Oregon Archives - Saving Seafood

Groundfish rule brings gear marking changes for 335 vessels

October 16, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries has finalized new gear marking and entanglement-reduction requirements for portions of the Pacific Coast groundfish fleet, including new color-coded lines and buoy markings for vessels fishing with pot and bottom longline gear.

The final rule, published in the Federal Register on Oct. 13, applies to limited entry and directed open access groundfish fisheries in federal waters off Washington, Oregon, and California. Most provisions take effect Jan. 11, 2027, while fishermen will have until Jan. 11, 2030, to transition to manufactured line meeting the new color requirements.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Beneath the surface: what buoys reveal about ocean acidification

October 15, 2026 — What can a buoy tell us about ocean acidification? Quite a lot, especially when it has been collecting measurements for years.

In the California Current, a slow moving southward current that moves from British Columbia to Baja California, long-term observations help scientists track how ocean conditions change over hours, seasons, and years. Since natural phenomena like upwelling and El Niño rapidly alter water chemistry, continuous observations are vital for separating short-term fluctuations from broader ocean acidification trends.

Join Scripps Institution of Oceanography (Scripps) graduate student, Charles Lindsay, at sea as the recent Ocean Time-Series group, led by Uwe Send, deploy and maintain an ocean monitoring mooring off Southern California. In Anchored in the California Current: A Buoy’s View of Ocean Oscillations, readers are taken aboard a “day in the life” look at the work behind long-term ocean observations and the effort required to keep these instruments collecting data.

Read the full article at NOAA Ocean Acidification Program

NOAA Fisheries introduces new West Coast gear rules to reduce entanglements

October 13, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries has rolled out new requirements and voluntary measures to reduce whale entanglements in commercial fishing gear on the U.S. West Coast.

“This rulemaking is, in part, in response to increased rates of entanglement of humpback whales with Pacific Coast fishing gear since 2014,” NOAA Fisheries said in its release. “Marine animals, like whales and turtles, can get caught in fishing gear, which can prevent them from eating or cause serious injury or death. The animal most often entangled in gear associated with the Pacific Coast groundfish fishery is the humpback whale.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NOAA invests $45.7 million to improve ocean observing systems

October 9, 2026 — NOAA’s U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS®) Office announced today 11 new five-year cooperative agreements to support regional and national ocean observing. These agreements will enable U.S. IOOS regional associations to operate regional coastal observing systems (RCOSs) throughout U.S. waters, and will provide $45.7 million in funding for the first year.

Data collected from ocean observations:

Supports anglers, aquaculturists, shipping and logistics managers, and coastal communities in making sound economic and safety decisions;
Supports management and mitigation of coastal hazards, such as flooding and harmful algal blooms; and
Provides essential information for weather forecasting and national defense.

The regional associations are a fundamental part of the national observing system, and help ensure that the system is both effective and efficient. They are federally certified to collect and manage high-quality observing data, forming robust partnerships with local stakeholders and coastal communities. As the regional component of the nationwide U.S. IOOS network, regional associations meet local needs by using stakeholder feedback to guide the development of RCOSs while also integrating national priorities and requirements.

These cooperative agreements are awarded every five years through a competitive process and support the continued operation and modernization of our nation’s coastal, ocean and Great Lakes observing capabilities. Total awards include additional funding from other NOAA offices in the National Ocean Service, National Weather Service, NOAA Fisheries, NOAA Satellites and NOAA Research.

Read the full article at NOAA Ocean Services

OREGON: ‘Super’ El Niño may affect Oregon salmon

October 6, 2026 — Something fishy could be happening off the Oregon coast.

A greater-than-90 % chance of a very strong El Niño is expected to develop, with warm surface water temperatures already arriving along the California coast.

Scientists are watching what warmer water could mean for local fisheries and marine life.

When we talk about El Niño or La Niña, we often focus on how it affects the weather. But underwater, the effects would mean life or death for some marine life – including salmon.

“When you go to the marine environment, it’s not always quite as rosy when there’s an El Niño event,” said Spencer Sawasake, a habitat division deputy administrator with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Read the full article at KATU

OREGON: Lawmakers urge continued support for West Coast fishermen, Oregon’s seafood industry

September 22, 2026 — Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley led a bipartisan group of Oregon and Washington lawmakers in a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Brooke Rollins that calls on the USDA to deliver critical federal support to West Coast fishermen and seafood harvesters, processors, and distributors by purchasing Pacific Hake (whiting) fillets under its Section 32 purchase program.

“Historically, Pacific whiting exports to Ukraine, one of the largest whiting fillet markets, reached up to nearly $95 million per year, but instability in the region as a result of war has put that market in jeopardy and caused significant impacts to the supply chain. Compounded by trade embargoes, increased imported competition from low-cost proteins, inflationary pressures, rising operational costs, and more, these factors threaten the long-term stability and viability of this once-booming market and create uncertainty for coastal economies that rely on the whiting fishery’s success for their livelihoods,” wrote the lawmakers.

Read the full article at Lincoln County Leader

OREGON: West Coast lawmakers ask USDA to buy more Oregon fish

September 21, 2026 — Oregon and Washington lawmakers want the U.S. Department of Agriculture to support the West Coast’s ailing seafood industry by purchasing locally-caught fish to supplant profits from product that’s usually shipped to war-ravaged Ukraine.

The lawmakers, led by U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, said in a Sept. 18 release that the agency’s purchase of Pacific Hake, or whiting, fillets, would support harvesters, processors, and coastal economies.

A letter from the lawmakers supporting the call said Ukraine is one of the largest Pacific whiting fillet markets. Regional instability from the war has impacted the supply chain and jeopardized that export market, which brings in nearly $95 million annually.

Read the full article at the Central Oregon Daily

OREGON: Oregon’s yelloweye rockfish fishery to reopen after 25 years

September 9, 2026 — A species once declared overfished has rebounded, and its return to the docks will give scientists their first good look at the fish in decades.

Oregon fishing fleets will be allowed to keep and sell yelloweye rockfish next year for the first time in 25 years.

The species was declared overfished in 2002, closing commercial fishing for it. A recent assessment found the population has rebuilt.

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife fishery manager Troy Buell discussed the change with fishermen at a meeting in Port Orford Thursday.

“There was a time I didn’t think I’d ever see another yelloweye rockfish at the dock legally,” Buell said. “Now, it’s rebuilt.”

The amount fishermen will be allowed to land in 2027 and 2028 is small compared with catch limits for other species, but it represents a significant milestone in the recovery of yelloweye rockfish.

Read the full story at OPB

OREGON: Pacific Seafood and Oregon regulators are locked in battle over wastewater treatment from its coastal processing plants

September 9, 2026 — Supporting the fishing fleets that fan out to sea from the Oregon coast, there are about three dozen industrial processing businesses that clean, cut and package the products before they’re shipped to consumers around the world.

It’s not a pretty process.

One byproduct of all those fish guts and shellfish innards is wastewater packed with solids and oils, as well as possibly chemicals, bacteria and heavy metals. Whatever isn’t filtered out gets discharged back into the ocean, where it can deplete dissolved oxygen that fish and other aquatic species need to breathe, and can pose risks to public health.

Seafood processing plants have been locked in a battle with environmental regulators over water pollution, with millions of dollars in fines piling up and legal fights that have spanned years. Meanwhile, the business is consolidating and, from an employment standpoint, shrinking.

The fight pits Oregon’s environmental aspirations against one of its legacy industries — one that remains a defining part of life on the Oregon coast even as its footprint contracts.

Read the full article at The Oregonian

US research buoys are caught in currents of change

September 8, 2026 — A research buoy is something like an ant: A single one might not look like much, but put a bunch together and they can make something truly impressive.

In the water, a buoy becomes part of a larger system. Together, they provide all kinds of functions, from conducting ocean and weather research to helping satellites stay calibrated.

Buoys can handle almost anything the sea throws at them. William Burnett, a meteorologist who has led the National Data Buoy Center since 2022, described them continuing to collect data even after being “hit dead center by hurricanes.” That’s on top of the usual sources of wear-and-tear: rain, ice, barnacles, saltwater.

One of the biggest threats to buoys comes from surprisingly cute sources: seals and sea lions.

“We were noticing that the buoy cables were being chewed through,” Burnett noted in a phone interview.

To get around the problem, the National Data Buoy Center installed cages around the research devices. That’s mostly worked, though smarter animals do find a way to mess with them, even using them like makeshift surfboards.

“If they can find the platform,” Burnett said of these rambunctious animals, “they’ll get on it.”

Read the full article at Courthouse News Service