Saving Seafood

Seafloor boulders challenge fishermen, and energy developers

August 18, 2026 — Boulder fields have strewn the sea floor off southern New England since the ice ages. Commercial fishermen have maneuvered around those obstacles for generations.

Now with offshore wind projects in the region, subsea cable installers have relocated some stones to make way – changing the bottom seascape and potentially creating new hazards for towed gear and access to traditional fishing grounds.

A new report from the Rhode Island Sea Grant Legal Program and the Marine Affairs Institute at Roger Williams University School of Law is titled Boulder Relocation for Offshore Energy Development in Rhode Island: Artificial Reefs and Cross-Industry Collaboration.

The paper examines legal and policy considerations around the permitting of boulder relocation – and looks at how the process could “better incorporate commercial fishermen into planning and decision-making,” according to a Sea Grant summary.

Read the full article at WorkBoat 

How Rhode Island’s Shellfish Industry is Innovating During Coronavirus: RI Sea Grant on LIVE

July 16, 2020 — The Rhode Island aquaculture industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus — loss of sales, but also forced to reinvent their business models fast.

Azure Cygler, Fisheries and Aquaculture Extension Specialist at the RI Sea Grant at the University of Rhode Island appeared on GoLocal LIVE, and talked about how the aquaculture industry in the state is adapting due to coronavirus restrictions — and innovating.

Cygler joined GoLocal LIVE as part of an ongoing partnership between the Rhode Island Food Policy Council and GoLocal.

“In terms of our seafood industry, we have some of the best and most amazing innovators you could imagine,” said Cygler. “So at the University of Rhode Island, I work with Rhode Island Sea Grant and the Coast Resources Center — I’ve been working with these folks for years and I just wanted to kind of zero in on the shellfish industry, which is part of the bigger seafood system.”

Read the full story at Go Local Providence

Warmer ocean means changing fish populations in Narragansett Bay

January 27, 2020 — It will come as no surprise to local anglers that different fish species are now found in Rhode Island waters. In some cases, these fish are displacing ones traditionally found here, and scientists are trying to understand which species pose the greatest threat to the native marine populations of Narragansett Bay.

Students presented some of the findings Thursday at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography. The talks on the bay’s marine food web were part of the monthly Bay Informed series sponsored by Rhode Island Sea Grant and open to the public.

“It gets more complicated when you start realizing that there’s a lot of different predators for any given species,” said Maggie Heinichen, a master’s degree candidate. They’re not just eaten by one thing. And it gets even more complicated when you look at an entire ecosystem.”

Scientists have looked at changes at both the bottom and the top of the food web, analyzing fluctuations in populations of organisms at the bottom, like plankton, and of fish at the top level such as striped bass.

Read the full story at The Westerly Sun