Pacific Archives - Saving Seafood

NOAA sends Saildrones on mission to track El Niño

September 9, 2026 — A quartet of uncrewed surface vehicles are navigating 1,500 miles to the center of a historic El Niño gathering strength in the eastern Pacific, on a four-month mission to collect data on the warm-water impulse altering global weather patterns.

Two orange Saildrone Explorer 23′ USVs sailed Aug. 21 from Honolulu, carrying meteorological and oceanographic sensors and rendezvousing with two other Saildrones on a 6,000-mile round-trip mission for NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) according to a summary from the agency.

“A monumental El Niño is knocking at the door,” said Michael McPhaden, former PMEL senior scientist now working with NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Studies (CICOES). “We’re going to take a closer look.”

The USVs will steer courses through the Tropical Pacific Observing System, a multi-national array of data-collecting moored surface buoys that provide continuous, real-time hourly tracking of surface winds, air temperature, humidity, and upper-ocean temperature down to 1,640’. Argo floats collect ocean profiles down to 1.24 miles every 10 days.

Distributed throughout the array are drifting buoys measuring sea surface temperature and currents. Overhead, satellites track the drifters and capture surface observations across wide areas.

Read the full article at Workboat

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

NOAA Fisheries issues several fishery disaster determinations

September 8, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries quietly issued several fishery disaster determinations in July, opening the door for federal funding to be allocated for those fisheries.

U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (D-California) welcomed the determinations for fisheries in his state, which include California’s red sea urchin fishery and the Hoopa Valley Tribe’s Klamath River fall Chinook salmon fishery.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Ocean Indicators We’re Tracking for El Niño’s Arrival on the West Coast

September 5, 2026 — Has El Niño reached the West Coast?

You might think it has. After all, the ocean off Southern and Central California is unusually warm. But that is from a recent marine heatwave predates the current El Niño. Much of the Pacific Coast is experiencing relatively normal conditions while still awaiting the impacts of what could be a very strong El Niño.

In June, NOAA’s National Weather Service declared that El Niño had developed. That finding, however, is based on ocean temperatures from the tropical Pacific Ocean, near the Equator, which warm ahead of El Niño’s impact on the Americas.

While eastern tropical Pacific temperatures have already risen more than 2°C (about 3.6°F) above normal, El Niño-related warming along the West Coast typically lags that increase by a few months. NOAA Fisheries scientists are tracking West Coast conditions as part of our Integrated Ecosystem Assessment. Here are some of the changes in ocean conditions and marine life that typically signal the arrival of El Niño’s influence along the West Coast.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

CALIFORNIA: El Niño bringing changes to Northern California ocean conditions and marine life

September 6, 2026 — Massive bluefin tuna are being reeled in off Northern California in numbers local fishermen say they rarely see.

Dustin Barbane, who runs D&D Fishing Company out of Richmond, said crews are seeing bluefin feeding aggressively near the surface.

“We’re seeing them foaming, or busting up on anchovies,” Barbane said. “They’re eating bait on the surface.”

Bluefin tuna generally favor warmer water, and fishermen say this year’s catches have been unusually strong.

“We’ve seen guys catch up to eight tuna in a day, which is pretty unheard of up here,” he said.

The unusual activity is not limited to tuna. Commercial fisherman Dick Ogg, based in Bodega Bay, said fishermen have noticed rapid shifts in water temperature, unusual concentrations of anchovies and even large numbers of giant octopus.

“It’s kind of a weird thing,” Ogg said. “All of a sudden guys were seeing 20, 25 octopus in their pots all of a sudden up and down the coast.”

Read the full article at the CBS News

US pledges USD 17 million to fight IUU fishing in the Pacific Islands

September 3, 2026 — The United States has pledged USD 17 million (EUR 14.7 million) to fight counter illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in and around the Pacific Islands.

“The United States is a Pacific nation and has long stood with our Pacific friends and neighbors to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific region,” the U.S. Department of State said in a release. Our commitment to the security and prosperity of the Pacific Islands is steadfast, enduring, and a key pillar of our America First Foreign Policy.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Two giant warming patterns are brewing in the Pacific and warping US weather

September 2, 2026 — In the north-east Pacific Ocean, an immense and persistent heatwave is wreaking havoc on marine life and weather patterns.

“It’s a really bright red eyeball in the Pacific,” says Andrew Leising, a research oceanographer at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa). “It’s huge, it stretches across the whole [ocean].” The Pacific heatwave, which formed in May 2025, is already bringing surface temperatures 3-4C (5.4-7.2F) above average for this time of year, according to Leising.

Add to that: a massive warming pattern known as El Niño is brewing further south. El Niño is a weather phenomenon that pushes up global temperatures, and it is also supercharging Pacific Ocean warming. It is expected to intensify this autumn to become the strongest El Niño in living memory.

This combination of a massive marine heatwave and a “super El Niño” is rarely seen. Here are five impacts we can expect to see – and where they will happen.

Read the full article at the BBC

California Sues DOI Calling Offshore Wind Cancellation “Blatantly Unlawful”

August 31, 2026 — California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the California Energy Commission moved forward with their earlier challenges and filed a lawsuit on August 28 against the Trump administration and Golden State Wind over what it is calling “the unlawful buyout” of the offshore wind energy lease. The state is contending the deal to buy back the offshore wind lease is illegal and would jeopardize its investments to support the project, the state’s energy policy, and the commitments from the developer for workforce training, the supply chain, and investments in the local communities.

The California Energy Commission in May served an administrative investigative subpoena to Golden State Wind seeking documents and information related to the buyout. The California Department of Justice and CEC followed up in June by sending a Notice of Intent to Sue targeting what it terms an “unlawful agreement between the Department of the Interior and Golden State Wind.” It is asserting that the deal is “blatantly unlawful” and is asking the courts to strike it down.

“The Trump administration’s backroom buyout with Golden State Wind to stop offshore wind development in favor of gas and oil drilling is, unfortunately, a classic playbook for them to line the pockets of their Big Oil donors,” said Attorney General Bonta, announcing the filing of the lawsuit.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

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