Saving Seafood

Nations at southern bluefin tuna meeting stop short of adopting new seabird protections

October 15, 2026 — Seabird protections drew debate at the annual meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT), held Oct. 5-8 in Brussels. The eight-member multilateral body that manages the stock has long struggled to curb seabird deaths caused by longline fishing targeting southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccoyii) across several oceans.

This year’s meeting saw a modicum of progress on the issue. Based on recent modeling, the parties agreed on 13 priority seabird species for conservation efforts and designated high-risk areas for them. However, the designations don’t carry any new mandatory protections: Due to the reluctance of some members, the commission stopped short of adopting proposed conservation measures for the high-risk areas, most notably tighter seabird bycatch mitigation requirements.

Oliver Yates, head of the marine program at BirdLife International, a U.K.-based NGO, told Mongabay that the identification of high-risk areas was “a good step forward” but said it was a problem that “they’ve not then adopted any management action to accompany the fishing activity in those spatial areas.”

“[T]hey recognise bycatch of seabirds is a very serious issue but again agreed to do nothing about it,” Yates, who attended the Brussels meeting, added in a text message.

Read the full article at Mongabay

United States Wins Key Measures Benefiting U.S. Fisheries on Pacific Bluefin Tuna and Ensuring Research on Dorado and Billfish

October 8, 2026 —  During recent international negotiations, the U.S. delegation to the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission advanced key American economic and conservation priorities. The successes support Executive Order 14276 on “Restoring America’s Seafood Competitiveness” by improving U.S. fishing opportunities, leveling the playing field for U.S. commercial fishermen, and modernizing ocean governance.

At the September 2026 Commission annual meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, 21 nations built consensus on high-priority fisheries and issues, including:

  • Pacific bluefin tuna
  • Electronic monitoring
  • South Pacific albacore
  • Dorado, South Pacific swordfish, and other billfish
  • Sharks and seabirds

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Kitty Simonds receives outstanding contribution to Pacific Coast Fisheries Award

October 5, 2026 — The Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC) recognized Kitty M. Simonds, executive director of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, with its Outstanding Contribution to Pacific Coast Fisheries Award during the Commission’s 79th Annual Meeting in Kona, Hawaiʻi.

David Sakoda of the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Aquatic Resources presented the award during the meeting’s awards luncheon.

“Her career has had a lasting influence not only in the Western Pacific, but nationally and internationally,” Sakoda said. “We are pleased to recognize Kitty today for her exceptional service, leadership and commitment to the people and marine resources of the Pacific.”

Simonds has served as executive director of the Western Pacific Council since 1983, leading the development and implementation of fisheries management strategies across Hawaiʻi and the U.S. Pacific Islands. Under her direction, the Council pioneered regulations on fishing gear including drift gill nets and bottom trawls, as well as the first satellite-based fishery vessel monitoring system in the United States. She also helped transform the Hawaiʻi longline fishery through onboard observer coverage and gear changes that reduced interactions with and mortality of sea turtles, seabirds and sharks. The Council developed the nation’s first Coral Reef Fishery Ecosystem Plan and advanced the integration of local and traditional ecological knowledge into modern fisheries management.

Read the full article at Samoa News

Birds Are Dying. Clues Point to El Niño.

August 7, 2026 — Every month, Giovanny Suárez Espín walks a beach near his home in southern Ecuador, monitoring for dead seabirds. Usually, he sees maybe a handful.

But on recent surveys, the sand has been littered with carcasses.

“Every 10 steps you took, you found five or 10 birds, and it kept going,” said Suárez, who works for American Bird Conservancy, a nonprofit group. “On the three-kilometer walk, we saw lots of dead birds the whole way.”

In June, Suárez and others tallied 638 dead birds on the beaches of three provinces in Ecuador, about seven times the number found over the previous year and a half combined.

“It’s painful,” he said.

In July, they counted an additional 968.

It’s too soon to say for certain what has caused the spike in deaths, which has affected various species, including sooty shearwaters, Peruvian and blue-footed boobies, cormorants, petrels and the critically endangered waved albatross. Die-offs in sea birds aren’t uncommon, and can stem from a variety of factors. In 2023, Ecuador saw mass deaths from avian influenza, said Sebastián Cruz, a seabird ecologist who runs the South American marine bird program for American Bird Conservancy.

But this time, he said, looks different. The birds’ bodies are emaciated. Testing for bird flu is needed, but the few necropsies that have been conducted, along with the behavior of surviving birds, show no signs of infection. And critically, sea surface temperatures off the coast have been exceptionally elevated.

This points to an alarming possibility: The seabirds could already be victims of the building El Niño, a natural climate phenomenon whose effects are now occurring while the planet dangerously warms.

In recent months, as scientists have predicted an El Niño that could be the strongest in recorded history, the attention has focused on how it could hurt humans. And it could hurt us a lot, potentially bringing record heat, drought and torrential rain.

But wildlife stands to suffer, too. Marine mammals and seabirds are among the most at risk.

Read the full article at The New York Times

Bering Sea heat wave cited as trigger for nosedive in Yukon River Chinook salmon

July 13, 2026 — The intense marine heat wave conditions that began roiling the Bering Sea in about 2016 resulted in the lowest winter sea ice extent measured in 150 years, widespread bird and marine mammal die-offs, a drastic shift in fish populations and a crash of snow crab stocks.

Now new research is tying the marine heat wave to the recent collapse of Yukon River Chinook salmon.

A study published in April, written by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center and University of Alaska Fairbanks, showed the correlation between the extreme heat wave conditions and the nosedive in Yukon River Chinook stocks. The heat wave was accompanied by a dramatic increase in deaths of older juvenile and adult Chinook that, had they survived, would have returned from the ocean to freshwater spawning grounds, the study found.

The study was published in the journal Ecological Applications.

The Yukon River’s runs of Chinook, also called king salmon, have been in a long-term decline since their past heyday, when they numbered in the hundreds of thousands and the river was one of the biggest sources of that salmon species.

The sharp downturn in recent years resulted in a 2022 return that was the lowest on record. Widespread fishery closures have been in effect for years along the Yukon River system in both Alaska and Canada.

Read the full article at Alaska Beacon

Seabirds reveal global mercury distribution in oceans

April 10, 2026 — Mercury released into the oceans affects marine environments worldwide. Traditionally, its distribution and quantity have been estimated using marine biogeochemical simulation models.

An international study led by Japanese researchers analyzed blood mercury concentrations in more than 11,215 seabirds from 108 species, of which 659 were newly collected samples and over 10,556 were from previous studies. This is the first biologically based estimate of oceanic mercury distribution.

The study found that mercury levels in seabirds vary according to prey trophic level, bird body weight, and foraging depth. The findings were published in Science of the Total Environment.

Mercury emissions into the ocean have risen since the Industrial Revolution, primarily due to increased atmospheric mercury from coal combustion. Mercury travels long distances by wind and enters the ocean through rainfall.

In the ocean, some mercury becomes highly toxic and bioaccumulates in the food chain, ultimately concentrating in the tissues of seabirds that consume fish and zooplankton.

Professor Akiko Shoji and Researcher Jumpei Okado of Nagoya University Graduate School of Environmental Studies, along with Senior Researcher Bungo Nishizawa of the Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency, led an international study with 12 institutions from four countries.

Read the full article at phys.org

Pacific fisheries summit gives a boost to albacore & seabirds

December 17, 2025 — Much of the world’s albacore tuna catch, which usually ends up in a can, comes from the southwestern Pacific Ocean, where fishery managers just passed a new set of conservation rules.

The parties to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), a multilateral body that sets fishing rules for an area that covers nearly 20% of the planet, adopted a harvest strategy for South Pacific albacore at their annual meeting, held Dec. 1-5 in Manila, the Philippines. Harvest strategies set near-automatic scientifically advised catch limits or other control measures in response to fluctuating fish stock levels; they’re considered a best practice in fisheries management because they reduce commercial or political influence. South Pacific albacore is one of two albacore (Thunnus alalunga) stocks in the WCPFC; the other is North Pacific albacore, which isn’t fished as much.

“This is a great move for the WCPFC,” Dave Gershman, a senior officer for international fisheries at The Pew Charitable Trusts, a U.S.-based think tank, told Mongabay after attending the meeting. “This is a critical step to ensure the sustainability and stability of the top Pacific albacore fisheries.”

Gershman noted that the harvest strategy was a “long time in the making” and had been “discussed for many, many years.”

The parties discussed, but didn’t adopt, new rules on transshipment, or the ship-to-ship transfer of fish and other goods at sea, a practice that’s been linked to illegal and unsustainable fishing and other illicit activity.

Glen Joseph, director of the fishing ministry of the Marshall Islands, a WCPFC member state, said the meeting thus delivered both positives and negatives.

“We successfully pushed the Harvest Strategy,” Joseph told Mongabay in an email, noting the role of the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), a bloc of 17 island nations including the Marshall Islands that tends to act in unison at the WCPFC, in pushing reforms. “We were not so successful with the transshipment issue,” he added.

A deal finally done

South Pacific albacore isn’t considered overfished and its stock is at about 48% of its historical levels, which is higher than many commercially fished stocks. Yet experts have argued that a harvest strategy is essential to the stock’s long-term health and that current management is “outdated.” WCPFC parties were spurred to action in part because the Marine Stewardship Council, a London-based ecolabel certification NGO, had signaled that from 2026 it wouldn’t certify South Pacific albacore fisheries that weren’t under a harvest strategy.

China and Taiwan harvest the most South Pacific albacore, but a number of smaller Pacific nations and territories also fish enough that it’s important to their economies. Longline vessels, which drop huge numbers of baited hooks into the sea, do most of the fishing. The economic value of albacore in the WCPFC area is about $1 billion per year, mostly from South Pacific albacore, according to Pew.

The new harvest strategy sets 56,096 metric tons per year as a sort of baseline harvest rate — lower than the roughly 65,000 metric tons that were harvested in 2024 in the part of the WCPFC area where the rules will apply, from 10-50° south. However, in coming years, the total allowable catch will remain above 56,096, because the rules stipulate that it can only be decreased by 5% per three-year period.

The exact figures for the first management period, 2027-29, will be determined next year. So will rules about how much of the catch can come from the high seas versus countries’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs).

The parties couldn’t reach an agreement on the harvest strategy at the 2024 annual meeting and so they discussed it at two intersessional meetings in 2025 — and then it dominated the meeting time in Manila in early December, with a deal being reached only in the final hours.

“It’s been looked at up and down, back and forth, sideways,” Gershman said.

Read the full article at Mongabay

Seafood Companies, Governments, and NGOs Support ‘Seabird-Safe’ Fishing Toolkit

December 5, 2023 — The following was released by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership:

Action and momentum is building across the Asia-Pacific tuna industry to reduce capture of threatened albatrosses and other seabirds in longline fisheries.

Last week, Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) joined more than 80 fishing company representatives and government officials from nine APEC economies in a roundtable to      develop the Seabird-Safe Fishing Toolkit to help solve the problem of seabirds becoming       entangled, hooked and drowned in fishing operations.

The toolkit project is a New Zealand-funded project, with the support of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Oceans and Fisheries Working Group. The project is co-sponsored by Chile, People’s Republic of China, Peru, Chinese Taipei, and the United States. The toolkit will be developed over 2024 and presented to the APEC Oceans and Fisheries Working Group in August 2024.

Mandy Leathers, Senior International Advisor at New Zealand’s Department of Conservation, said the toolkit is a “one-stop shop” that brings together essential information about the ocean areas important to threatened seabirds, the best measures to avoid bycatch of seabirds, and robust monitoring methods.

A growing number of global companies involved in tuna fishing want to address impacts on threatened marine wildlife to meet the demands of their markets. We want to support them as much as we can.

Unlike many global environmental issues, there are effective ways to solve the problem of seabird captures in longline fishing operations. This relies on fisheries having the necessary information, as they have a key part to play,” said Leathers.

Seafood companies Thai Union and Tri Marine, and Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship (SeaBOS) attended the roundtable and support the toolkit.

Martin Exel, Managing Director of SeaBOS, said science-based solutions like this toolkit, developed and implemented by conservation and science in conjunction with industry, are critical to reducing impacts on endangered species of seabirds, and achieving sustainable seafood production.

“Reducing the impacts of fishing on endangered species of seabirds is something we must all do, and having the options and approaches outlined in this way will speed up the process of restoring seabird population health, while also improving catches and returns for the industry. It’s a win-win for seabirds, the seafood sector, conservation, science, government, and industry,” said Exel.

Thai Union’s Sustainable Fish Sourcing Director, Fong Lee, says the development of the Seabird-Safe Fishing Toolkit marks a pivotal moment in their ongoing efforts to safeguard marine biodiversity.

“At Thai Union, our commitment extends beyond pledges. It’s about tangible actions and continuous improvement. This toolkit is a critical step towards resolving the pressing issue of seabird bycatch in fishing operations. By harnessing best practices, innovative technologies, and collaborative efforts, we aim to significantly reduce the unintended harm to seabirds.

Thai Union has already pledged to only source from vessels that are implementing best practices to protect ocean wildlife from bycatch, including seabirds. Our goal is clear – to ensure that our oceans remain vibrant and teeming with life, for the seabirds and all marine creatures. This is a responsibility we shoulder and a challenge we embrace wholeheartedly,” said Lee.

Conservation and Sustainable Seafood NGOs also have a key role in the development of the toolkit.

Alexia Morgan, Ocean Wildlife Manager at Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP), said SFP is engaging with its partner wholesalers and buyers, who want to understand the impacts of their sourcing on the wider ecosystem.

“We have a narrow window of time to stop albatross extinctions. The toolkit will help accelerate progress by supporting these companies in delivering on their existing sustainability policies to protect albatrosses and other seabirds,” said Morgan.

Matt Watson, Senior Fisheries Program Manager for the Asia Pacific at the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), said consumer demands are driving a shift in the tuna sector.

“Retailers, brands and restaurants around the world are choosing to source MSC certified tuna and use the MSC blue fish tick label on their products and menus.

“Fisheries need to demonstrate that they are minimising mortality of threatened species through best practice management measures, which now require independent verification. We hope the toolkit will help fishing fleets navigate these challenges and achieve certification,” said Watson.

 

NOAA testing ultraviolet lights as solution to seabird bycatch

August 12, 2023 — NOAA Fisheries believes new ultraviolet-phased lighting technology could help keep seabirds away from fishing vessels, and the agency is embarking on a several-year research effort to see if it lives up to its promise.

Tempted by the bait used to lure in fish, seabirds have long been attracted to commercial fishing operations. Unfortunately, it typically isn’t the free meal that it appears to be, with the birds becoming hooked or entangled in the gear. NOAA Fisheries has been successful in reducing seabird interactions with some gear, but those measures do not deter the animals from approaching and colliding with the vessels.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

River Traps Chew at Huge Ocean Plastics Problem

June 16, 2022 — Floating fences in India. Whimsical water- and solar-driven conveyor belts with googly eyes in Baltimore. Rechargeable aquatic drones and a bubble barrier in The Netherlands.

These are some of the sophisticated and at times low-tech inventions being deployed to capture plastic trash in rivers and streams before it can pollute the world’s oceans.

The devices are fledgling attempts to dent an estimated 8.8 million tons (8 metric tons) of plastic that gets into the ocean every year. Once there, it maims or kills marine plants and animals including whales,dolphins, and seabirds and accumulates in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and other vast swirls of currents.

Trash-gobbling traps on rivers and other waterways won’t eliminate ocean plastic but can help reduce it, say officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program.

Read the full story at the Associated Press