November 20, 2025 — A young humpback whale that was euthanized on Monday has been removed from the Oregon beach where it died.
Scientists, veterinary students and members of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians worked together to disassemble the whale Tuesday.
Tribal members performed ceremonies for the whale, and collected some of its remains for cultural use.
November 19, 2025 — As crews along Washington’s coast splice rope, paint buoys, and stack their pots, the region’s commercial crab fleet is once again preparing for what the Chinook Observer calls the most prized fishery in the Pacific Northwest. According to an article published by the Observer on Nov. 16, the official start to the 2025 Washington commercial Dungeness crab season could come as early as Dec. 1 if the preseason test results for meat recovery and domoic acid meet the criteria.
The first round of tests delivered mixed results. Long Beach came close, but at 20.9 percent recovery on Nov. 3, it fell just shy of the 23 percent threshold required along the Washington and north Oregon Coasts. Other major test sites performed well above the cutoff: Astoria at 26.4 percent, Westport at 25 percent, and Garibaldi at 27.1 percent.
November 19, 2025 — On November 17, veterinarians from the West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network euthanized a young humpback whale stranded north of Yachats, Oregon, after an unsuccessful attempt to free it. The whale was entangled in gear when it first stranded on November 15. NOAA Fisheries attributed the gear to the 2023–2024 Oregon commercial Dungeness crab fishery.
Teams of trained responders from Portland and Seattle arrived November 16 and assessed the overall condition of the whale. They set up a rope and pulley system to try to free it from the beach at high tide the following morning. However, the attempt was unsuccessful.
While the whale remained alive, experts determined that euthanasia was the most humane option for this case. The prolonged period of time onshore had left the whale weak and unlikely to survive. Veterinarians euthanized the whale late afternoon on November 17. Responders will conduct a necropsy to assess the animal’s overall health and help determine why it stranded.
November 12, 2025 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ended a contract with the Alaska Earthquake Center that helped maintain some seismic stations and transmit data in real time.
Alaska state seismologist and director of the center, Michael West, warned that the termination of this contract, which is around two decades old, will lead to less timely and accurate tsunami warnings that could affect Alaska, Hawaii and the West Coast.
It’s unclear why NOAA chose to terminate the contract, worth around $300,000 annually. David Snider, a tsunami warning coordinator with NOAA’s National Tsunami Warning Center, declined to comment, deferring to NOAA public affairs, which did not respond to request for comment.
Every time an earthquake happens, NOAA’s Tsunami Warning Centers determine whether to issue a tsunami alert within five minutes. Depending on where the earthquake originated, coastal communities could have anywhere from 20 minutes to six hours to evacuate or prepare for a tsunami.
November 11, 2025 — Most ocean carriers have cut capacity on most global shipping routes, causing prices for 40-foot equivalent units (FEUs) to increase, shipping service Xeneta reported.
One exception to this pattern was on routes between the Far East and the U.S. West Coast, where carriers increased capacity and rates still increased.
November 11, 2025 — Scientists surveying the Upper Gulf of California for the critically endangered vaquita porpoise have confirmed sightings of between 7 to 10 individuals and the birth of new calves, a slight increase from the 2024 survey, which marked the lowest results ever recorded.
Found only in the Northern Gulf of California off the coast of Mexico, the vaquita porpoise is among the planet’s most endangered species. The population has seen a steady decline since its first survey in 1997, when scientists estimated roughly 567 individuals. By 2024, that number had fallen to just eight – the lowest level ever documented – with no sightings of newly born calves.
November 7, 2025 — A new study has found that deep-sea mining operations threaten ocean food chains, potentially impacting valuable fisheries.
The study, led by researchers from the University of Hawai’i, focused on the effects of particle plumes ejected into ocean water by deep-sea mining operations.
November 4, 2025 — NOAA Fisheries has established a federal task force to address the problem of humpback whales becoming entangled in commercial fishing gear along the west coast.
The announcement came just prior to a 31 October deadline set by the courts in response to a lawsuit brought by conservation NGO the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD). The group sued NOAA Fisheries in 2022, claiming the agency’s sablefish fishery permit didn’t incorporate any plans to reduce entanglements or harm to the endangered whales. In 2023, NOAA Fisheries signed a legal agreement as part of a settlement, committing to create a task force by 31 October 2025.
November 4, 2025 — A federal judge in California has ordered NOAA to release photos, videos and other visual data documenting the catch of nontargeted species by the state’s halibut trawl fishery.
In a ruling, Judge Josephine Staton of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California told NOAA to release 77 photographs to the environmental group Oceana detailing the bycatch of fish and marine mammals caught up in nets used by bottom trawlers off the California coast.
Oceana had requested the photos in 2022 under a public records request, but NOAA declined to provide them, citing an exemption where the release of documents violates nondisclosure provisions in federal law. NOAA argued that the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act prohibited the release of the photos because doing so could identify the identities of fisheries observers whose identities were to be kept private.
November 3, 2025 — There’s a catch to this year’s crab season and it’s not just in the traps.
The recreational Dungeness crab season opened Saturday along the Sonoma Coast, but state officials are warning fishers about potentially dangerous levels of domoic acid in the crabs’ internal organs.
In a health advisory issued Oct. 24, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the California Department of Public Health said unhealthy levels of the naturally occurring toxin have been found in the viscera, or the internal organs of the crab. Officials warned that cooking the crab does not destroy the toxin, advising fishers to not ingest any part of the viscera.
Domoic acid poisoning in humans can cause nausea, dizziness and in severe cases, even memory loss or death, public health officials cautioned.
Despite the warnings, recreational crabbers can still hit the seas, unlike Bodega Bay’s Dick Ogg and other commercial fisherman who have been sidelined following seven straight years of season delays to protect endangered marine life from entanglements.
For Ogg, who predicts the commercial season will once again not open until January, and other fishermen across the state, these delays take a major toll on their profit margins.
“The impact is significant,” Ogg said Saturday. “What we have lost is our Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s crab market. Everything has been pushed ahead to when people are less interested in getting the resource. It’s a lot more difficult and the financial impact to everyone is pretty significant.”