Saving Seafood

News for the Pacific Region

Petition urges more protections for whales in Dungeness crab fisheries

December 17, 2025 — Four conservation groups have petitioned the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission to strengthen risk reduction measures to prevent whale entanglement during the state’s Dungeness crab fishery.

The petition filed on Dec. 11 in Salem, Oregon, also calls for creating a pathway for authorization of safer pop-up fishing gear and establishing a process for timely public reporting of marine mammal or sea turtle entanglements in Oregon Commercial Dungeness crab fishing gear.

Four humpback whales were confirmed to have been entangled in 2025 in Oregon commercial Dungeness crab fishing gear, including one that beached and had to be euthanized.

Petition signers included the Center for Biological Diversity, Oceana, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the American Cetacean Society. 

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Pacific fisheries summit gives a boost to albacore & seabirds

December 17, 2025 — Much of the world’s albacore tuna catch, which usually ends up in a can, comes from the southwestern Pacific Ocean, where fishery managers just passed a new set of conservation rules.

The parties to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), a multilateral body that sets fishing rules for an area that covers nearly 20% of the planet, adopted a harvest strategy for South Pacific albacore at their annual meeting, held Dec. 1-5 in Manila, the Philippines. Harvest strategies set near-automatic scientifically advised catch limits or other control measures in response to fluctuating fish stock levels; they’re considered a best practice in fisheries management because they reduce commercial or political influence. South Pacific albacore is one of two albacore (Thunnus alalunga) stocks in the WCPFC; the other is North Pacific albacore, which isn’t fished as much.

“This is a great move for the WCPFC,” Dave Gershman, a senior officer for international fisheries at The Pew Charitable Trusts, a U.S.-based think tank, told Mongabay after attending the meeting. “This is a critical step to ensure the sustainability and stability of the top Pacific albacore fisheries.”

Gershman noted that the harvest strategy was a “long time in the making” and had been “discussed for many, many years.”

The parties discussed, but didn’t adopt, new rules on transshipment, or the ship-to-ship transfer of fish and other goods at sea, a practice that’s been linked to illegal and unsustainable fishing and other illicit activity.

Glen Joseph, director of the fishing ministry of the Marshall Islands, a WCPFC member state, said the meeting thus delivered both positives and negatives.

“We successfully pushed the Harvest Strategy,” Joseph told Mongabay in an email, noting the role of the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), a bloc of 17 island nations including the Marshall Islands that tends to act in unison at the WCPFC, in pushing reforms. “We were not so successful with the transshipment issue,” he added.

A deal finally done

South Pacific albacore isn’t considered overfished and its stock is at about 48% of its historical levels, which is higher than many commercially fished stocks. Yet experts have argued that a harvest strategy is essential to the stock’s long-term health and that current management is “outdated.” WCPFC parties were spurred to action in part because the Marine Stewardship Council, a London-based ecolabel certification NGO, had signaled that from 2026 it wouldn’t certify South Pacific albacore fisheries that weren’t under a harvest strategy.

China and Taiwan harvest the most South Pacific albacore, but a number of smaller Pacific nations and territories also fish enough that it’s important to their economies. Longline vessels, which drop huge numbers of baited hooks into the sea, do most of the fishing. The economic value of albacore in the WCPFC area is about $1 billion per year, mostly from South Pacific albacore, according to Pew.

The new harvest strategy sets 56,096 metric tons per year as a sort of baseline harvest rate — lower than the roughly 65,000 metric tons that were harvested in 2024 in the part of the WCPFC area where the rules will apply, from 10-50° south. However, in coming years, the total allowable catch will remain above 56,096, because the rules stipulate that it can only be decreased by 5% per three-year period.

The exact figures for the first management period, 2027-29, will be determined next year. So will rules about how much of the catch can come from the high seas versus countries’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs).

The parties couldn’t reach an agreement on the harvest strategy at the 2024 annual meeting and so they discussed it at two intersessional meetings in 2025 — and then it dominated the meeting time in Manila in early December, with a deal being reached only in the final hours.

“It’s been looked at up and down, back and forth, sideways,” Gershman said.

Read the full article at Mongabay

OREGON: Crabbing season faces new delays

December 12, 2025 — North Coast crabbing season to stay closed until at least Dec. 31

On Friday, Dec. 5, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife announced delays to the North Coast commercial Dungeness crab season until at least Wednesday, Dec. 31, citing Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife meat fill test results.

According to an ODFW press release issued on Dec. 5, the commercial season will be open from Cape Falcon to the California border on Dec. 16. The North Coast’s season will remain closed until at least Dec. 31.

“The crabs in Oregon were good north of Cape Falcon,” said Rob Seitz, a local fisherman, “but the ones just north of the river in Washington didn’t quite make it.”

The meat fill test is done to ensure that the crabs have enough meat to meet consumer standards, and to keep the ecosystem healthy, according to ODFW. The required meat recovery percentage is 23%; Long Beach crabs only had a meat fill rate of 22.5%.

The decision to only open Cape Falcon to the California border allows crabbers to ensure that their product is of consistent quality.

Read the full article at The Astorian

Pacific halibut catch declines as spawning biomass reaches lowest point in 40 years

December 12, 2025 — The most recent Pacific halibut fishing season ended on 7 December, and preliminary data shows that commercial landings across the West Coast of the U.S. and Canada are down.

