Saving Seafood

RHODE ISLAND: Oysters remain king in Rhode Island’s aquaculture economy

January 2, 2025 — A boom in oyster sales is fueling Rhode Island’s aquaculture industry to its most successful period since data tracking started in 1995, according to the state Coastal Resources Management Council.

In 2024, oysters remained the most popular aquaculture product with 11,595,512 pieces sold for consumption, according to the CRMC annual report. The number of aquaculture sites, the farm-gate value, total farm workers and more all increased during the year.

In 1995, the total dollar value of all aquaculture was $83,518. Fast forward to 2024, when that figure skyrocketed to $8,795,493, a 9.37% increase since 2023, according to the report. Oyster seeds sales also saw a jump of 4.41%.

While farmers also grow crops such as sugar kelp, clams and scallops, Eastern oysters remain the backbone of the state’s aquaculture industry.

Read the full article at The Independent

$400K worth of stolen Costco lobster meat being investigated in connection to other New England seafood thefts

December 31, 2025 — Imagine the buffet.

Forty-thousand oysters, lobster worth $400,000 and a cache of crabmeat all were stolen in separate incidents within weeks of each other in New England.

The first seafood vanished on Nov. 22 in Falmouth, Maine, where authorities suspect someone stole 14 cages full of oysters from an aquaculture site in Casco Bay. Many of the oysters were full-grown and ready for sale, and together with the cages were worth $20,000, according to the Maine Marine Patrol.

“This is a devastating situation for a small businessman,” said Marine Patrol Sgt. Matthew Sinclair.

The other two thefts happened in Taunton, Massachusetts, about 160 miles (255 kilometers) away. First, a load of crab disappeared after leaving the Lineage Logistics warehouse on Dec. 2. Then, on Dec. 12, lobster meat destined for Costco stores in Illinois and Minnesota was stolen by a fraudulent trucking company, according to the broker who arranged the pickup.

Read the full article at The New York Post

LOUISIANA: Oyster enforcement in Louisiana nets 10 immigration arrests

November 17, 2025 — Ten people were arrested earlier this month for alleged immigration violations during a joint state and federal patrol of oyster beds in St. Bernard and Terrebonne parishes.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries reported the arrests Nov. 10 following its enforcement efforts with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Coast Guard. The agencies conducted their operation Nov. 3-4.

Read the full article at Louisiana Illuminator

LOUISIANA: Vibrio cases rise in Louisiana

September 2, 2025 — There have been more illnesses and deaths from Vibrio vulnificus, a flesh-eating bacteria, this year than in previous years in the Southern U.S. state of Louisiana.

The Louisiana Department of Health is urging residents to take precautions to prevent infection from the bacteria, which can cause illness when an open wound is exposed to coastal waters or when a person eats raw or undercooked seafood, particularly oysters.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MARYLAND: Baltimore Oyster Partnership sets goal of planting 5 million oysters by 2030

August 29, 2025 — The Baltimore Oyster Partnership has started off the 2025-26 oyster season by setting a goal of planning 5 million oysters in Baltimore Harbor by the year 2030.

“Every oyster we plant is a step toward a healthier, more vibrant harbor,” Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore President Dan Taylor said in a release. “We’re thrilled to celebrate what’s been accomplished and to look ahead at the millions of oysters – and volunteers – still to come.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Gulf of Maine sees rising pH, defying expectations of increasing ocean acidity

July 31, 2025 — The Gulf of Maine—home to commercial fisheries for oysters, clams and mussels—has unexpectedly avoided an increase in seawater acidity, helping to preserve the health of its fisheries.

“Contrary to expectation,” a team of scientists wrote in a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, we … find that pH has increased (+ 0.2 pH units) over the past 40 years, despite concurrent rising atmospheric CO2.” (Determining the decades-long trend required measurements of boron isotopes within annual skeletal bands built by crustose coralline algae. More about that later.)

The Gulf’s acidity levels are unexpected because atmospheric levels of  continue to climb. And because carbon dioxide is absorbed faster and easier into , the frigid waters of the Gulf would be expected to take in more carbon. More carbon in water generally lowers pH and increases acidity.

“One goes down and the other goes up,” said Alan Wanamaker, an Iowa State University professor of earth, atmosphere, and climate and a paper co-author. “That’s what we’ve seen in the .”

Read the full article at PHYS.org

US importers recall Korean oysters due to possible norovirus contamination

July 24, 2025 — Two U.S. importers have recalled frozen half-shell oysters from South Korea due to possible contamination with norovirus.

Vernon, California, U.S.A.-based Wang Globalnet recalled 1,200 cases of frozen half-shell oysters labeled “Product of Korea, Pack 144 counts,” with a harvest date of 12 January. This came after the California Department of Public Health notified the company about multiple reported illnesses stemming from the product in the state of Utah, Wang Globalnet said.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

LOUISIANA: US FDA issues recall of Louisiana oysters due to norovirus illnesses

February 7, 2025 — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning retailers and restaurants not to sell certain oysters that could be contaminated with norovirus after 15 people became ill in Louisiana, U.S.A.

On 5 February, the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) closed an oyster shellfish harvesting area in Area 3 and ordered a recall of all oysters harvested from that area since 10 January 2025. Fifteen people became ill with a norovirus-like illness after eating oysters from Area 3 across several New Orleans, Louisiana, restaurants between 15 and 31 January, the LDH said.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MARYLAND: Maryland selects locations for three new oyster-restoration sanctuaries

October 31, 2024 — The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will create three new oyster-restoration sanctuaries, continuing the work of the department to restore the historic oyster beds of Chesapeake Bay.

The sites, in Herring Bay, the Nanticoke River, and Hoopers Straight, will build on the success of previous efforts to rebuild the Chesapeake’s oyster population, which once sustained one of the most valuable fisheries in the bay but has since reached historic lows due to decades of overfishing, pollution, and disease.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MASSACHUSETTS: A Five-Year Feud Over Oyster Farms Divides Two New England Towns

July 31, 2024 — Cohasset and Scituate were friendly for more than 250 years. Now, the Massachusetts neighbors can’t find common ground. The reason: oysters.

Scituate, a seaside town of fewer than 20,000 people that shares a harbor with the smaller Cohasset, wants to allow oyster farms in its portion of the bay. Cohasset says the farms inhibit swimming and boating.

Political feuds in small-town New England are nothing new. But this one stands out for its stamina—five years and counting—and spite. Five lawsuits have been filed, including one against the Massachusetts attorney general. More than 30 boat moorings have been seized. And a proposed joint sewer system that advocates hoped would stimulate development and clean up waterways? Circling the drain.

Technically the fight is over 3 acres of oyster farms in a more than 250-acre harbor. But for those involved, much more is at stake.

“For Cohasset, it’s about shellfishing. For Scituate, it’s about sovereignty,” said Scituate Town Administrator Jim Boudreau.

“It’s a real failure of government,” Cohasset Select Board member Jack Creighton said of the oyster farms. “We have an opportunity to preserve and protect from privatization and industrialization.”

Read the full story at the Wall Street Journal