Saving Seafood

NORTH CAROLINA: Pilot project extends summer red snapper season 62 days

May 6, 2026 — Recreational red snapper season will be open 62 days this summer for anglers willing to take part in a pilot project designed to monitor the tightly regulated fishery.

The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries is one of four Southeastern states to receive a federal exempted fishing permit, or EFP, that lets anglers take part in testing out a data-collection program that will use a mobile application to monitor the recreational red snapper season. The hook-and-line-only season will be July 1-Aug. 31.

Anglers who would like to participate must dowwnload the VESL mobile application to receive a copy of the EFP, which they will be required to keep throughout the season. Participants must agree to record their red snapper harvest and discard information.

Read the full article at CoastalReview.org

Rising diesel prices force shrimp boats to stay docked

May 4, 2026 — Shrimp boats are sitting at the dock as rising diesel fuel prices force local seafood businesses to cut back on trips to sea.

The average price for diesel fuel in North Carolina is now more than $5.50 per gallon, according to AAA. That’s a $1.50 more than the price this time last year.

Bob Taylor, who has spent 22 years in the seafood business, said the increase is affecting daily operations at Calabash’s Waterfront Seafood Shack.

“Fuel is liquid gold right now. We want it to go back to liquid silver,” Taylor said.

Read the full article at WECT

Right whale births reported highest since 2009

April 29, 2026 — Whale researchers report endangered North Atlantic right whales have completed their most successful calving season since 2009, with 23 mother-calf pairs to help rebuild a population estimated at only about 380 animals.

The annual calving season off the southeastern United States, from the Carolinas to Georgia and Florida, runs from mid-November until mid-April and is closely monitored by aerial survey teams.

Scientists with the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium track the season closely. In an April 29 statement they reported there were shorter intervals between calving for the majority of the adult female whales.

“While a healthy right whale can give birth every three to four years, we had been seeing nearly 10 years between calves for some females. Many of this year’s moms have had shorter intervals—18 of them previously gave birth within the last six years—giving us hope that they may be healthier and can help grow the population faster,” said Amy Warren, scientific program officer for the Anderson Cabot Center.

Read the full article at WorkBoat

NORTH CAROLINA: Webinar set on developing new blue crab stock assessment

April 28, 2026 — A webinar is scheduled for late May to share with the public steps in the process to develop a new benchmark blue crab assessment, intended to better understand population dynamics and determine the fishery’s stock status.

The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries is holding the online meeting 6-8 p.m. Thursday, May 28, via WebEx. Register online to join the webinar. There will be a listening station in the division’s office in Morehead City as well.

A 2018 benchmark stock assessment indicates the state’s blue crab stock is overfished, which means that the population size is too small, and overfishing is occurring, which means that the removal rate is too high.

There was a 2023 stock assessment update but division staff and external peer reviewers identified concerns with model specifications and results, so the assessment is not being used for management,” officials said. “However, available data from Division sampling and monitoring programs indicate a continued decline of the Blue Crab stock. The Division has started the process of developing a new benchmark stock assessment.”

Read the full article at CoastalReview.org

Why the US will pay a French company nearly $1 billion to give up wind farm plans

March 30, 2026 — This week, the Trump administration announced it had struck an unusual deal. The U.S. government will pay TotalEnergies, a French power generation company, $928 million to scuttle its plans to build two wind farms off the coasts of New Jersey and North Carolina. Together, the projects could have powered some 1.7 million homes.

The deal represents a new wrinkle in President Donald Trump’s campaign to jettison America’s nascent offshore wind industry, which many environmentalists see as key to reducing the country’s carbon footprint. Mr. Trump has criticized wind power as ineffective and costly, and his administration has tried to curtail wind infrastructure development.

“Offshore wind is one of the most expensive, unreliable, environmentally disruptive, and subsidy-dependent schemes ever forced on American ratepayers and taxpayers,” said Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, in a news release announcing the deal on Monday.

NORTH CAROLINA: Applicants needed for southern flounder advisory committee

March 27, 2026 —  Commercial and recreational fishermen, scientists, nongovernmental organization representatives and others with an expertise in southern flounder have an opportunity to guide the latest amendment to the state management plan for the fishery.

Applications are due by April 10 to volunteer to serve on the Southern Flounder Fishery Management Plan Amendment 5 Advisory Committee.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries will work with the advisory committee to develop the amendment intended to address the Marine Fisheries Commission’s request to expand recreational access to the flounder fishery while continuing to rebuild the southern flounder stock, as well as issues in the commercial fishery.

Read the full article at CoastalReview.org

NORTH CAROLINA: Wind farm deal off Wilmington coast canceled. Here’s why.

March 26, 2026 — With the political climate, at least in Washington, working against it, a French energy giant has cut a deal with the Trump administration to cancel its offshore wind lease off Southeastern North Carolina for investing an equal amount in fossil fuels.

The agreement by TotalEnergies is another move that brings into stark question the chance of any wind farms rising in the waters off the Cape Fear coast − at least in the short term.

It also is another front opened by the White House on the future of offshore wind, an energy source that President Trump, a Republican, has vocally criticized since his first term in office.

“The Trump Administration is spending nearly $1 billion in taxpayer money to pay off a company to stop investments in the clean energy we need,” N.C. Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat, said on a social media post. “This is a terrible deal for the people of North Carolina and our country.”

Read the full article at Star News Online

 

Trump administration’s $1B deal to stop offshore wind shows an evolution in its anti-wind strategy

March 25, 2026 — The Trump administration’s $1 billion payout to a French energy company to walk away from U.S. offshore wind development is a novel tactic against the industry that supporters see as creative — but opponents see as foolish and extreme.

The Interior Department announced Monday that TotalEnergies agreed to what is essentially a refund of its leases for projects off the coasts of North Carolina and New York, and will invest the money in a liquefied natural gas export terminal in Texas and other fossil fuel projects instead. The department hailed it as an “innovative agreement” with the French energy giant so that the “American people will no longer pay for ideological subsidies that benefited only the unreliable and costly offshore wind industry.”

The tactical shift comes after federal courts have thwarted President Donald Trump’s efforts to stop offshore wind through executive action.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the payment “sets a dangerous precedent and is a shortsighted misuse of taxpayer dollars.”

Robin Shaffer, president of the anti-offshore wind group Protect Our Coast New Jersey, applauded what he called “out of the box” thinking. Shaffer said after losing in the courts, the administration needed a way to take back leases that never should have been issued because of the harm offshore wind development causes to the marine environment.

Read the full article at The Associated Press

Trump administration to pay French company $1B to walk away from US offshore wind leases

March 24, 2026 — The Trump administration will pay $1 billion to a French company to walk away from two U.S. offshore wind leases as the administration ramps up its campaign against offshore wind and other renewable energy.

TotalEnergies has agreed to what’s essentially a refund of its leases for projects off the coasts of North Carolina and New York, and will invest the money in fossil fuel projects instead, the Department of Interior announced Monday.

President Donald Trump’s administration has tried to halt offshore wind construction, but federal judges repeatedly overturned those orders.

The Interior Department hailed the “innovative agreement” with the French energy giant and said, “the American people will no longer pay for ideological subsidies that benefited only the unreliable and costly offshore wind industry.″

Environmental groups denounced the deal as an alternate way to block wind projects, with one group calling it a “billion-dollar bribe” to kill clean energy.

Read the full article at The Associated Press

NORTH CAROLINA: Northeast N.C. fishermen want a voice in the science that controls their future

March 11, 2026 — When it comes to being a fisherman, it’s about much more than getting out on the water and bringing home fresh seafood. There are regulations that come into play to prevent overfishing populations in North Carolina waters.

But over the years, fishermen have questioned the stock assessments that lead to restrictions on their catch, feeling they see plenty of the regulated fish out on the water throughout the year.

“They manage us based on the results of a stock assessment. The last thing you want is for somebody to come back and say, oops, we were wrong. They put you out of work, you couldn’t send your kid to college, you couldn’t pay your mortgage,” said Glenn Skinner, executive director of the North Carolina Fisheries Association.

Skinner is a lifetime fisherman and one of a handful to voice concerns in person about stock assessments to the Marine Fisheries Commission in late February in the Outer Banks, saying the regulations impact the everyday fisherman’s bottom line.

Read the full article at WTKR