Saving Seafood

RHODE ISLAND: Shifting Tides: Horseshoe Crab Population Shows Mixed Trends Across Rhode Island Waters

June 26, 2026 — Tag No. 445308 surfaced once again at Napatree Point as a group of 14 surveyors headed back to their cars.

“This one has been out here for a couple of years now,” one surveyor said.

The 7-inch male horseshoe crab had been tagged on its right side at Napatree in 2020 on behalf of Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees the horseshoe crab cooperative tagging program.

One volunteer who had never seen a horseshoe crab before watched 547 of them crawl along the shoreline June 12 during the survey with the Watch Hill Conservancy, which has tracked the population for 20 years.

Surveys take place during the full and new moons each late spring and early summer when the crabs come ashore to lay eggs. The data helps the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management track populations that have declined along the Atlantic Coast after decades of harvest pressure.

Debates remain about how much protection the species still needs in neighboring states and at the federal level. DEM is taking a measured approach by weighing whether additional rule changes are necessary, as survey data show a mixed picture of abundance.

“Our job as managers is to balance the multiple needs while ensuring that the population is sustainable,” DEM principal marine biologist Katie Rodrigue said.

Read the full article at ecoRI News

RHODE ISLAND: Climate change challenges commercial fishing industry

June 26, 2026 — In Rhode Island, the commercial fishing industry is a pillar of the state’s economy and culture, but with global warming and dynamic environmental changes, the industry is sailing into the unknown.

While New England is outpacing much of the United States in rising temperatures, Rhode Island is warming even faster than its regional neighbors, according to a 2022 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and The Providence Journal.

Sea levels have also risen considerably across the ocean state, with the Newport tide gauge rising 10.1 inches over the past century, according to NOAA.

Rhode Island’s sea levels have gained momentum over the last decade, now rising by an inch every eight years, according to Sea Level Rise. This growth is evident in Providence, while the capital city took 40 years to rise six inches, it’s now projected to gain another six inches in just the next 16 years.

The Narragansett Bay water has also increased by three degrees Fahrenheit over the past century with water levels rising up to seven inches, according to Save The Bay. These unpredictable environmental changes make it increasingly difficult for commercial fishermen and fisheries to rely on consistent ecosystems while abiding by catch quotas.

Read the full article at East Bay RI

RHODE ISLAND: SouthCoast Wind can lay its cable in RI waters, if it ever gets built

June 11, 2026 — SouthCoast Wind is on hold at the federal level, but Rhode Island regulators are still clearing the way for plans to connect the proposed 141-turbine offshore wind farm to the regional power grid.

The state Coastal Resources Management Council on June 9 approved a request by developer Ocean Winds to run a pair of transmission cables across 20 miles of Rhode Island state waters.

The cables would lead from its wind farm of up to 2,400 megawatts of capacity that would be built 23 miles south of Nantucket and head up the Sakonnet River, through Common Fence Point in Portsmouth and across Mount Hope Bay to a substation at Brayton Point in Somerset, Massachusetts.

Read the full article at the Newport Daily News

The URI fisheries and technology program legacy

June 11, 2026 — When it comes to breadth and depth, few fisheries education programs today can rival the University of Rhode Island’s two-year Fisheries and Marine Technology degree program, which ran for almost 20 years from 1967 to 1985. “The market doesn’t need it anymore,” said Dr. Joe DeAlteris, who was hired in 1983 to transition the associate degree program to a four-year bachelor’s degree. “Most of what we taught back then is obsolete now, anyway.”

True enough. Technology has replaced many of the skills taught in the intensive, 19-credit-per-semester program. “We taught students how to make nets, for example,” said DeAlteris. “Nobody makes their own nets now. A lot of times, they don’t even repair them; they bring them to a net loft. And who uses celestial navigation?”

Andreas Holmsen, a Norwegian resource economist, and Bert Hillier, a retired fisherman from Newfoundland, started the associate degree program in 1967. Besides navigation and net building, students learned everything that would be expected of them on a commercial fishing vessel. Courses included vessel safety and stability, COLREGS rules of the road, diesel and hydraulic engineering, welding, fish processing and preservation, commercial fishing gear types, and the micro- and macroeconomic basics needed to run a business. But by 1985, New England fisheries were contracting, and the Fisheries and Marine Technology program was folded into a broader bachelor’s degree major.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

RHODE ISLAND: CRMC approves key SouthCoast Wind permit over objections from fishing industry

June 11, 2026 — The murky future for SouthCoast Wind gained a small but significant sign of clarity Tuesday with a key permit approval from the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC).

The panel’s unanimous vote — the first decision made by the newly retooled council —- followed a four-hour series of expert presentations and public comments on the impacts of the underwater cable lines in Rhode Island waters. The center of the project — 141 turbines generating more than 1,200 megawatts of wind-powered electricity at nameplate capacity — sits more than 60 miles south of Rhode Island’s coastline, closer to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. But project developers needed permission from Ocean State regulators to run power lines from the turbines to the electric grid, snaking up the Sakonnet River, underneath Island Park in Portsmouth and out Mount Hope Bay to reach land at Brayton Point in Somerset, Massachusetts.

When and whether the high-voltage cables ever come through Rhode Island remains unclear; SouthCoast is one of many offshore wind projects facing unforeseen setbacks since President Donald Trump took office in January 2026. The developer hasn’t lined up a buyer for its product, though Massachusetts power providers are expected to announce a decision on a potential deal by the end of the month. Rhode Island Energy was initially interested in procuring a small piece of the project power, too, but broke off contract negotiations after multiple delays, citing federal policy uncertainty.

Federal regulators with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management have also revoked a key federal permit tied to the project and are still reviewing whether to reissue the permit with new conditions — if at all.

Fishermen, municipalities and conservative-funded interest groups noted the federal uncertainty in 90 pages of opposition letters to coastal regulators. Far more pressing for critics, however, was the potential environmental harms to native species and habitats where the developer wants to drill and bury the power lines, and the commercial and recreational fishing community that depends on those habitats.

Read the full article at the News From the States

7 states sue Trump administration over nearly $1 billion deal to halt offshore wind farm

June 3, 2026 — Seven states are suing the Trump administration over a nearly $1 billion deal to end French energy company TotalEnergies’ offshore wind development off the East Coast, accusing the deal of being “unlawful.”

In March, the U.S. Department of the Interior reached a $928 million deal with TotalEnergies to halt construction of the wind farms and redirect the investment into domestic fossil fuel initiatives. The “landmark agreement” was described by the Interior Department as a way to lower energy costs and strengthen the nation’s energy security.

Attorneys general in seven states in the Northeast, including Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday, alleging the Trump administration illegally used nearly $1 billion in taxpayer dollars for the deal.

The coalition also accuses the deal of violating the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which restricts the Interior Department’s ability to cancel offshore wind leases.

Read the full article at ABC News

RHODE ISLAND: Rhode Island fishermen hope to profit from influx of black sea bass

May 15, 2026 — As black sea bass migrate to New England waters, the Rhode Island fishing industry is seeing their commercial potential.

“The price can be big,” said Chris Lee, senior director at Sea Fresh USA in North Kingstown. “It can be a valuable fishery in that way … the fish are kind of moving up here, so we’re seeing more and more of them … the price is good; selling them is not an issue. The large jumbos are worth quite a bit of money.”

Black sea bass are typically not sold directly to restaurants and never sent internationally, according to Lee. The species is in demand on the West Coast and metropolitan areas on the East Coast.

Read the full article at Southern Rhode Island Newspapers

RHODE ISLAND: Rhode Island quahog industry reels from ‘gut-wrenching’ sewage spill

May 13, 2026 — Rhode Island quahoggers are facing mounting financial losses following a sewage spill that forced the closure of key shellfishing waters in the Providence River.

“It’s gut-wrenching,” said quahogger Jim Boyd.

“Devastated, to be honest with you,” added full-time commercial shellfisherman Dave Ghigliotty.

The May 4 spill, caused by a broken pipe in East Providence, released 880,000 gallons of sewage into Narragansett Bay, according to Rhode Island’s Department of Environmental Management (DEM). In response, the DEM closed the 16E shellfishing area, one of the most productive clam beds in the state.

Fishermen say the difference between Area 16E and the rest of the bay is dramatic.

“It’s three to four times better than any of the areas that we can fish,” said Michael McGiveney, President of the Rhode Island Shellfisherman’s Association.

“There’s more quahogs there,” Ghigliotty explained. “There’s more fishing, there’s more ground, there’s more virgin territory.”

Area 16E is located in the waters between Warwick’s Conimicut and Barrington’s Annawomscutt neighborhoods. The territory was closed for decades because of pollution, but after extensive cleanup efforts by the Narragansett Bay Commission, the area was deemed clean enough for shellfishing five years ago, according to the Providence Journal. Since the area had been closed off for so long, the shellfish populations are more robust, explained McGiveney.

Read the full article at NENC

Offshore wind farms take shape along Rhode Island’s coast, even as Trump wants to stop them

April 24, 2026 — Offshore wind turbines roughly three times the height of the Statue of Liberty were spinning far off the coast of Rhode Island on Thursday, sending clean electricity to the region.

Wind farms are taking shape and operating along the East Coast, even as President Donald Trump seeks to end the U.S. offshore wind industry. He often talks about his hatred of wind power and calls turbines ugly.

The Associated Press traveled roughly 100 miles (161 kilometers) and saw three of the five wind farms in the area. Two of the five are fully operational, two are nearly done, and one is about halfway built.

The first turbines from the Revolution Wind project were clearly visible from about 5 nautical miles away, and can be seen from farther away on clear days. They stretched across the horizon, massive structures evenly spaced in rows, some spinning in the light winds.

Read the full article at WPRI

RHODE ISLAND: These fish look like Jabba the Hutt. Now, RI kids are eating monkfish at school.

April 14, 2025 — There’s nothing about a monkfish’s appearance that makes you want to eat it.

With a bulbous head, bulging eyes, oversized mouth and sluglike body that can grow more than four feet long, it’s basically the Jabba the Hutt of the ocean.

But this slimy, bottom-dwelling monstrosity sometimes called goosefish, devilfish or fishing frog is known to seafood afficionados for firm, sweet tail meat that makes for a tasty meal.

Read the full article at Providence Journal