Saving Seafood

U.S. Whale Entanglements Are on the Rise, New Data Shows

October 3, 2025 — The number of large whales that became entangled in fishing gear along coasts in the United States rose sharply in 2024, according to new federal data.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) confirmed 95 whale entanglement cases in U.S. waters last year, a 48 percent increase from 2023, when the agency recorded 64 entanglements. The 2024 number is also significantly higher than the 17-year annual average of 71.4 entanglements.

NOAA shared the numbers in its latest annual report, which the agency is required to publish under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. Federal officials say they are still analyzing the data to understand “what factors contributed to the increase and whether this increase is temporary or part of a longer term trend,” according to a statement from NOAA.

Read the full article at Smithsonian Magazine

 

NOAA Fisheries Extends Emergency Measures for the Northeast Multispecies Fishery, Ensuring the Fishery Continues Uninterrupted Through April 30, 2026

October 3, 2025 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

Today, NOAA Fisheries signed a temporary rule that extends the emergency measures necessary for the Northeast Multispecies to continue operating in fishing year 2025. This action ensures the fishery can continue without interruption in the absence of approved specifications and other measures for the full fishing year 2025. The extended emergency measures would remain in place through April 30, 2026, unless replaced by other measures. With this emergency rule extension, all emergency measures remain in place. Sector and common pool allocations are updated in this extension to reflect the final rosters that were not available when the emergency rule was originally implemented. Additionally, errors in table formatting in the original emergency rule are corrected.

The emergency rule set interim specifications for 2 stocks of cod (Gulf of Maine cod and Georges Bank cod) and for Georges Bank haddock, and affirmed specifications for other Northeast Multispecies stocks previously set in Frameworks 65 and 66. The action also approved groundfish sector operations plans and allocated annual catch entitlements to sectors, set trimester total allowable catches and possession limits for commercial vessels fishing in the common pool, and prohibited commercial common pool vessels and recreational vessels from possessing Georges Bank cod. For all details see the Federal Register Notice.

Background: On May 2, 2025, NMFS published an emergency rule to implement fishing year 2025 management measures for the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (FMP). The emergency rule ensured that the fishery could operate at the start of the fishing year on May 1, 2025, mitigating the adverse economic impact to the groundfish fishery if measures were not put in place. The emergency rule is in effect for 180 days, from May 1, 2025, through October 28, 2025. Under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, an emergency rule can be extended for an additional 186 days if necessary. Framework 69 to the FMP, which recommends the annual specifications necessary to authorize the fishery to operate in the 2025 fishing year beginning on May 1, 2025, and projected specifications for fishing years 2026 and 2027, remains under consideration by NMFS.

This Announcement is also available HERE.

ALASKA: Shutdown threatens Alaska fisheries council decisions

October 2, 2025 — The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC), responsible for overseeing federal fisheries off Alaska, is navigating turbulent waters marked by both budget uncertainty and the government shutdown. NPFMC is one of the eight regional councils established by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act in 1976.

After months of delays due to the Trump administration’s cuts to NOAA, the council finally secured its 2025 operational funding this summer. However, as Yereth Rosen reported for Alaska Beacon on September 30, a federal government shutdown now threatens to derail the science-based decision-making that the fisheries depend on.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Funding problems, shutdown force changes for North Pacific Fishery Management Council

October 1, 2025 — After months of uncertainty amid the Trump administration’s deep cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the council that manages commercial fisheries in federal waters off Alaska now has all the federal funding that had been allocated to it for 2025 operations.

But the North Pacific Fishery Management Council now faces a new source of uncertainty: the federal government shutdown.

The funding and shutdown complications have reshaped the council’s October meeting, underway this week.

Read the full article at the Anchorage Daily News

NOAA Fisheries continuing seafood inspections, fisheries management despite US government shutdown

October 1, 2025 — NOAA Fisheries will continue conducting seafood inspections, fisheries management, and law enforcement operations during the U.S. federal government shutdown, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), although most research efforts will be paused.

The federal government officially entered a partial shutdown 1 October after Congress failed to pass appropriations bills funding several departments and agencies into fiscal year 2026. While the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution to keep the government funded for seven more weeks, Republican leaders in the Senate were unable to accomplish the same. Democrats in the Senate have held firm in opposing the stopgap funding bill until Republicans concede on funding health care subsidies.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Van Hollen, Schiff Demand Answers on the Withholding of Funds from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Critical Programs Put in Jeopardy

October 1, 2025 — The following was released by Senator Chris Van Hollen:

Today, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) are demanding the Trump administration provide answers on why the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) spending plan is $246 million short of the funds Congress directed.

In a letter to Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, the Senators raise concerns about the environmental and economic harms caused by the withholding of funds.

“The NOAA spending plan cuts funding across multiple NOAA line offices, including the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, the National Ocean Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service. These cuts impact research labs, competitive research grants, cooperative institutes, and fisheries management programs,” the Senators wrote.

“The administration and OMB must make apportionment decisions within the boundaries of laws enacted by Congress, and we expect you to provide NOAA with its full amount of congressionally appropriated funding. We are concerned that the decision to withhold and redirect funding for NOAA could undermine decades of work to ensure the safety of Americans and the economic security of the nation. This work produces economic and public safety benefits that far outweigh the investments Congress has provided for NOAA’s work,” the Senators concluded.

The lawmakers emphasized how NOAA supports a variety of critical services including public safety during extreme weather events; providing accurate weather forecasts; supporting the fishing industry, maritime activities, and economic security; and protecting coastal and marine resources. The withholding or redirecting of funds puts these services in jeopardy.

The full text of the letter can be found here and below.

Dear Director Vought and Secretary Lutnick:

We write to express deep concern regarding the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fiscal year (FY) 2025 spending plan, approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in August. This NOAA spending plan is $246 million short of the funds Congress appropriated to NOAA in the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 (Public Law 119–4). Given this last-minute withholding of funding, we request information on why funding for NOAA is not being allocated and spent as congressionally directed.

NOAA is mandated by Congress to support a variety of critical services for the nation, including public safety during extreme weather events, providing accurate weather forecasts, maritime activities, and economic security. The agency helps support a $183 billion seafood industry and manages fisheries to ensure sustainable and safe seafood for future generations. NOAA also works to protect coastal and marine resources that provide economic benefits for coastal communities through dollars directly spent on recreation and tourism. Conserving coastal places protects against flooding, enhances water quality, and helps coastal counties contribute $9 trillion to the U.S. economy.

On March 15, 2025, Public Law 119–4 was signed into law, extending FY24 spending into FY25. The administration has not apportioned funding in accordance with the law. First, the administration illegally withheld $100 million that Congress classified as emergency funding for NOAA in FY25 continuing resolution (CR), as the Chair and Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee have previously stated. Additionally, the Department of Commerce proposed a $19 million transfer out of NOAA to the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) to cover shortfalls caused by OMB, which also denied $20 million in FY25 funding for BIS classified as emergency spending under the CR. Finally, OMB has not apportioned approximately $127 million for NOAA included in the FY25 CR. The Department subsequently proposed obligating some of this funding for the midlife repair upgrades of the NOAA Vessel Henry B. Bigelow.

The NOAA spending plan cuts funding across multiple NOAA line offices, including the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, the National Ocean Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service. These cuts impact research labs, competitive research grants, cooperative institutes, and fisheries management programs. For example, the National Oceans and Coastal Security Fund was eliminated, the Coastal Zone Management program was cut by $1.5 million, the National Estuarine Research Reserve System was cut by $4 million, the National Sea Grant and Aquaculture programs were cut by a combined $8.73 million, and climate research was cut by more than $58 million.

Cuts to these NOAA programs will lead to environmental damage, economic loss, and social harm across the nation. For example, cuts to the National Sea Grant program mean that fishermen in Gulf states will lose the fishery management support that Sea Grant provides for commercially and recreationally important reef fish species like snapper, communities in the Great Lakes will no longer benefit from Sea Grant’s support to address aquatic invasive species or prepare for coastal storms, and shellfish growers in the Chesapeake Bay and beyond will lose critical resources to support their small aquaculture businesses. Furthermore, cutting Coastal Zone Management competitive research grants will impact coastal communities in Washington, Oregon, Massachusetts, Maine, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire, where FY25 research grants have been awarded but the funding may not be obligated.

The administration and OMB must make apportionment decisions within the boundaries of laws enacted by Congress, and we expect you to provide NOAA with its full amount of congressionally appropriated funding. We are concerned that the decision to withhold and redirect funding for NOAA could undermine decades of work to ensure the safety of Americans and the economic security of the nation. This work produces economic and public safety benefits that far outweigh the investments Congress has provided for NOAA’s work. Thank you and we look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Faster Analysis of Data to Evaluate Bycatch Reduction Efforts in Pollock Fishery

September 30, 2025 — Scientists used a model to detect and classify fish in videos more quickly than humans. The detection model is called You Only Look Once, version 11 (or YOLOv11). It’s helping scientists evaluate the effectiveness of excluders that help salmon escape from fishing nets intended to catch pollock.

YOLOv11 is an object detection deep learning model for images. Scientists at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center customized it to detect and identify both pollock and salmon in fishing nets. This allows scientists to semi-automate the video review process used to evaluate the effectiveness of bycatch reduction devices. They can also observe fish behavior to improve the performance of these devices.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Feds seek to reauthorize marine mammal harassment rule

September 30, 2025 — A bureau at NOAA is pushing the agency to reimplement an existing rule for how seismic testing affects marine mammals in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of the rule’s expiration next spring.

If extended, the rule would reauthorize harassment of marine mammals by oil and gas industry companies that conduct seismic tests in the Gulf, which President Donald Trump renamed the Gulf of America earlier this year.

In an August letter, Director Jennifer Wallace of NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Policy wrote to the head of the Office of Protected Resources asking that the current rule be reimplemented going forward. That rule includes monitoring requirements, efforts by companies to detect marine mammals and maximum harassment levels.

Read the full article at E&E News

The Council Responds to Executive Order 14276; Pauses the Gear Marking Framework and Approves a Management Flexibility Amendment

September 30, 2025 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council met in Gloucester, MA from September 23 – 25, 2025.

Notable outcomes are summarized below.

COUNCIL FINALIZES RESPONSE TO EXECUTIVE ORDER 14276 ON SEAFOOD COMPETITIVENESS

At its September meeting, the New England Fishery Management Council finalized its response to Executive Order (EO) 14276, “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness.” The letter, developed in coordination with NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO), lays out a work plan to reduce regulatory burdens, increase fishery production, improve economic returns, and help prevent unnecessary closures. The Council submitted its recommendations to NOAA Fisheries on September 30, 2025.

To shape its response, the Council sought broad input from all Advisory Panel members and Plan Development Teams. Based on this input, the Executive Committee drafted a list of recommendations for new and ongoing actions and submitted this to the Council for approval. The list contains four key areas:

  1. Council Actions in the NOAA Fisheries Rulemaking Process: urged timely implementation of Northeast Multispecies Framework Adjustment 69 and the Atlantic Herring 2025–2027 specifications.

  2. Council Actions Currently Under Development: continue work currently underway related to increases in management flexibility, specifications for monkfish and skates, reduced burdens in the dogfish fishery, and a scallop strategic plan.

  3. Possible New Council Actions: the Council will consider updates to vessel baseline restrictions, herring slippage rules, monkfish management, accountability measures, gillnet exemption areas, and outdated regulations.

  4. Non-Council Actions: that call on federal agencies to expand seafood marketing, strengthen science and monitoring, support recreational management tools, invest in climate-ready fisheries, and streamline NEPA reviews.

The full list of recommended actions is available here.

NOAA council reels in proposal to encourage ‘ropeless’ fishing gear

September 29, 2025 — The New England Fishery Management Council tabled a proposal last week to encourage the use of “on-demand” and “ropeless” fishing gear in the Atlantic Ocean to protect right whales after industry groups and a Maine lawmaker argued the plan would unduly burden lobster fishermen.

At a Thursday council meeting in Gloucester, Massachusetts, fishermen and industry representatives decried the framework proposal, saying the new fishing gear remains unproven and would further disrupt an industry already facing heavy regulation in a difficult economy.

Earlier in the week, Rep. Jared Golden, a Maine Democrat, had also written a letter to NEFMC Executive Director Cate O’Keefe charging that the framework intended to protect endangered right whales from fishing gear entanglements was “premature and unnecessary.” Golden said it runs counter to a congressional mandate that the federal government should suspend any regulations targeting fishing gear until 2028.

Read the full article at E&E News