Saving Seafood

ThayerMahan reports successful anti-IUU fishing demonstration with NOAA Fisheries

April 3, 2026 — Maritime technology and surveillance company ThayerMahan reported a positive demonstration of its counter illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing solution with NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement, validating its technologies for future use.

“This demonstration is important for our maritime national security, and the preservation of U.S. marine resources,” ThayerMahan Vice President Offshore Programs Greg Sabra said in a release. “We’ve proven to NOAA, the Coast Guard, and their partners that ThayerMahan’s advanced sensing and data flows give them a dependable, scalable, and repeatable way to observe protected waters and areas of interest, around the clock, with no crewed vessels or aircraft in the loop. This is how the United States can combat illicit actors at operational scale.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NOAA Rescinds Regulation Prohibiting Commercial Fishing in Atlantic Monument Area

April 3, 2026 — NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service rescinded a regulation that prohibited commercial fishing within the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument boundaries. This action was necessary to align fishing regulations with President Trump’s Executive Proclamation Unleashing American Commercial Fishing in the Atlantic to reopen the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument to commercial fishing.

NOAA is proud to support the Administration’s pledge to restore US seafood competitiveness through the America First Fishing Policy. The President’s Executive Proclamation and NOAA’s regulatory actions come as a direct result of feedback from the US fishing industry, and they will increase economic opportunities for American fishermen.

Read the full article at ECO Magazine

FISH Act advances as Senate targets illegal foreign fishing fleets

April 1, 2026 — A federal effort to crack down on illegal fishing is moving forward again on Capitol Hill, with Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan’s, R-Alaska, Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvest (FISH) Act advancing out of the U.S. Senate.

According to reporting from KUCB, the Senate passed the bill on March 22, sending it to the U.S. House for consideration. The legislation targets vessels engaged in illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing by blocking them from accessing U.S. ports and waters.

Under the proposal, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would be responsible for creating a blacklist of offending vessels, with enforcement carried out by the U.S. Coast Guard, KUCB reported.

Sullivan pointed directly to foreign fleets as a growing concern for U.S. fishermen.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

VIRGINIA: The blue catfish: If you can’t beat ’em, eat ’em

March 30, 2026 —  Virginia’s Secretary of Agriculture, Katie Frazier, was in Suffolk Friday to hand globally-known Suffolk-based Wanchese Fish Company a check for $248,000, which will allow it to quicky process blue catfish. Beginning in the seventies, the fish was used to stock rivers for sport fishing.

But now it is considered an ecological threat to the Chesapeake Bay. That’s why now, the state’s position is if you can’t beat ’em, eat ’em. According to NOAA, the taste is described as slightly sweet and clean.

“Processing equipment is, obviously, very expensive,” said Joel Richardson, a spokesperson for Wanchese Fish Company. “But we’re also adding jobs, and we’re hoping that over the next number of years, as we grow and we’re working buying fish from local fishermen, and going to be processing it.

Read the full article at WAVY.com

The training and safety of observers

March 25, 2026 — The loss of an observer aboard the groundfish dragger Lily Jean out of Gloucester, Mass., has increased scrutiny of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) observer program. The incident, one of approximately seven observer deaths in 50 years, illustrates how observers share many of the same risks as fishermen.

The NMFS observer programs began three years after President Richard Nixon and the US Congress established the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 1970, and the existing Bureau of Commercial Fisheries was renamed the National Marine Fisheries Service. In 1973, NMFS started putting observers aboard foreign vessels as part of the North Pacific Foreign Fisheries Observer Program.

Initially, observers were placed on vessels only by invitation from host countries,” says the NOAA website on the history of its observer programs. After the 1976 passage of the Magnuson Stevens Act, foreign vessels had to accept observers, and by 1986, with the foreign vessels gone, NMFS began putting observers on U.S. boats.

Read the full article at The National Fisherman

US lawmakers introduce bill to reauthorize NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Office

March 24, 2026 — U.S. lawmakers have introduced legislation to reauthorize NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay office and bolster restoration efforts in the bay’s watershed.

“The Chesapeake Bay is the heart of so many Virginia communities, supporting fisherman and local businesses, offering unique educational opportunities to students, and serving as a hotspot for recreation,” U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-Virginia) said in a release. “I’m proud to introduce this legislation that works to ensure the Bay remains a resource for generations to come.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MASSACHUSETTS: More than 100 right whales spotted south of Island

March 23, 2026 — Scientists in the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, who conduct aerial surveys to collect data on the presence of marine animals, photographed more than 100 unique North Atlantic right whales over six weeks in waters south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

The aquarium team and another survey team from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) flew six surveys between Feb. 5 and March 18 and photographed more than 115 right whales in that stretch, about a quarter of the current population of 380. Seventy individuals were sighted on March 2 alone, which the aquarium said is the highest number of individual right whales they’ve ever documented; their regular surveys began in 2011.

Many of the right whales, identified by unique marks on their heads called callosities, were deep below the surface, which scientists noted could indicate that food is abundant south of the islands, especially in the Nantucket Shoals area.

Read the full article at The Martha’s Vineyard Times

SSC Reviews Science Priorities as NOAA Funding Tightens

March 19, 2026 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

At its meeting yesterday, the Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council reviewed a preliminary National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) risk/value matrix intended to align science and management priorities under reduced funding and staffing, while continuing to meet Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) mandates.

The regional fishery management councils and associated science centers and regional offices are asked to identify fisheries that may require a narrower science and management focus. Considerations are to be given to operational or management changes and actions needed to implement them. The matrix is intended to guide resource allocation for fiscal year 2027 and beyond for future survey, assessment and analysis cycles. In the Western Pacific, Council and NMFS staffs are developing a regional application of the framework, with a final proposal expected at the June Council meeting.

SSC members noted differences between the Council and NMFS on where certain fisheries fall within the matrix, reflecting differing views of risk and value as well as ambiguity in the guidelines. 

“The current matrix is still insufficient to support prioritization of funding for species-specific stock assessments,” said SSC member Shelton Harley.

Members said that criteria for cultural value and ecosystem importance are not captured for fisheries such as Hawai‘i Kona crab, deepsea shrimp and precious corals. Comparing each fishery’s data collection and analytical needs would improve the framework. Although Western Pacific fisheries like bottomfish and Kona crab are underutilized, their price per pound, contribution to island food security and cultural relevance make their overall value significant. NOAA’s current risk guidance also does not account for economic vulnerability.

Council obligations under the MSA remain unchanged despite any reduction in resources. Regional councils are responsible to manage fisheries for optimum yield and comply with the MSA’s National Standards, which include annual catch limits and accountability measures. Complete, transparent information, including funding, is needed to realistically align and prioritize management and science in this region. Applying the matrix could lead to management changes such as extending stock assessment or annual catch limit cycles, or reclassifying certain stocks as ecosystem component species.

The SSC formed two new working groups of members, Council staff and Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center staff – one to develop research priorities in light of budget constraints and help avoid interruptions in critical data streams, and another on “social valuation” to quantify the sociocultural and economic value of fisheries.

The SSC also reviewed the scientific basis for Guam’s draft territorial reef fish fishery management plan (FMP), following a request from the Guam Department of Agriculture for an independent evaluation of the data and assessment reports informing the plan. University of Guam Marine Laboratory researchers presented a weight-of-evidence approach using multiple datasets and methods to assess reef fish species. SSC members broadly supported the work as informative for the FMP and highlighted the importance of practical, enforceable measures, clear communication of uncertainty, and the use of local and fisher knowledge, especially for data-poor species.

 Tomorrow, the SSC will finalize their recommendations to the Council for fishing in the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument and protected species issues, among others (https://tinyurl.com/159SSCMtg).

ALASKA: NOAA releases Aquaculture Atlas for Gulf of Alaska

March 16, 2026 — A new Aquaculture Atlas for the Gulf of Alaska says the state’s aquaculture sector may be uniquely positioned to adapt to future climate scenarios, but that risks remain.

Shifts in water quality, disease outbreaks and intensified harmful algal bloom levels could threaten production and public health, the NOAA report said.

Additionally, expanding and shifting ranges of non-native or invasive species can affect ecosystem health and aquaculture viability in the future, according to the report.

The time series data used in the document, which was released in February, are relatively short, as they were not intended to distinguish climate-scale changes over time. Integrating longer-scale datasets, climate scenarios, and techno-economic modeling into future planning will be essential for building a resilient aquaculture industry, researchers said.

Read the full article at The Cordova Times 

West Coast groundfish fishery completes historic comeback

March 12, 2026 — After decades of restrictions that idled vessels, slashed quotas, and forced fishermen out of the industry, the West Coast groundfish fishery has fully rebuilt, and the men and women who stuck it out say the turnaround is nothing short of remarkable.

In Oct. 2025, federal fishery officials declared yelloweye rockfish rebuilt, marking the recovery of the last of 10 groundfish species that were once fished to below a quarter of their healthy levels. The announcement came years ahead of schedule- regulators had not expected the slow-growing species to rebound until 2084.

“These fish were really severely limited to us,” Aaron Longton, founder of Port Orford Sustainable Seafood in Oregon, told Mongabay. “Now, we have huge quotas.”

The milestone caps a 25-year effort that began in 2000, when then- Commerce Secretary William Daley declared the West Coast groundfish industry a federal disaster. The declaration triggered an immediate reduction in catch quotas for the 10 overfished species. The Pacific Fishery Management Council advised NOAA to close nearly 20,000 square miles of ocean to trawlers, effectively shutting down most of the fishing grounds.

Read the full story at National Fisherman