Saving Seafood

Revolution Wind, a key offshore wind project and object of scorn for Trump admin, comes online

March 16, 2026 — A large offshore wind project off the coast of Connecticut and Rhode Island that was repeatedly stopped by the Trump administration came online Friday evening, sending clean energy to New England’s power grid.

The project, known as Revolution Wind, is nearing the end of construction and will ultimately generate up to 704 megawatts of electricity — the equivalent of powering 350,000 homes. That’s about 2.5% of New England’s electric supply. Construction on Revolution Wind is expected to be completed later this year.

“This project is key to diversifying our energy supply and lowering utility costs for families and businesses,” said Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont in a statement.

“Today’s milestone marks an important step forward for Rhode Island’s energy future,” Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee said in a statement.

Read the full article at nhpr

Trump Administration Approves Ultra-Deepwater Oil Drilling Plan

March 6, 2026 — The Trump administration on Friday approved a $5 billion oil drilling project in ultradeep waters of the Gulf of Mexico over protests from Democrats and environmental activists who said the venture posed significant risks to wildlife and communities.

The project by the British energy giant BP would be about 250 miles off the coast of Louisiana. The company projects it will produce 80,000 barrels of oil per day from six wells starting in 2029 in a section of the seafloor that is estimated to hold 10 billion barrels of crude.

Known as Kaskida, it would be the company’s second deepwater project in the Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010, which set off the worst oil spill disaster in U.S. history.

“Kaskida is a world-class project that reflects decades of technological innovation by BP and the offshore oil and gas industry,” Paul Takahashi, a BP spokesman, said in a statement. Approval “marks an important step forward for the project and is all the more important at a time of heightened global concerns about energy security and affordability,” he added.

Read the full article at The New York Times

ALASKA: Trump’s High-Profile Oil and Gas Lease Sale in Alaska Has No Takers

March 9 2026 — The Trump administration did not receive a single bid for its offer of new offshore oil and gas exploration opportunities in Alaska’s Cook Inlet, dealing a blow to President Trump’s ‘drill, baby drill,’ agenda.

The attempted sale of rights to drill in more than 1 million acres was the first of six offshore oil and gas auctions in Alaska that Republicans mandated last year when they passed Mr. Trump’s sweeping tax law.

It was seen as a key test of the industry’s appetite for investment in a state that Mr. Trump has called a “natural resource warehouse,” and essential for his “energy dominance” agenda of maximizing domestic production of oil, natural gas and coal. On Wednesday, though, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management acknowledged that no drilling companies submitted bids.

“This is a huge embarrassment for Trump’s Alaska fossil fuel fantasy,” said Cooper Freeman, the Alaska director of the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group.

Read the full article at The New York Times

ALASKA: Trump administration defends Biden-era rejection of Pebble mine by EPA

March 9, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Justice is defending a Biden-era veto of the Pebble copper and gold project, saying the Environmental Protection Agency properly exercised its authority to prevent adverse impacts to a “globally significant” fishery in Bristol Bay.

The Feb. 17 court filing by the Department of Justice continues the Trump administration’s opposition to the proposed mine, a departure from the president’s aggressive pro-development agenda that includes support of U.S. mineral production in Alaska.

The Pebble project sits on state land about 200 miles southwest of Anchorage, near the headwaters of Bristol Bay, home to the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.

Mine developer Pebble Limited Partnership brought the case in 2024, suing EPA over its decision to block the mine under a little-used provision in the Clean Water Act. The agency had said the mine would cause “unacceptable, adverse” harm to the valuable Bristol Bay salmon fishery.

The Justice Department said in its filing that the Pebble mineral deposit exists under streams, wetlands and other waters that are critical for supporting salmon in the watershed, “a largely undisturbed, globally significant economic, ecological, and cultural resource.”

“(Pebble Limited Partnership’s) mine plan calls for the disposal of large quantities of fill into waters of the United States that would destroy or comparably damage large areas of salmon habitat that are fishery areas,” the filing said.

Ron Thiessen, president of Pebble’s parent company, Northern Dynasty Minerals, said in a statement that the filing is “surprisingly short-sighted” and legally flawed.

Read the full article at Alaska Journal of Commerce 

Trump administration moves to loosen rules around North Atlantic right whale speed limits

March 5, 2026 — Following the U.S. government’s promise to take “deregulatory-focused action” on a vessel speed limit rule designed to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales, NOAA Fisheries has issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking to gather feedback.

“This reckless decision threatens the future of North Atlantic right whales,” Conservation Law Foundation Senior Counsel Erica Fuller said in a statement. “The species can’t afford to lose a single whale. Eliminating one of their strongest protections would imperil right whales’ already challenging recovery. At a time when we need stronger, not weaker, protections, this would be another shortsighted move by this administration to help special interest groups.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NOAA announces planned rollback of North Atlantic right whale protections

March 4, 2026 — The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration has announced plans to roll back protections for North Atlantic right whales as part of the Trump Administration’s ongoing efforts to deregulate across multiple government sectors.

There are fewer than 380 right whales left in the world, with roughly 70 females capable of bearing young. North Atlantic Right Whales, one of the most endangered species in the world, are frequently spotted by the dozens in the Gulf of Maine.

Vessel strikes and equipment entanglement are the leading causes of death, Rachel Rilee of the Center for Biological Diversity told Maine Public.

Read the full article at NEPM

Tariff lawsuits begin moving forward as US federal court issues mandate

March 3, 2026 — The U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a mandate that moves multiple lawsuits on U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs forward on the path toward refunds.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in late February that Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to justify his tariff program was illegal. The ruling largely agreed with earlier rulings by the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) and the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and determined that the IEEPA did not give Trump the authority to impose the sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs he implemented in April 2025.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Free to Fish a Marine Monument

February 27, 2026 — The Trump administration’s move this month to allow commercial fishing in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, 130 miles off Cape Cod, was welcomed by commercial fishing interests last week.

The monument’s creation was a recent development, established by President Barack Obama in the last months of his administration in 2016, with a multiyear phaseout allowed only for American lobster and Atlantic deep-sea red crab fisheries. The area in question covers nearly 5,000 square miles and includes three underwater canyons and four underwater mountains, or seamounts. In 2020, during his first term, Mr. Trump lifted the ban on commercial fishing there, but President Joseph Biden restored it the following year.

“Because of the complex topography and oceanography within the monument, and the resulting high food production, there is a rich diversity of fishes” there, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the site with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Scientists consider the monument a biodiversity hotspot for deep-sea fishes.” Fish and Wildlife cites a 2003 study that found almost 600 fish species living below 650 feet in the New England shelf region of the monument.

Its canyons are home to various species of flounder, hake, skate, ocean pout, cusk, grenadier, and eel, some occurring in dense aggregations. “Larger pelagic fish like swordfish, tuna, and sharks also use the monument,” according to Fish and Wildlife.

Read the full article at The East Hampton Star

CALIFORNIA: Next Step in Trump’s California Offshore Oil Drilling Effort Announced

February 27, 2026 — The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced a step toward leasing areas for offshore oil and gas drilling in California this week, by launching an associated environmental process.

BOEM announced Thursday the department would prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement for lease sales in northern, central and southern California.

A soon-to-be-released statement will primarily concern sales planned for 2027 in central and southern California, according to BOEM.

A Northern California lease sale is proposed for 2029, according to a BOEM document.

This is a California-specific part of a broader effort by the Trump Administration to open lease areas in federal waters across the country for sale to oil and gas companies, with an aim to restore domestic energy production.

Read the full article at the Local Coast Outpost

Northern Wind turns to consolidation and value-added meals in the wake of low scallop quotas

February 27, 2026 — Scallop quotas in the U.S. Northeast have fallen sharply in recent years, with the New England Fishery Management Council projecting landings of just 17.1 million pounds in 2026 – a dramatic decline from the record 60 million pounds harvested in 2019.

Left with a dwindling supply of local scallops, companies in the region have had to rely more on imports – a situation that has been made more complicated by U.S. President Donald Trump’s ever-changing tariff program.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource