Saving Seafood

NOAA Fisheries Releases 2025 Alaska Aquaculture Accomplishments Report

September 29, 2025 — The NOAA Fisheries Alaska Regional Office has released the 2025 Aquaculture Accomplishments Report. It highlights the growth of the aquaculture industry in Alaska and provides details about local, state, and federal efforts aimed at supporting this important maritime industry.

NOAA’s Aquaculture Program supports cutting-edge science and policies to foster sustainable domestic aquaculture growth. Currently, at least 70 percent of the seafood Americans eat comes from other countries, and over half of that is farm-raised. Produced responsibly, as it is here in the United States, aquaculture is one of the most resource-efficient ways of making healthy food, and it can help reduce reliance on imports, providing a more stable and secure seafood supply. By expanding domestic aquaculture in harmony with wild-capture fisheries, NOAA helps create jobs, support coastal communities, and ensure healthy, home-grown seafood for American families.

Alaska’s aquaculture industry consists of seaweed and shellfish farming. Oysters, mussels, sugar kelp, ribbon kelp, and bull kelp are the primary species grown in the state. The NOAA Fisheries Alaska Aquaculture Program has strategically aligned our annual activities to support the Executive Order on Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth, and NOAA’s 2023-2028 Aquaculture Strategic Plan. The plan lays out a framework to support a thriving, resilient, and robust U.S. aquaculture industry as part of a resilient seafood sector. This effort also supports the Executive Order on Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

California leads spike in whale entanglements last year, NOAA report says

September 25, 2025 —  The number of large whale entanglements in U.S. waters increased steeply in 2024, with California seeing the most of the incidents, a U.S. government report said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a report last week documenting 95 large whale entanglements in 2024, compared to 64 in 2023 and well above the historical average of around 71 per year. The majority of the entanglements, 71%, happened off the coast of four states: Alaska, California, Hawaii and Massachusetts, the report said. Of those, 25% occurred off the California coast, primarily in the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Area.

The report said about half of the entanglements, mostly of humpback whales, were directly attributed to commercial or recreational fisheries. Whales become snagged in fishing gear used to catch lobster, crab, and other species, affecting their ability to swim, reproduce, and feed, and often causing death.

Entanglements and vessel strikes are two main causes of whale deaths, according to the NOAA. The agency says that since 2007, at least 922 humpback whales have been maimed or killed by long lines of rope fishermen use to pull up crab cages.

Read the full article at CBS News

NOAA identifies 21,000 acres suitable for commercial aquaculture development

September 25, 2025 — NOAA Fisheries has identified 21,000 acres of ocean off the coast of California and in the Gulf of Mexico, now called the Gulf of America by the Trump Administration, that it claims would be suitable for offshore aquaculture development.

The announcement follows up on an executive order issued by U.S. President Donald Trump during his first term, which charged NOAA Fisheries with establishing 10 Aquaculture Opportunity Areas (AOA) by 2025. According to the order, AOAs would be sites predetermined by the government to be suitable for commercial aquaculture.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Conservation groups to sue over hatchery salmon in Columbia River

September 24, 2025 — The Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC) and The Conservation Angler (TCA) have announced plans to sue the federal government over the damage they claim hatchery fish are doing to wild salmon, steelhead, and orca populations.

“Mitchell Act hatcheries are causing harm that we know how to prevent. We’re taking this action today as part of our long-standing commitment to hold the federal government accountable and prevent further violations that imperil these species and the ecosystems they depend on,” WFC Executive Director Emma Helverson said in a release. “It’s time for NOAA to stop prioritizing maintaining harmful hatchery practices over their responsibility to protect wild fish for current and future generations.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Red snapper commercial season closes as NOAA catch limits met for 2025

September 24, 2025 — The commercial harvest of red snapper closed Wednesday morning, officially ending the 2025 fishing season of the animal now for both commercial and recreational fishermen.

According to the NOAA, the commercial catch limit of 102,951 pounds whole weight was met for the year, prompting the season closure.

This comes after NOAA fisheries published a final rule in June, reducing the catch limit from 124,815 pounds whole weigh to 102,951 pounds whole weight. The recreational catch limit of red snapper also dropped from 29,656 fish to 22,797 fish.

Read the full article at WPDE

Amid economic volatility, financial challenges, U.S. seafood producers are calling for change

September 23, 2025 — Every year, more than US$100 million in federal financing programs are allocated to support U.S. aquaculture businesses. But some producers are finding that availability and meaningful access can be two different things – and they are beginning to speak out. 

It’s a seeming disconnect between government pronouncements to support the growth of U.S. aquaculture through these funding programs and the difficulties and hurdles business owners say they face when trying to access them. 

“ One of the things that’s really making it a lot more difficult is the position of NOAA,” says Robin Pearl, co-founder and president of Florida-based shrimp genetics producer American Penaeid. “And it shouldn’t be this hard and it shouldn’t be this way.” 

Pearl, who also co-founded American Mariculture (AMI), the company behind Sun Shrimp, maintains the current system governing NOAA-managed financing programs has not been responsive to the needs of seafood farmers, especially after their businesses have had to endure a global pandemic and other natural disasters.

Read the full article at Aquaculture North America

NOAA proposes allowing offshore fish farms in Gulf, Pacific

September 23, 2025 — The Trump administration plans to offer up to 21,000 acres of federal waters off Southern California and Texas for large-scale commercial aquaculture, according to a NOAA proposal for 13 “aquaculture opportunity areas” in the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.

The initiative — which could provide a boon to U.S. seafood production while carrying risks for traditional fishing economies and ocean environments — shifts into high gear a Trump administration policy priority embodied in two executive orders, one signed by President Donald Trump during his first term and another this spring.

The Biden administration continued the work of studying possible aquaculture projects, including releasing two draft environmental impact statements. The NOAA documents released Friday are the final environmental reviews.

Read the full article at E&E News

Western Pacific Council Pushes for Tougher Standards on Seafood Imports

September 23, 2025 — Western Pacific fishery managers are pressing federal regulators to crack down on seafood imports that don’t meet US standards for protecting marine mammals. 

At its meeting last week, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council urged NOAA to strengthen newly finalized Marine Mammal Protection Act Import Provisions, which were published earlier this month in the Federal Register. The Council called for stricter benchmarks when reviewing foreign fisheries and requested a transparent process that allows for public and stakeholder input. 

The import rules, first authorized in 1972 but only now being fully enforced, are meant to block seafood products from countries that fail to meet US requirements for reducing marine mammal bycatch, according to the Council. For the first time, NOAA has issued Comparability Findings that will ban imports from certain nations and fisheries starting Jan. 1, 2026 — affecting roughly 15% of U.S. seafood imports. 

Read the full article at SeafoodNews.com

NOAA advisory council endorses Pacific monument fishing

September 22, 2025 — President Donald Trump’s push to roll back commercial fishing restrictions in marine national monuments advanced this week when a NOAA advisory council recommended permitting fishing in four Pacific ocean monuments.

The decision by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council to move toward scraping the prohibitions on commercial fishing would align policy with Trump’s April 17 executive order requiring the Commerce and Interior departments to “review all existing marine monuments and provide recommendations to the President of any that should be opened to commercial fishing.”

The council directed its staff to “prepare an analysis of management options to implement” the executive order to be presented at the council’s next meeting in December.

Read the full article at E&E News

Conservation groups plan lawsuit over hatcheries

September 18, 2025 — Two Seattle area conservation groups say they intend to sue the federal government for failure to protect salmon, steelhead and orcas from hatchery programs.

The announcement from Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC) and The Conservation Angler (TCA) contends that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is funding and authorizing hatcheries in the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam under the Mitchell Act, relying on a flawed 2024 Biological Opinion that contains scientifically indefensible conclusions and violates the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The Mitchell Act, passed by Congress in 1938, is intended to advance the conservation of salmon and steelhead fisheries in the Columbia River Basin. Mitchell Act funding has supported the establishment, operation and maintenance of hatchery facilities in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, as well as monitoring and evaluation of hatchery programs, screening irrigation intakes, and improving fish passage.  NOAA Fisheries has administered the Mitchell Act since 1970, distributing funds to tribes and Oregon, Washington and Idaho to produce hatchery salmon and steelhead to support fisheries.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman