Saving Seafood

How climate change threatens the economic backbone of the Pacific

April 27, 2026 — The vast Pacific Ocean and the islands dotted within it produce more than half of the world’s tuna.

Among the islands are 33 scattered across the centre that encompass the country of Kiribati.

Here more than 70% of government revenues come from selling tuna fishing licenses to foreign fleets – the highest proportion of any nation.

Warming water temperatures caused by climate change pose a substantial risk to local tuna populations, threatening Kiribati’s economic backbone.

Scientists fear warmer waters could lead to tuna moving permanently out of its EEZ to cooler temperatures to the east, reducing the demand from overseas fleets for its fishing licenses, which would badly hit the country’s economy.

Read the full article at BBC

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

Keeping an eye on the ‘Blob’

December 1, 2025 — The marine heat wave in the Pacific Ocean, familiarly known as “the Blob,” caused major issues for Pacific fisheries and seabirds in 2014-2016, and some news agencies are reporting that the blob may be on its way north again. 

Few fishermen are alarmed, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Blobtracker, last updated on Sept. 2 indicates that the blob will behave much as it has the last few years.  

But a slew of news stories on the Blob hit the internet in October. According to salmon fisherman Nick Zuanich, posting on Facebook, the articles are based on August temperatures, and nothing to get alarmed about.

“The blob is what happens when the typical fall/spring southerly storms don’t show up. Southerly storms get the Pacific current running to the north, hitting the continental shelf, bringing cooler, nutrient-rich waters to the surface, thereby cooling the North Pacific. This has happened once again, thankfully,” says Zuanich. 

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Deep-sea mining risks disrupting the marine food web, study warns

November 6, 2025 — Drilling for minerals deep in the ocean could have immense consequences for the tiny animals at the core of the vast marine food web — and ultimately affect fisheries and the food we find on our plates, according to a new study.

Deep-sea mining means drilling the seafloor for “polymetallic nodules” loaded with critical minerals including copper, iron, zinc and more. While not yet commercialized, nations are pursuing deep-sea operations amid rising demand for these minerals in electric vehicles and other parts of the energy transition, as well as for technology and military use.

The researchers examined water and waste gathered from a deep-sea mining trial in 2022.

What the study discovered

University of Hawaii researchers studied an area of the Pacific Ocean called the “twilight zone,” about 650-5,000 feet (200-1,500 meters) below sea level. Their peer-reviewed findings, published Thursday in the Nature Communications scientific journal, say mining waste could affect anything from tiny shrimp smaller than .08 inches (2 millimeters) long to fish 2 inches (5 centimeters) long.

That’s because, after mining companies bring the mineral-rich nodules up to the surface, they have to release excess sea water, ocean floor dirt and sediment back into the ocean. That creates a murky plume of particles about the same size as the naturally occurring food particles normally eaten by the zooplankton that swim at that depth.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Return of The Blob: Heat wave spans Pacific Ocean

October 10, 2025 — A massive heat wave is hitting the Pacific Ocean from Kamchatka to California.

Water temperatures several degrees above normal span thousands of miles, though they have mostly stopped short of the Pacific Northwest coast. Cool water welling up from the depths is thought to be keeping surface temperatures near the Oregon and Washington coasts closer to normal.

Beyond disrupting the ocean’s food web and fisheries, the underwater heat wave, known as “The Blob,” can alter weather on land thousands of miles away.

Since May, an ever-shifting mass of overheated water has occupied much of the northern half of the Pacific Ocean.

Read the full article at KUOW

Marine heatwave ‘blob’ returns in Pacific, rivaling past events in size and impact

September 26, 2025 — In 2013, scientists noticed a block of unusually warm water detected in the Pacific Ocean between the Gulf of Alaska and the Coast of Southern California. This was recognized by meteorologists as a basin-scale marine heatwave (MHW), often referred to as “the blob”. This water mass hung around from 2013-2016 before re-emerging again in July of 2019 (known as Blob 2.0) and lasting 20 months.

In May 2025, the blob reappeared.

Rachel Hager, a spokesperson for NOAA Fisheries, said this new MHW has grown “approximately the same size as the contiguous U.S.” She added it now ranks among the top three largest MHWs ever recorded in the northeast Pacific Ocean since monitoring began in 1982.

Read the full article at KATU 2

NOAA proposes allowing offshore fish farms in Gulf, Pacific

September 23, 2025 — The Trump administration plans to offer up to 21,000 acres of federal waters off Southern California and Texas for large-scale commercial aquaculture, according to a NOAA proposal for 13 “aquaculture opportunity areas” in the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.

The initiative — which could provide a boon to U.S. seafood production while carrying risks for traditional fishing economies and ocean environments — shifts into high gear a Trump administration policy priority embodied in two executive orders, one signed by President Donald Trump during his first term and another this spring.

The Biden administration continued the work of studying possible aquaculture projects, including releasing two draft environmental impact statements. The NOAA documents released Friday are the final environmental reviews.

Read the full article at E&E News

University of Hawaiʻi launches sustainable fisheries initiative

August 22, 2025 — The University of Hawaiʻi (UH) has launched a new sustainable fisheries initiative to conduct research and train up a new generation of leaders who can steward fisheries around the islands and in the surrounding Pacific Ocean.

As part of the initiative, the university has brought on 8 new faculty members with expertise in oceanography, economic, Indigenous coastal management, and other fisheries-related specialties. The faculty will be spread out across six schools and colleges, but they’ll work together to develop a graduate program focused on sustainable fisheries management and advancing research on island-ocean systems, UH said in a release.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Future Of Commercial Fishing In Protected Pacific Waters In Courts’ Hands

August 20, 2025 — Hawaiʻi-based longliners have logged more than 900 hours pursuing tuna in previously protected parts of the Pacific Ocean, online tracking data shows, since President Donald Trump lifted a commercial fishing ban in late April.

That new fishing opportunity disappeared recently when a district court judge ruled that U.S. fishery officials didn’t follow proper procedures before opening up the vast waters that form the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument.

The remote area has become the latest flashpoint between conservationists who want more of the Pacific placed off-limits to better protect tuna stocks and sensitive marine environments and regional fishing leaders who say they need access to more fishing grounds — who now have Trump’s ear.

Those leaders have already stated they’d like to see the waters around the Papahānaumokuākea National Marine Sanctuary opened up as well.

For the monument, Judge Micah Smith found that officials should have sought public input before enacting Trump’s order, which ultimately aims to reopen more than 400,000 square miles of deep ocean. Smith said they also need to publish new, proposed fishing rules in the Federal Register.

Read the full article at Civil Beats

eDNA uncovers salmon winter habitat usage in Northeast Pacific Ocean

July 29, 2025 — An international team of fisheries scientists studying data gathered during the oceanic winter of 2022 in the Northeast Pacific Ocean has identified distinct ocean biomes impacting the marine survival of Pacific salmon species.

Their report, based on an ecosystem-wide environmental DNA (eDNA) survey across 2.2 million square kilometers of open ocean habitat, found that salmon exhibited species-specific distribution across the Northeast Pacific. These distributions were associated with swirling ocean currents known as mesoscale anticyclonic eddies—currents that rotate clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere, characterized by a high-pressure center. These eddies play a significant role in ocean circulation by transporting heat, salt, and other properties, and by influencing biological activity.

Ocean biomes are aquatic ecosystems characterized by saltwater and include the Pacific Ocean, the largest and deepest of the world’s oceans, known for its diverse marine life and volcanic activity.

The voyages, part of the International Year of the Salmon initiative, began in 2017 and concluded in 2022, though analysis of the collected data continues. These voyages were a collaborative effort involving the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (based in Vancouver, Canada), the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (based in Edinburgh, Scotland), and various other organizations across multiple countries. Their goal was to raise awareness about the importance of salmon conservation.

This latest research report was published on July 8 in the ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) Journal of Marine Science.

Researchers concluded that salmon displayed species-specific positive associations with potential prey species and competitors. However, some salmon were negatively associated with specific cnidarians and harmful algae. Cnidaria are a group of aquatic invertebrates found in both freshwater and marine environments, ranging from jellyfish, sea anemones, and corals to some of the smallest marine parasites.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman