Saving Seafood

How Northeastern is helping shellfishers and diners of a New England speciality

October 26, 2026 —

It was a beautiful morning on the Parker River.

The sun peeked through the clouds from the previous weekend’s nor’easter, giving the golden marsh grasses an extra autumnal sheen.

Frenetic yellow-legged shorebirds took flight as the small boat navigated the curves of the meandering river, and even the looming Route One bridge could not mar the pastoral scene, as little traffic passed after the motor was cut and the boat drifted along the shoreline.

Unfortunately, Northeastern University graduate student Grace Abe was not exactly enjoying her surroundings. She had just sunk up to her knees in mud.

“I had it too easy with the first one,” Abe said, while prying a wooden box out of the mud.

The container that emerged was 1-foot-square and several-inches tall, made primarily of wood composite with a mesh screen on its top and landscaping fabric on its bottom.

It did not look too high-tech. In fact, it looked like it might contain a small pizza.

But for the last six months, the Beal Box – named after its inventor, University of Maine marine ecologist Brian Beal – had been sitting in the mud flat and acting as a nursery for an iconic and delicious New England species, the soft-shell clam.

“The soft-shell clam has been a staple fishery in New England for generations,” said David Kimbro, associate professor of marine and environmental sciences at Northeastern.

But the species is under pressure.

Read the full article at Northeastern Global News

Deepwater species in the Gulf of Mexico declined drastically after Deepwater Horizon oil spill

October 23, 2026 — Deepwater fish, shellfish, and squid populations in the Gulf of Mexico dropped significantly following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and have yet to recover 16 years later, according to a new study.

“Our findings are particularly concerning because these are species that are abundant, widespread, and historically might not have been considered vulnerable,” Florida International University (FIU) marine researcher Pedro Peres said in a release. “What we are seeing suggests that even species that appear abundant can experience substantial changes that may go unnoticed without monitoring.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

UC Santa Cruz study finds new method to predict domoic acid outbreaks

October 14, 2026 — Domoic acid was likely the culprit behind an unusually high number of sea lion strandings on the Monterey Bay coast over the summer. The neurotoxin can affect marine mammals, birds and even humans, but outbreaks are difficult to predict. Now, researchers from UC Santa Cruz have pioneered a new detection method that could give weeks of notice before domoic acid becomes dangerous to humans. The research team’s study on the method was published Sept. 30 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“This method gives us a much bigger window of time,” said Raphael Kudela, a distinguished professor at UCSC and senior author of the study. “We could tell you six weeks in advance, potentially … A much more early warning than you get using our other methods.”

Domoic acid is a toxin produced by Pseudo-nitzschia, a species of algae. The toxin accumulates in the food chain. Small fish such as anchovies eat the algae, and domoic acid along with it. Then the predators of those fish, including sea lions, seals and birds, become sick. The toxin also makes its way into filter feeders and can cause illness in humans who eat affected shellfish.

Read the full article at The Mercury News

NEW JERSEY: Shellfish industry gets Assembly backing for aquaculture law change

September 29, 2026 — Just as farmers use barns to shelter livestock or to store equipment, many of New Jersey’s clam and oyster growers rely on land facilities to support their operations.

These hatcheries, processing areas and other structures, though, are not legally considered to be part of a shellfish grower’s business under what’s known as aquaculture laws.

Industry experts say that holds back investment and generally makes life more difficult for the shellfish farmers operating in a multimillion-dollar sector of the state economy.

“It is really important to the industry,” said Scot Mackey, executive director of the Garden State Seafood Association.

Many miles from the New Jersey tidal flats and marshes where clam and oyster farmers are growing their products, lawmakers in Trenton are working on a bipartisan basis to provide some relief. Legislation approved by the state Assembly last week would rewrite the state’s definition of aquaculture to ensure it incorporates land facilities.

Read the full article at the NJ Spotlight News

MASSACHUSETTS: Massachusetts oyster farmers say sewage-linked closures are pushing South Coast farms to brink

September 28, 2026 — Massachusetts oyster farmers say a growing wave of sewage-linked shellfish facility closures is putting one of the state’s signature seafood industries under serious strain.

On the South Coast, growers warn that repeated shutdowns after rain are cutting off sales for weeks at a time, making it increasingly hard for some farms to stay afloat.

Here’s what to know

For South Coast oyster growers, closures triggered by combined sewer overflows, or CSOs, have become a mounting business risk since 2024. As Cape and Islands reported, Massachusetts oyster farms produce roughly 54 million oysters a year, and Fairhaven’s West Island Oysters spans 47 acres, making it one of the state’s biggest operations.

Repeated closures are making survival tougher for growers, said Dale Leavitt, who co-owns West Island Oysters and retired from Roger Williams University as a marine scientist.

“We’ve already lost one farm in Nasketucket Bay, and we’re probably going to lose another one very shortly,” he said, per CAI. “I mean, when you’re closed 50% of the year to being able to sell oysters, it sort of impacts your cash flow.”

A possible sewage release after heavy rain can trigger a 21-day shutdown because stormwater overflowing from New Bedford pipes may carry fecal bacteria into shellfish beds. The state can test oysters after a week and reopen an area if conditions are safe, but when storms keep arriving, one closure can quickly be followed by another.

Read the full article at The Cool Down

Kelp Farms and Marine Life Co-Exist in Southeast Alaska

September 25, 2026 — Marine aquaculture, or mariculture, provides economic opportunities for coastal communities in Alaska through farming shellfish and seaweed. NOAA Fisheries continues to support Alaska’s growing aquaculture industry through policy and permitting—providing access to resources and research.

A recent study highlights one of our newest aquaculture research collaborations. Through this partnership between the Alaska Fisheries Science Center and Sea Quester Farms, we investigated whether seaweed farms provide novel habitat for Alaskan marine species. We compared the fish and invertebrate species present within Sea Quester farm sites to similar locations with no farms, and found no major difference. The research provided a better understanding of how kelp farms interact with the environment, which could help inform sustainable management.

“This study responded to a direct need from resource managers and interest from farmers to understand specifically how the presence of kelp farms in Alaska influenced culturally and economically important fish and invertebrate species,” said Jordan Hollarsmith, Ph.D., lead author and macroalgae and mariculture research biologist at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center.

Read the full article at the full article at NOAA Fisheries

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford Harbor turns red for wastewater dye study

September 24, 2026 — New Bedford sailors did a double-take on a Saturday morning in mid-September when plumes of the normally blue harbor water turned a deep, wine-dark red.

The unusual color wasn’t a rust tide or environmental disaster, but a dye study conducted by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. Management officials hope the study, which involves dying New Bedford’s wastewater with 100 gallons of EPA-approved red dye, will help them better understand how the city’s treated sewage moves throughout Buzzards Bay.

Dale Leavitt, a shellfisherman and aquaculture industry advocate, is particularly invested in their results. Since 2021, Leavitt has operated a 47-acre oyster farm in Nasketucket Bay in Fairhaven. In 2024, he and seven other area oyster farmers received word that the bay would be subject to more stringent food-safety regulations, due to the high volume of wastewater flowing out of New Bedford’s wastewater treatment facility.

These new rules were based on a mathematical model from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s School of Marine Science and Technology, or SMAST. Leavitt hopes that the dye study will tell regulators something different.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

Shellfish farmers warn overregulation could drive NJ aquaculture to ‘extinction’

September 18, 2026 — Legislators advanced a package of bills Thursday intended to help New Jersey’s aquaculture industry, with shellfish farmers complaining that state regulations stifle expansion and have driven some to move out of state.

The Assembly’s agriculture and natural resources committee listened to an hour of testimony during an afternoon hearing at the Statehouse, where shellfish farmers blasted a common boogeyman: the Department of Environmental Protection.

Oyster farmer Matt Gregg, co-founder and operator of the Barnegat Oyster Collective and president of the New Jersey Aquaculture Association, likened the department to a villain from a Scooby-Doo cartoon. Like Scooby’s gang of teenage detectives, shellfish farmers have had to band together to fight foes like the pandemic, marine predators, and extreme weather, Gregg said.

“But more often than not, the foe is the New Jersey DEP,” Gregg said. “If we don’t do something, we will die a death of a thousand cuts. We will regulate everyone into extinction.”

Larry Hajna, a department spokesman, declined to comment.

One of the industry’s biggest challenges, farmers testified, has been the state’s longtime narrow definition of aquaculture, which specifically bars “construction of facilities and appurtenant structures” from the definition. That has set aquaculture farmers up for zoning and permitting hurdles that land-based farmers don’t face and also discouraged commercial investors from investing, Gregg and other shellfish farmers testified.

Read the full article at the New Jersey Monitor

Nine Species of Deep-Sea Sponges Discovered in Alaska

September 11, 2026 — Scientists have discovered nine new species of sponges in the Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands. The specimens were collected during the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s long-standing annual bottom trawl surveys, which monitor the condition of groundfish and shellfish stocks in Alaskan waters. For these sponge studies, researchers analyzed samples gathered during surveys dating back to 2012.

The new species were described across two recent scientific publications: four in one paper and five in the other. These discoveries raise the total number of known sponge species in Alaska to 232. The findings add to a growing body of knowledge about the richness of marine life in Alaskan waters. They also highlight the Aleutian Islands as a global hotspot for sponge biodiversity.

The studies also mapped sponge genetic codes, which contributes to a marine genetic library. This continues to build a robust catalog that enhances NOAA’s ability to detect species and estimate population abundances using non-invasive environmental DNA sampling.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries