Saving Seafood

News for the South Atlantic Region

NORTH CAROLINA: Coastal Counties Fisheries Coalition stresses lawmaker education as top priority

September 17, 2025 — Educating state and county lawmakers on ways to best serve North Carolina’s commercial fishing industry will be among the top priorities of the newly-formed NC Coastal Counties Fisheries Coalition (CCFC).

The group is made up of county leaders from the state’s coastal regions who have joined together to address critical issues surrounding the state’s fishing industry and advocate for their interests in Raleigh.

The coalition was formed in response to recent legislative efforts to ban shrimp trawling and other perceived threats. In June, a late amendment to House Bill 442 sought to prohibit shrimp trawling along inshore waters and within a half mile of the coast. It was abandoned after hundreds of commercial shrimpers and their supporters protested in Raleigh in opposition to the bill.

The CCFC held its first meeting on Aug. 5 at the Crystal Coast Civic Center and met for the second time on September 16 at the same location.

A total of 12 county representatives were on hand for Tuesday’s meeting. The coalition prioritized the key issues impacting fisheries that they hope to address, including education, water quality decline, fishing/crabbing limits, trip limits, predation management, consumer marketing and increasing the transparency of data from the Marine Fisheries Commission.

The coalition agreed to appoint members to serve on sub-committees that will focus on each of the priority topics.

Read the full article at NEWS TIMES

NORTH CAROLINA: North Carolina coastal leaders unite to tackle fishing industry challenges

September 17, 2025 — Coastal county leaders from North Carolina convened at the Morehead City Civic Center for the second meeting of the North Carolina Coastal Counties Fisheries Coalition. The coalition aims to create a united front to address issues impacting the state’s commercial fishing industry.

During the meeting, leaders set priorities for the coalition, identifying education, water quality, and predator management as the top three concerns. Chris Chadwick, who was sworn in as vice chairman of the coalition, highlighted the challenges facing the industry.

Read the full article at WCTI

NORTH CAROLINA: North Carolina coastal leaders unite to tackle fishing industry challenges

September 16, 2025 — Coastal county leaders from North Carolina convened at the Morehead City Civic Center for the second meeting of the North Carolina Coastal Counties Fisheries Coalition. The coalition aims to create a united front to address issues impacting the state’s commercial fishing industry.

During the meeting, leaders set priorities for the coalition, identifying education, water quality, and predator management as the top three concerns. Chris Chadwick, who was sworn in as vice chairman of the coalition, highlighted the challenges facing the industry.

“Our crab species has become predators of other fish, our water quality runoff, and certain things like that are affecting the nursery areas,” said Chadwick. “Certainly educating our fellow legislatures in the western part of the state who may not be familiar with coastal issues like shrimping and fishing.”

Read the full article at WCTI

FLORIDA: Immigration raids and tariffs threaten to sink Florida Keys lobster industry

September 15, 2025 — In Marathon, Florida, almost halfway between Miami and Key West, lobster fishermen are being hired at $250 a day. But beware — commercial fishing has nothing glamorous about it, and many who showed up quit after the very first day. A “long” day means heading out to the Gulf of Mexico at 1 a.m. and returning at 6 p.m., after hauling and resetting 500 wooden traps that weigh nearly 150 pounds (70 kilos) each when filled with lobsters. The work is an orchestrated frenzy: one man hauls up the trap, another pulls out the lobsters, measures them, and stows them, while another cleans the wooden cage and stacks it, ready to go back into the sea — a choreography of orange overalls.

It’s brutal, dangerous labor that requires fishing to be in your blood. Many of the captains of the lobster boats in the Keys descend from long lines of fishermen, and most of the crews are from Corn Island and Bluefields, on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, where the grueling work of artisanal shellfishing has been the main livelihood for centuries.

Read the full article at El Pais

US Department of Justice indicts Florida seafood company over alleged price-fixing

September 12, 2025 — The U.S. Department of Justice recently filed an indictment accusing multiple individuals at five different seafood companies of price-fixing and antitrust actions.

The indictment, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida alleges Dennis Dopico, the vice president of unnamed “Company 1” with headquarters in Miami, Florida, and co-conspirators at four other unnamed companies joined in a price-fixing conspiracy against fishermen harvesting stone crab and spiny lobsters in Florida.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NORTH CAROLINA: Fisheries ax pound net trip limits for commercial operations

September 5, 2025 — The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries has removed the pound net trip limits established previously for this year’s commercial fishing season in estuarine waters.

The division announced the commercial fishing season Aug. 26, and explained at the time that “all pound net management areas will open for the harvest of flounder with initial trip limits.”

The limits were 500 pounds for the northern area, which is north of the Pamlico Sound, 1,000 pounds for the central area that includes the Pamlico Sound and its tributaries, and 500 pounds for the southern management area that is from Core Sound to the South Carolina line.

Officials revised the pound net limits and sent out the updated information Friday, explaining that “all pound net management areas will open for the harvest of flounder without initial trip limits.

” Opening dates for the three areas did not change. The northern area is to open Monday, Sept. 15, and the central and southern management areas are to open Oct. 1.

Read the full article at CoastalReview.org

NORTH CAROLINA: A 38-year research project in Pamlico Sound ends with fisheries boat breakdown

August 27, 2025 — Nearly four decades of research ended this year because a dwindling budget in the state Division of Marine Fisheries left its research boat out of commission.

Scientists have trawled the Pamlico Sound netting fish and crustaceans since 1987.

But the boat, named the Carolina Coast, won’t go out in 2025.

“This is the end of the data set. There’s nothing we can do about that. It’s over,” said Kathy Rawls, who directs the Division of Marine Fisheries.

Rawls broke the news about the rotting and leaking 41-year-old boat last week to the Marine Fisheries Commission, a policy-setting board appointed by the governor.

“We lack the resources to repair or replace the vessel,” she said. “As you can imagine, that is a huge blow.”

Doug Rader, an oceans scientist serving on the commission, said the news is “close to catastrophic.”

Read the full article at WUNC

NORTH CAROLINA: Duke Energy says offshore wind is too expensive to build, for now

August 25, 2025 — Duke Energy is not moving forward with wind energy off North Carolina’s coast after determining proposals from three developers are more expensive than solar panels and battery storage that result in the same amount of energy.

The N.C. Utilities Commission’s carbon and resource plan finalized last fall directed Duke to ask the three companies who have North Carolina offshore wind leases how much building those wind farms would cost. If those proposals were cost-competitive, the Commission ordered, Duke should proceed with a binding request for proposals.

Read the full article at WHQR

FLORIDA: Restoring Habitat, Bolstering the Economy, and Supporting Jobs in Florida

August 20, 2025 — Coastal restoration might bring to mind images of wetlands, sand dunes, and tidal marshes—but there’s another impact of this work: jobs and economic growth.

A new economic analysis shows that community-led restoration contributes broadly to local, state, and national economies. It finds that $72.5 million invested across 12 habitat restoration projects in Florida is estimated to support jobs and wages and increase both spending and economic activity. In total, more than $100 million will be added to the economy.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

Hurricane Erin churns up dangerous waves and closes beaches along US East Coast

August 19, 2025 — Hurricane Erin churned slowly toward the eastern U.S. on Tuesday, stirring up treacherous waves that already have led to dozens of water rescues and shut down beaches along the coast in the midst of summer’s last hurrah.

While forecasters remain confident the center of the monster storm will remain far offshore, the outer edges are likely to bring damaging tropical-force winds, large swells and life-threatening rip currents into Friday.

Warnings about rip currents have been posted from Florida to the New England coast, and the biggest swells along the East Coast are expected over the coming two days. Rough ocean conditions already have been seen along the coast — at least 60 swimmers were rescued from rip currents Monday at Wrightsville Beach, near Wilmington, North Carolina.

New York City closed its beaches to swimming on Wednesday and Thursday, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered three state beaches on Long Island to prohibit swimming through Thursday. Several New Jersey beaches also will be off-limits.

Read the full article at the Associated Press