By early December, coastwide commercial landings of halibut totaled 16.7 million pounds, down 16 percent from the same time last year and reaching just 80 percent of the allowable catch limit for the season.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Pacific halibut catches declined this year

December 9, 2025 — The Pacific halibut fishery ended on Dec. 7, and by all accounts, things remained on a stagnant trend. Stakeholders are dealing with the fallout from the lowest Pacific halibut spawning biomass in 40 years, and harvesters widely reported catches of fewer and smaller fish.

The annual survey conducted since 1963 by the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) revealed little change in the halibut stock that stretches from Alaska’s northern Bering Sea, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon to California’s Monterey Bay.

By early December, coast-wide commercial landings of halibut totaled 16.7 million pounds, down 16 percent from the same time last year and reflecting just  80 percent of the allowable catch limit in 2025.

According to a report by the IPHC at its interim meeting on December 2, total halibut takes (called mortalities) from all sectors – commercial, sport, personal use, and subsistence – were 28.8 million pounds, down 12% from last year, and marking the lowest removals in 100 years.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

NOAA awards over $26.4 M for marine debris removal

December 9, 2025 — Thirteen new projects have been funded for over $26.4 million under the NOAA Marine Debris Program, with a focus on abandoned and derelict vessels and fishing gear, and the use of proven debris interception technologies.

Recipients of the funding announced on Dec. 4 by the NOAA Marine Debris Program for fiscal year 2025 included nine for large-scale marine debris cleanup and four using debris technologies.

Pacific Coastal Research & Planning, a small non-profit in the Northern Mariana Islands, was allocated $4.9 million to remove 23 abandoned boats and an estimated 40,000 pounds of derelict fishing gear from the coastal environments of the U.S. Territory of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, and the Freely Associated States of the Republic of Palau and Federated States of Micronesia.

Washington’s Department of Natural Resources received $3.5 million for removal of four large, run-down, and abandoned boats from the coastal and marine waters of Washington State and tidally influenced areas of the Columbia River. These former military vessels were abandoned by their new owners and now pose serious risks to Washington’s waterways, according to NOAA.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

What Scientists Found When a Deep Sea Mining Company Invited Them In

December 8, 2025 — Industrial mining of the seabed could reduce the abundance and diversity of tiny animals living in the depths of the Pacific Ocean, a new study found.

The study, published Friday in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, was funded by The Metals Company, which is vying to become the first company to conduct commercial mining on the ocean floor.

Researchers from the Natural History Museum in London analyzed samples from the seafloor before and after a mining test and found that the number of worms, minute crustaceans and other small animals in the path of the mining vehicle fell 37 percent. The variety of the creatures also declined by 32 percent.

The data came from over 4,000 meters below the waves of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, an area in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Mexico that is targeted for seabed mining because it is rich with potato-sized nodules that contain nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese. The metals are used in renewable-energy technologies and also have military applications.

The Metals Company has spent some $250 million studying the environmental effects of seabed mining. The dozens of researchers involved had contracts that allowed them to independently analyze and publish their results. This emerging collection of work represents one of the largest and most comprehensive research efforts conducted in the Clarion-Clipper Zone to date.

More than a dozen countries, through state-owned entities or sponsored companies, hold United Nations permits to explore more than one million square kilometers of deep sea floor around the world. The agency’s International Seabed Authority has not yet approved commercial mining.

Read the full article at The New York Times

OREGON: Oregon fisheries try old technology to boost salmon returns

December 8, 2025 — On a tributary of the Clatskanie River, near Astoria, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has set up a “hatchbox.”

It’s basically six large barrels: three that filter the stream water and three that carry trays of salmon eggs so the water can flow over them.

Tom Stahl, with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said hatchboxes can be useful tools in the attempt to restore salmon to local waterways.

When salmon eggs in the barrels turn into tiny fish, usually around January, they’ll be swept into the stream. Essentially, the hatchbox protects the eggs from predators while they grow. Hatchboxes can also be used to bring fish eggs from other locations and introduce them into a new stream.

Older Oregonians may remember hatchboxes from school, where they were used to illustrate the salmon’s lifecycle. But over the years hatchboxes have fallen out of favor, largely because the fish they release compete with wild salmon.

Read the full article at the OPB

OREGON: Oregon to open southern coast for Dungeness crab harvest 16 December

December 8, 2025 — After delaying the full season by two weeks, the U.S. state of Oregon will open its southern coast to commercial Dungeness crab harvesting on 16 December.

“Oregon’s crab fishery is an economic driver for coastal communities,” Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) Marine Resources Program Manager Justin Ainsworth said in a release. “I appreciate crab fishermen being patient as we tried to align our opening with Washington, but the best option now is to open up what we can.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Most Threatened and Endangered Pacific Coast Salmon Populations Increased After Listings

December 5, 2025 — Most Pacific Coast salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act have increased in abundance over the past 25 years, arresting earlier declines. These findings were published in new research by NOAA Fisheries scientists who have studied the species.

The scientists examined trends in 28 population groups, called distinct population segments, within five species of salmon and steelhead listed from 1989 to 2007. These groups represent specific geographic areas and genetic characteristics, and are the smallest units that can be listed under the Act. The scientists found that a majority of the population groups protected as threatened or endangered increased in abundance. None disappeared into extinction. Protected population groups also increased faster than unprotected populations of the same species.

“At the time of the salmon listings, there was a path toward recovery and a path toward extinction,” said Michael Ford, lead author of the new research published in Fish and Fisheries. Ford recently retired as a research scientist at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center. “So far, we have avoided extinction and even succeeded in moving many populations in the right direction, but most are still far from complete recovery.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries