Saving Seafood

US House passes bill delaying start of new right whale rules

September 3, 2026 — The U.S. House has passed a bill that would delay the start of new federal regulations intended to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The bill, known as the Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act, would extend an existing moratorium on new federal rules for fishermen until 2035.

The current moratorium, which was championed by Maine’s congressional delegation and inserted into a 2023 budget measure, is set to lift at the end of 2028.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently announced the beginning of a public comment period intended the launch discussions about new federal regulations, which the agency said must be in place by the last day of 2028.

Read the full article at Maine Public

MAINE: Lobstermen buoyed by US House passage of Golden bill to pause right whale protections until 2035

September 3, 2026 — The U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday passed a bill to extend the pause on federal lobster rules in a 219-196 vote.

If passed by the Senate, the bill — introduced by Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine) and Michael Lawler (R-New York) in June — would continue shielding lobstermen from new regulations to protect North Atlantic right whales until 2035.

In a statement, Golden described it as a win not only for the Maine fishing industry, but also for bipartisan work in Congress.

“While the threat of unnecessary, industry-killing regulations is a matter of survival for lobster harvesters in Maine, the issues at play affect fishermen across the Northeast,” Golden said. “Building bridges across party lines is essential for a functional Congress, but unfortunately, it’s a skill that has been lost for far too many members.”

Read the full article at Maine Morning Star

Aerial Surveys: Monitoring Right Whales from Above

August 14, 2026 — This story is part two of a three-part series. Read about how we are listening for North Atlantic right whales with passive acoustics, monitoring them with aerial surveys, and using boats, drones, uncrewed surface vehicles and satellites to learn as much as we can about them and their habitat. In the Northeast, we work with many partners to track right whales, including mothers and calves, using advanced technology to help inform actions that reduce risks to the species.

Many North Atlantic right whales migrate thousands of miles to the Southeast and the Mid-Atlantic from mid-November to mid-April. Female right whales give birth in the shallow coastal waters of the Southeast during the winter months. The whales spend the rest of the year feeding in the plankton-rich waters off of the Northeast and Canada.

We take to the skies to monitor this journey. The Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s aerial survey team conducts right whale surveys aboard a NOAA Twin Otter Aircraft. The team has flown 325 hours monitoring whales since January 2026. In the spring, they monitored whales off of New England and the Mid-Atlantic. In June, they joined Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) as part of a Joint Aerial Survey Team, flying out of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. There, they flew 50 hours monitoring aggregations of right whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

NYS teachers take on microplastics with snail-inspired robot

August 11, 2026 — On a rainy morning in late July, Professor Sunny Jung asked a group of New York state schoolteachers to consider the biology of the aquatic snail.

With only one foot, the snail can move and feed, and they do it with an efficient undulating motion that can draw in particles from a distance 10 times greater than their body length.

“They are very efficient at pulling in water from the surface without sucking in the bulk fluid,” said Jung, professor of biological and environmental engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, at a workshop for New York state teachers offered by a team of researchers and staff at Cornell, New York Sea Grant (NYSG), Princeton University and the University of Michigan. Now in its second year, the program gives teachers the tools to apply Cornell research in their classrooms, with lesson plans and hands-on materials they can share with their learners.

The workshop’s lessons center on the application of Jung’s research to a problem of increasing concern: the proliferation of microplastics in waterways. Inspired by the undulating movement of the snail, Jung designed a simple robotic system that can pull surface water in and filter microplastics out. With a team of collaborators, the group put the mechanism on a robot they named Mollusca and created both lab-scale prototypes and a build-your-own version for schools.

As Jung presented the research, the wires, circuit boards, motors and many 3D-printed components of the Mollusca robots lay in disassembled piles on a back table. Before day’s end, the teachers would build the robots, test them in a kiddie pool filled with small pieces of plastic called nurdles, and troubleshoot just like students, just like researchers, turning the conference room in Upson Hall into a makeshift robotics lab.

“The Sea Grant trainings are the best I’ve ever done,” said Emily Colletta, head of the gifted and talented program at North Tonawanda Intermediate School in North Tonawanda, New York, who was attending the workshop for the second time. “They’re super interactive, and it’s always local, which makes it easier to integrate and for the kids to benefit. And they always provide us with hands-on materials we can take back to our classrooms. It’s pretty special.”

Read the full article at the Cornell Chronicle

From Sound to Satellites: Reducing Risks to North Atlantic Right Whales with Advanced Technology

August 11, 2026 — This story is part 1 of a 3-part series. Read about how we are listening for North Atlantic right whales with passive acoustics, monitoring them with aerial surveys, and using boats, drones, uncrewed surface vehicles and satellites to learn as much as we can about them and their habitat. In the Northeast, we work with many partners to track right whales, including mothers and calves, using advanced technology to help inform actions that reduce risks to the species.

Endangered North Atlantic right whales had a busy winter! NOAA Fisheries and our partners saw 23 right whale mom and calf pairs during the right whale calving season in the Southeast. This is hopeful news for the species. With only 380 North Atlantic right whales remaining, including about 70 reproductively active females, each mother and calf is vital to the species’ recovery. Human impacts continue to threaten the survival of the species.

Reducing risk to these whales is a top priority as they spend the summer in their northern feeding grounds, and technology is helping us do it. With our partners, NOAA Fisheries is monitoring right whales using cutting-edge techniques like real-time passive acoustic monitoring and measuring calf growth rates with drones.

The data we collect inform management and conservation measures that reduce the risks whales face from human impacts, including vessel strikes and entanglements. Our continuous monitoring supports coexistence between marine industries and right whales.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Two Years After Vineyard Wind Blade Failure, Government Investigation Still Not Completed

July 31, 2026 — Two years after a Vineyard Wind turbine blade collapsed, littering Nantucket’s shores with debris, a federal investigation into the blade failure is still ongoing, with little indication of when it will be completed or why it has taken so long.

Almost immediately after the blade failure, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, a Department of the Interior agency tasked with safety and environmental protection for the offshore energy industry, announced that it would be launching an independent investigation into the collapse. Two years later, that investigation has yet to produce any results.

At this point, the investigation has actually outlived the agency that launched it. On July 10th, President Donald Trump announced that BSEE would be folded into the Marine Minerals Administration and would cease to exist as an independent agency.

In a statement shared with the Current, the Marine Minerals Administration confirmed that it was continuing the investigation, but offered few further details.

“The Marine Minerals Administration is ensuring the investigation is thorough and comprehensive,” the agency wrote. “MMA’s investigation is currently ongoing and does not have a date for completion at this time.”

This mirrors statements BSEE has given in the past.

Read the full article at the Nantucket Current

Here’s where Trump has canceled wind farms – and how states are pushing back

July 31, 2026 — President Donald Trump’s opposition to offshore wind farms is well-documented. In the early 2010s, he sued the Scottish government when it gave permission for a company to build turbines in sight of one of his resorts. In public testimony over the years, the president has called wind turbines “monstrosities.” He has fretted about their environmental impact, decried their noise, and lamented their impact on tourism.

He lost his case in Scotland. Now, as U.S. president, he has more leverage.

Over the past year, the Trump administration has gone to great lengths to undo his predecessor’s efforts to establish a wind power industry off the coast of the United States. Since March, he’s struck five agreements with private companies to cancel at least nine offshore wind leases – a strategy that rings of Mr. Trump’s tendency toward dealmaking and that environmental policy analysts say no president has employed before.

Read the full article at The Christian Science Monitor 

Scottish fishing leaders look to Northeast cooperative research model

June 21, 2026 — A delegation of commercial fishing leaders from Scotland toured ports across the Northeast last month to study how cooperative research between fishermen and scientists is shaping fisheries management, with hopes of applying similar approaches as Scotland revises its own fisheries policies.

According to NOAA Fisheries, 16 members of the Scottish Fishermen’s Organisation participated in the agency’s first international cooperative research knowledge exchange, visiting four ports over three days. The group toured 12 commercial fishing vessels, six seafood processing facilities and dealers, a net manufacturing company in Point Judith, R.I., and the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center.

The delegation focused on fisheries shared by the United States and Scotland, including Atlantic cod, haddock, Atlantic pollock, Atlantic mackerel, Atlantic herring, dogfish, and shortfin and longfin squid.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

New cod regulations could squeeze remaining New England groundfish fleet

July 9, 2026 — New cod fishing regulations in New England will make life more complicated for the region’s groundfish fleet during a period already impacted by high fuel costs.

The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) recently approved a new multispecies fishery management plan that split the management areas for cod in the Northeast U.S. into four separate areas, an increase from the two areas it was previously. That rule, Amendment 25, set separate allowable catch limits for each quadrant, which combines to a total allowable limit of 608 metric tons (MT) across all areas.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ICES pelagic advice for 2026 deeply worries Northeast Atlantic fishing operations

October 2, 2025 — The International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) recommended large cuts to quotas of pelagic species in the Northeast Atlantic on 30 September, and in response, fishing industry representatives in the region have criticized the decision and expressed dismay at its possible impacts moving forward.

ICES recommended that the total allowable catch (TAC) of blue whiting should be no more than 851,344 metric tons (MT) in 2026, which marks a 41 percent decrease from its 2025 recommendations. The council’s recommendation for Northeast Atlantic mackerel was a nearly 70 percent drop compared to 2025 suggestions, dropping to just 174,357 MT.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource