Saving Seafood

Pacific Northwest lawmakers request Section 32 purchase of hake

September 22, 2026 — U.S. lawmakers from the Pacific Northwest are asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to make a bulk purchase of Pacific whiting, or hake, as the ongoing war in Ukraine and other supply chain issues continue to impact demand.

“Historically, Pacific whiting exports to Ukraine, one of the largest whiting fillet markets, reached up to nearly USD 95 million per year (EUR 83 million), but instability in the region as a result of war has put that market in jeopardy and caused significant impacts to the supply chain,” the lawmakers said in a joint letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. “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.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US House committee advances bill expanding culling of salmon-eating seals and sea lions

September 16, 2026 — The U.S. House Natural Resources Committee has approved a bill that would allow the state of Washington and area Tribes to kill more seals and sea lions that prey upon recovering salmon populations.

“I am pleased the House Natural Resources Committee voted in a bipartisan manner to advance my bill,” U.S. Representative Michael Baumgartner (R-Washington) said in a release. “This bill, born in collaboration with many of the Tribes in Washington who have federally recognized treaty fishing rights, is an important step in the right direction to protect salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest. I look forward to continued bipartisanship as we work to get it signed into law before the end of this Congress.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

More than $100 million in habitat funding targets key US fisheries

September 14, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries is directing $103 million toward habitat restoration projects across the country, with several of the largest awards aimed at improving habitat for commercially important salmon, shrimp, oysters, and other species.

The agency announced Sept. 10 that it selected 16 projects for funding, ranging from salmon habitat work in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest to salt marsh restoration along the Gulf and Southeast coasts.

The funding is intended to restore wetlands, rivers, coral reefs, and other habitats fish rely on for feeding, spawning, and growth. NOAA said healthy habitat is essential to sustaining both commercial and recreational fisheries and the communities and industries that depend on them.

Demand for funding far exceeded what was available. NOAA received nearly 350 proposals requesting a combined $1.5 billion, more than 17 times the amount ultimately awarded.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

WASHINGTON: Rise of the Black Cod, Once seldom sought, sablefish becomes a best seller in Ilwaco

August 3, 2026 — A once seldom-sought deepwater fish is rapidly rising to the top of local seafood demand.

Sablefish — also known as black cod, butterfish, skil, beshow or coalfish — are a deepwater species native to the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. They are a tasty source of protein, rich in omega-3 fatty acids and fetch a high price in local markets.

“Black cod is the thing we’re really bringing in right now,” said Eryn Domeyer, director of operations of Tre-Fin Seafood Market, now in their fourth year of operation at 213 First Ave. in Ilwaco. “It’s kind of unlike anything else — it’s incredible.”

Going deep

Sablefish are commonly caught off the Washington coast by commercial harvesters using otter-trawls, jig handline and longline gear, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

They are a robust fish with an elongate body and two dorsal fins, capable of growing to over 30 inches in length and living to more than 90 years.

They are often referred to as black cod, even though they are not actually part of the cod family, according to NOAA Fisheries.

Adults are blackish or greenish gray above, usually with slightly paler blotches or a chainlike pattern on the upper back and more pale below. The Washington state record black cod is 30 pounds, caught off the coast of Grays Harbor County in 1994 by Jeff Rudolph.

The fish range from Japan north into the Bering Sea and south through Alaska and British Columbia to Mexico, with highest concentrations in Alaska. Adults can be found on mud bottoms in depths of 300 to 1,500 meters (984 to 4,900 feet).

Sablefish have been identified as a potential species for commercial farming in the Pacific Northwest, according to NOAA Fisheries, where they are the target of a sustainably managed commercial and recreational fishery. The United States currently does not produce farmed sablefish, but researchers are experimenting with raising them in hopes of creating a viable commercial aquaculture industry.

Read the full article at Chinook Observer

US bill would allow tribes to kill more sea lions along Columbia River

July 13, 2026 — A new bill introduced in U.S. Congress would authorize Native American tribes in Southwest Washington to kill some of the sea lions eating salmon in the Columbia River.

California and stellar sea lion populations have ballooned in the Pacific Northwest under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA); since 1950, the population has increased from roughly 10,000 to 250,000. Salmon are a major source of prey for sea lions, and the increased pinniped population has placed more pressure on the fish.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

OREGON: Oregon lawmakers push to restore salmon hatchery funding

July 10, 2026 — A bipartisan group of Oregon coastal lawmakers is urging the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) to reverse its decision to cut funding for a salmon hatchery program they say is critical to the state’s commercial and recreational fisheries.

BPA announced in June that it plans to end its more than $2 million in annual funding for the Select Area Fisheries Enhancement (SAFE) program. Which is managed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, according to reporting by OPB. The funding has covered more than one-third of the program’s operating costs since 1993.

BPA is a federal nonprofit agency under the U.S. Department of Energy that also markets wholesale electricity generated by 31 federal dams and one nuclear plant in the Pacific Northwest.

According to OPB, BPA said it is ending its support because the program has not made sufficient progress toward improving populations of salmon protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

El Niño is officially here, and this one could be a doozy

June 12, 2026 — Prepare for intense heat, drought and some flooding — it’s officially El Niño season, the National Weather Service announced Thursday.

This El Niño event could be on par with some of the strongest documented in the past, according to models from the NWS.

“There is a 63% chance that we’re looking at a very strong El Niño during the November to January time period that could rank amongst the largest El Niño events in the historical record,” Ariel Cohen, a meteorologist for the NWS in Los Angeles, said at a news conference held by the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California. “We’re already seeing those warm temperatures lining up.”

El Niño is a natural climate pattern that causes warm surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean. It’s associated with higher average global temperatures, so its effects exacerbate warming from climate change. The pattern is linked to fewer hurricanes in the Atlantic and more in the Pacific.

In the U.S., El Niño’s influence is most obvious in the winter, as it shifts the typical flow of the jet stream, the ribbon of air that encircles the Northern Hemisphere and drives weather patterns. The pattern typically pushes the jet stream south.

In the Pacific Northwest, that creates dry, warmer-than-usual conditions in winter, which is a concern this year because much of the region is already mired in drought after receiving middling snow. In Southern states, the trend typically brings unusually wet weather in the winter, which could prime the region for flooding.

El Niño can also drive powerful marine heat waves and scramble sea life, causing mass die-offs and bringing unusual tropical fish to coastal waters.

Read the full article at NBC News

Ocean observatories go dark off Pacific Northwest coast

June 4, 2026 — The Trump administration has quietly removed an array of floating ocean observatories from waters off the Washington coast, KUOW has learned.

Their removal is part of a national dismantling of a network of sophisticated data buoys in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

The National Science Foundation, an independent federal agency created in 1950 to support scientific research, announced in May that it had started what it called a “descoping” of its Ocean Observatories Initiative.

Those observatories monitor surface and underwater conditions 24/7 in what the science foundation calls “the most technologically advanced observational networks in the oceans.”

The moored buoys keep the pulse of the oceans as their temperature and chemistry rapidly change and provide real-time updates to mariners heading out into possibly dangerous waves. Autonomous “gliders” also roam the ocean, gathering data on the go.

Read the full article at KUOW

Rising fuel costs ripple through Northwest’s fishing industry

May 15, 2026 — On a sunny morning in Garibaldi, Oregon, Jesse Coon offloads his catch. Men in waterproof fishing bibs pack salmon into ice and hose out the boat, named Steel Fin.

Standing next to stacked coolers of freshly caught fish, Coon pulls out one of the Chinook salmon his crew just caught and explains how it senses bait in the water.

“If you look at it really close, there’s actually pores — holes right there — and that’s their nervous system. And they can sense electricity that’s put off by bait fish, and every living creature,” he said.

But to find salmon, Coon has to travel miles offshore, searching for dense shoals and burning lots of fuel. Oregon’s commercial troll salmon season opened April 14, but the biggest catches typically arrive later in the summer. It’s still early in the season, and it’s hard to know how good the fishing will be.

Since the war in Iran began in late February, another factor is compounding that risk. Diesel costs have surged, cutting thousands of dollars from already thin margins.

“ It just makes your decision-making harder on when to go and when not to go, and whether to go a little early in the season when the fishing might not be quite as good. It just really feels like a gamble,” he said.

Read the full article at OPB

 

WASHINGTON: Crabbers get cracking: State’s most lucrative fishery starts with high hopes after delay

December 29, 2025 — The pots are loaded and hopes are high.

After a month-long delay, the 2025-2026 Washington commercial Dungeness crab season is underway — much to the relief of local fishermen — kicking off the most lucrative fishery in the Pacific Northwest.

Fast and furious start

Each year, the vast majority of Dungeness is landed in the first two months, turning the first few weeks of the season into a marathon for fishermen and local processors.

By noon Saturday, Dec. 27, at the Port of Chinook, South Bend Products deck boss Herman Sevilla had helped load more than half a dozen boats with thousands of pots, a typical pace for the start of the commercial crab season.

Later in the day, fishing crews were going to begin loading crab bait — a frozen mix of rockfish, tuna, herring — which is then placed in plastic or metal bait jars before going into the crab pot.

Read the full article at the Chinook Observer