’t be shooting seals or sea lions,” Randall said. “What we have proposed is a robust process to figure out how we can have responsible management of a population that’s decimating our salmon.”

“No one should be illegally poaching sea lions,” Baumgartner said. “I hope the perpetrator is identified and brought to justice. This does not have anything to do with my bipartisan bill to try to save and restore our endangered salmon populations.”

Supporters of the proposal, like the representatives, argue reducing pinnipeds could help struggling salmon populations. However, critics like Mclean say the bill ignores more significant threats to salmon and risks repeating decades-old mistakes in wildlife management.

Read the full article at KUOW

Deep Diving and Innovation to Restore the Gulf’s Mesophotic Corals

July 23, 2026 — Deep in the Gulf of America lies a vital but little-known habitat. In the “mesophotic” (middle light) zone are coral ecosystems that are essential to the Gulf’s food web. In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill injured extensive areas of this delicate environment. Today, scientists across federal agencies and partner organizations are working together to restore these foundational habitats.

In the spring of 2026, a mission on board NOAA Ship Nancy Foster set out to achieve ambitious restoration goals. The team focused on planting propagated corals of species Swiftia exserta, Muricea pendula, and Thesea nivea, and collecting samples to better understand the seafloor and local water quality. Some of the corals were planted on new dome-shaped concrete structures. They were specially designed by Marine Applied Research and Exploration to support coral growth and provide habitat for other small marine animals.

New Innovations to Streamline Outplanting

Getting the corals safely down to the bottom is a challenge. In the past, scientists used “coral elevators.” These large, weighted platforms can be lowered from the ship to the seafloor where a remotely operated vehicle can then move the corals into place. However, these were cumbersome to maneuver, and met significant resistance as they moved through the water. Plus, it’s hard for an ROV, or remotely operated vehicle, to precisely place individual coral fragments on the new dome structures. This challenge called for a new way to transport the corals from the surface down to the bottom, and required the use of human divers to plant them precisely in their intended place.

This mission saw the debut of the “coral torpedo,” an invention by Chris Gardner, fisheries biologist with NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center. Designed with a streamlined shape, it travels quickly through the water column. It acts much like the pneumatic tubes at a drive-through bank teller window to deliver precious coral cargo to the seafloor efficiently and safely.

“We were looking for a way to rapidly get corals to the bottom without a lot of water mixing,” explains Gardner. “The key is to land them in a very precise location. The corals coming from the lab have little bases on them, so we can just pop them in the tube, then at depth the divers have it set up like a little coral buffet that they can pull from and place on the seafloor. This was definitely a prototype, and I have to say it worked even better than expected.”

The new equipment worked flawlessly—safely delivering the delicate specimens down to the divers below. There, the divers made quick work of placing these corals at the designated restoration site.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

NOAA scientists set sail on landmark West Coast Ocean Acidification survey

July 21, 2026 — The following was released by the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:

On July 20, 2026, researchers embarked on the NOAA Ocean Acidification Program’s West Coast Ocean Acidification mission (WCOA 2026). Departing from San Diego aboard the University of Alaska, Fairbanks (R/V) Sikuliaq, the team will travel north to Washington, adding important new observations to NOAA’s long-term monitoring of ocean acidification and its impacts on marine resources.

WCOA 2026 will couple ocean chemistry, biology, and physics to build a more comprehensive view of how extreme events impact biogeochemistry and ecosystems.

“Results from past WCOA cruises have provided novel insights into acidification rates and impacts in coastal and estuary habitats that provide our nation with rich fish and shellfish resources,” said Dr. Simone Alin, Supervisory Oceanographer, NOAA/PMEL. Resource managers and harvesters can use this information to inform fisheries management decisions.

This intensive 30-day coastal research cruise aboard the 261-foot research vessel offers scientists a unique opportunity of sampling during an El Niño that is on track to become one of the strongest on record. El Niño brings warmer water and can alter upwelling and precipitation patterns in the region. Phytoplankton and zooplankton communities will follow these warmer waters, which impacts food webs and fisheries as seen during past marine heatwaves.

Two days after the Sikuliaq departs, the PMEL SeaTrac will head south from Washington to collect added coastal measurements during peak ocean acidification and hypoxia season and pick up any El Niño signal that may have made to the northern California Current System this summer. These OA cruises provide critical high-quality data for the U.S. Coastal Large Marine Ecosystems, and are essential for modeling and forecasting changes in ocean acidification and hypoxia to better prepare for future impacts to valued fisheries and ecosystems.

Led by researchers at the University of Washington’s Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, & Ecosystem Studies and PMEL, researchers will collect high-quality ocean chemistry data, phytoplankton, zooplankton, and other observations. Scientists will also collect environmental DNA, which can reveal the diversity and abundance of ocean life in different ocean conditions.

Data collected during WCOA 2026 are essential for validating models and forecasts of ocean conditions like J-SCOPE. This short term (six to nine month) forecast is used for the California Current Integrated Ecosystem Assessment. High quality ocean carbon chemistry data is required to forecast the saturation state of calcium carbonate, the mineral building block used by shellfish like Dungeness crabs, clams, and oysters.

Other coordinated regular coastal fisheries surveys, including the California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) enhance the impact of WCOA 2026. By conducting biological net tows at established stations, researchers will gain high-quality data on marine life.

Ultimately, the data collected through WCOA 2026 will serve as a foundational benchmark for monitoring, modeling and research in the region. These data will provide calibration information for sensor networks designed to fill measurement gaps between research cruises. With the potential for sampling to occur as ocean conditions change with El Niño, NOAA and our partners will be able to better understand how extreme conditions alter vital marine resources like Dungeness crabs, krill, plankton and other fisheries.

NOAA finds gray whales have increased in population along US West Coast over the past year

July 21, 2026 — A new study published by NOAA’s Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center found that population numbers of gray whales along the U.S. West Coast have increased since 2025.

How and why populations of Eastern North Pacific gray whales are seeing an uptick is still under research, but in a release, NOAA confirmed that the increase “likely exceeds the reproductive capacity of the population.” Last year, the most recent estimate for gray whale calves was the lowest on record at 85. Now, researchers estimate the population of Eastern North Pacific gray whales is between 15,930 and 20,530, which is much higher than last year’s estimate of between 11,690 and 12,890.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Trump Administration Advances First Offshore Critical Minerals Lease Sale Under New Marine Minerals Agency

July 17, 2026 — The Trump administration has taken another step toward launching a U.S. offshore critical minerals industry, with the newly created Marine Minerals Administration (MMA) releasing a proposed leasing notice that could lead to the first federal deep-sea mineral lease sale in U.S. waters.

The proposal covers federal waters off American Samoa and marks one of the first major regulatory actions by the MMA since the Trump administration announced plans in April to merge the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) into a single offshore regulator.

The proposed lease sale is part of the administration’s broader effort to secure domestic supplies of critical minerals—including nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese—that are widely used in batteries, defense systems and advanced manufacturing while reducing dependence on Chinese-controlled supply chains.

“Critical minerals have become a strategic asset in global competition, and China’s dominance in the supply of many of these materials creates unacceptable risks for America’s energy, defense and manufacturing sectors,” Acting MMA Director Matt Giacona said.

Read the full article at gCaptain

US lawmakers advance bill reauthorizing NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Office

July 17, 2026 — U.S. representatives on the House Committee on Natural Resources voted to advance a bill reauthorizing NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Office on 15 July.

“The House just took a key step toward investment in the science, restoration, and education that’s essential to the Chesapeake Bay’s recovery,” Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) Senior Policy Director Keisha Sedlacek said in a statement. “We’re grateful to House leaders for advancing the WATERS Act and look forward to action in the Senate on the companion bill.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Offshore wind turbines create home for Jonah crabs in New England as lobster population declines

July 16, 2026 — From the docks at the Port of Galilee in Narragansett, fishermen are selling lobster, but they’re also selling Jonah crab, a crustacean that’s been making itself at home near offshore wind turbines.

Historically, Jonah crabs that were caught in lobster traps were thrown back out to sea, but things started to change in the early 2010s when fishermen started targeting the species. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration attributes the shift to a decline in lobsters in Southern New England waters.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission estimated there were roughly 50 million lobsters in this area in 1998. Fast forward to 2022, and the population dropped to less than 10 million.

“Environmental conditions in the American lobster’s range are changing at some of the fastest rates in the world,” the Commission wrote on its website. “The 2025 Assessment indicates the [Southern New England] stock is significantly depleted and overfishing is not occurring.”

Read the full article at WPRI

Seafood Harvesters of America Releases National Policy Roadmap to Strengthen U.S. Seafood Competitiveness

July 16, 2026 — The following was released by Seafood Harvesters of America:

Seafood Harvesters of America today released the Fisheries Leadership and National Policy Forum Report, a national roadmap outlining priorities to strengthen the competitiveness of the U.S. seafood industry while building on America’s global leadership in science-based fisheries management.

The report is the result of Seafood Harvesters of America’s inaugural Fisheries Leadership and National Policy Forum, which brought together seafood industry leaders, senior officials from the White House, the U.S. Departments of Commerce, State, and Agriculture, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and other federal agencies, and representatives from Congress, to assess the long-term competitiveness of the U.S. seafood sector.

“This was truly a first-of-its-kind convening of government and seafood industry leaders,” said Hannah Heimbuch, a commercial fisherman and Board President of Seafood Harvesters of America. “It was a landmark gathering, built around a shared commitment to strengthening the competitiveness of U.S. seafood and growing America’s global leadership in sustainable, science-based fisheries management. It was clear throughout these discussions that maintaining a strong U.S. seafood industry will require coordinated leadership, strategic investment, and continued collaboration across government and the seafood sector. This report provides a roadmap for turning that commitment into action.”

The report is intended to serve as a resource for Congress, the Administration, federal agencies, and industry leaders as they work together to strengthen the future of U.S. seafood and America’s working waterfronts.

About Seafood Harvesters of America

Seafood Harvesters of America is the leading national organization representing seafood producers from across the United States. The organization advances science-based fisheries management and advocates for policies that strengthen the sustainability, competitiveness, and long-term resilience of the U.S. seafood industry.