July 23, 2026 — A fisherman spent hours stranded in the water after falling overboard, until a New Bedford fishing crew rushed to his aid.
Joao Dasilva told 12 News that it was a normal day for him and the rest of the crew on the Seel Jr. as they were nearing the end of a nine-day trip.
They heard a call for help about a man overboard and didn’t hesitate to step in.
“So, we haul back … and once we got there, Sammy’s like, ‘go out on the bow and see if you can see anything,’” Dasilva recalled.
July 20, 2026 — A commercial fisherman was rescued Saturday after falling overboard from a fishing vessel east of Truro, Mass., following a coordinated search by the U.S. Coast Guard and nearby fishing vessels.
According to the U.S. Coast Guard, Sector Southeastern New England received a report at 12:52 p.m. on July 18 that a crewmember had fallen overboard from the fishing vessel Western Edge. The vessel reported the crew member missing approximately seven nautical miles east of Truro and immediately turned around to retrace its route while searching for the missing fisherman.
The Coast Guard issued an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast (UMIB) and launched a 47-foot motor lifeboat from Coast Guard Station Provincetown along with an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod. The Coast Guard Cutter Melvin Bell, which was already on patrol nearby, was diverted to assist in the search.
At 2:47 p.m., the crew of the fishing vessel Seel Jr. reported spotting the missing crewmember in the designated search area.
June 22, 2026 — North Haven, Maine, U.S.A.-based fisherman Marshal Ames, 57, died on 21 June after falling overboard the fishing vessel Long Faces.
The Maine Marine Patrol is investigating the fatality, which occurred in Hurricane Sound, near Vinalhaven, Maine.
June 16, 2026 — The Center for Coastal Studies disentangled a humpback whale Sunday afternoon off the coast of Massachusetts.
The young whale was anchored in fishing gear in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and was freed by the center’s Marine Animal Entanglement Response team.
While the whale sustained some injuries from the entanglement, the team feels reasonably confident that it will recover, according to a release from the Center for Coastal Studies.
Late Sunday morning, recreational boaters reported a relatively small whale struggling in the buoy line of fishing gear.
The boaters reported the sighting to the U.S. Coast Guard, who contacted the NOAA Fisheries and the Center for Coastal Studies hotlines.
The Massachusetts Environmental Police were on patrol nearby and volunteered to stand by the whale while the response team attempted the disentanglement during a very short window of calm seas. TowBoatUS overheard the report and offered to stand by.
May 14, 2026 — Massachusetts officials are asking for the U.S. Navy’s help in recovering a piece of equipment from the fishing vessel that sunk off the coast of Gloucester earlier this year, believing the video it contains could shed light on what caused the ship to go down.
Seven people, including the ship’s captain and crew and a fisheries observer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, died when the Lily Jean sank on Jan. 30 without sending any distress or mayday call beforehand.
Gov. Maura Healey and state Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, a Gloucester Republican, wrote Monday to U.S. Navy Secretary Hung Cao, requesting help “to uncover all facts related to this incident and bring closure to the families of the F/V Lily Jean while improving safety for those who chose to carry on this beloved tradition in the future.”
“Massachusetts has a long, proud history of seafaring thanks to generations of men and women who risk their lives fishing off our coast and in the North Atlantic,” Healey and Tarr said in their letter.
Healey and Tarr said officials in the Massachusetts State Police received information suggesting that a video recorder and hard drive on the ship remain intact, and that the company that installed the equipment believes the video is retrievable.
April 27, 2026 — The body of a New Jersey oysterman who fell off a boat in Delaware Bay earlier this month has been recovered, according to authorities.
The Coast Guard received a Mayday call from the fishing boat the Bon Secour on April 9 about the missing oysterman, Matthew Oliver, 47, and began the first of 10 searches, covering 77 square nautical miles. Oliver was reported missing shortly after noon. The boat was near Gandy’s Beach, five miles southeast of Newport, New Jersey.
April 8, 2026 — More than $65,000 worth of pollock roe was seized by the U.S. Coast Guard last month after it discovered federal violations on an Alaska fishing boat.
According to a news release, the crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Waesche seized approximately 5.4 metric tons of the fish eggs on March 26.
Federal officials boarded the Northern Eagle, a catcher-processing ship, approximately 15 nautical miles north of Dutch Harbor.
March 31, 2026 — The call often comes in the middle of the night to the U.S. Coast Guard station at South Padre Island, Texas, rousing service members from their bunks.
A lancha, typically a slim, 20- to 30-foot boat with an outboard motor, is spotted, overflowing with red snapper, 9 miles off the coast in federal waters.
Best known for its emergency response efforts at sea, the Coast Guard also polices the take of marine species from U.S. waters. In the Gulf of Mexico, its crews board their trademark white-and-orange cutter vessels to catch lanchas suspected of illegally fishing for species such as red snapper and sharks.
“It’s a common problem and it’s been a problem that the Coast Guard has been tackling for decades,” said Lt. Phillip VanderWeit, commanding officer with the Coast Guard’s Gulf Regional Fisheries Training Center, where service members, along with state and local law enforcement, are trained to enforce fisheries regulations and conservation laws.
Lanchas can cast off quickly from the Mexican Gulf coast, with crews of up to six fishermen, known as lancheros. They often travel at night in an attempt to hide from U.S. enforcement agencies, targeting out-of-season or undersized fish with types of gear banned under American law. Their catch often exceeds legal limits, officials said. Other species are also inadvertently caught in their nets.
The lancheros aren’t simply choosing to skirt the law on their own. Officials and researchers who track their activity say they’re often forced into illegal fishing by Mexican drug cartels. Cártel del Golfo (the Gulf Cartel) is considered the primary culprit, according to the U.S. Treasury. Most of its lanchas are based out of Playa Bagdad in Tamaulipas, the Mexican state just across the border from South Padre Island.
March 25, 2026 — Legislation to keep illegal foreign seafood from entering U.S. ports and waters has passed the U.S. Senate, and now awaits similar action on a companion bill before the U.S. House.
The Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvest (FISH) Act takes a strong stand against foreign illegal unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing by blacklisting offending vessels, bolstering the U.S. Coast guard’s enforcement capabilities and partnerships and advancing international and bilateral negotiations to achieve enforceable agreements and treaties.
March 13, 2026 — This winter has been an especially difficult season for the fishermen of New England, with the death of a Stonington man and two recent boat sinkings.
On Jan. 25, late at night, Thomas Williams’ body was found in the water near the town dock in Stonington. Williams was a well known captain of the F/V Heritage and a long-time local fisherman out of Stonington and Point Judith.
Last Wednesday, New Bedford, Mass., police rescued a man from freezing water, according to 7 News Boston. The man fell between two fishing vessels, where he became trapped and unable to get out. Five officers were able to pull him safely out of the water after he was found holding onto dock lines.
A day later, the commercial fishing vessel Yankee Rose sank off Cape Cod, according to the Associated Press. The U.S. Coast Guard was able to pull one person out of the water, but the second crew member is still missing.
As a third-generation fisherman, Williams was a staple of the Rhode Island community for over 25 years. He was known as one of the best fishermen in Rhode Island, according to Fred Mattera, a retired local fisherman and president of the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation.