Saving Seafood

10th Annual State of the Science Symposium Advocates for Brain Health as National Infrastructure

October 6, 2026 — The following was released by the Seafood Nutrition Partnership:

The 10th Annual State of the Science Symposium, held on September 14, 2026, in Washington, D.C., assembled leading scientists, funders, innovators, and thought leaders to examine the critical role of brain nutrition in promoting brain health and enhancing food systems.

Convened by the Seafood Nutrition Partnership (SNP) and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), the 2026 symposium focused on the theme “Brain Health is National Infrastructure.” The event facilitated collaboration and discussion regarding how nutrition science, innovation, and strategic investment can address one of the greatest challenges of our times: brain health.

Attendees examined strategies to translate scientific research into practical initiatives, emphasizing nutrition’s role in cognitive development, lifelong brain health, and public health outcomes.

The symposium brought together interdisciplinary experts to present current research findings, exchange perspectives, and identify strategies to promote brain health through improved nutrition and more resilient food systems.

● Dr. Michael Crawford, Imperial College London (Via Zoom 9.3.26)
● Mrs. Linda Cornish, Seafood Nutrition Partnership
● Dr. Tom Brenna, Dell Medical School, UT Austin, Advisor to US HHS
● Dr. Mduduzi Mbuya, GAIN (Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition)
● Dr. Richard Bazinet, Brain Lipid Metabolism, University of Toronto
● Ms. Cheryl Healy, McKinsey Health Institute – Brain Health
● Dr. Michael Lewis, Retired US Army Colonel, Author, “When Brains Collide”
● Ms. Molly Jacques, Global Seafood Alliance
● Ms. Camila Flanagan, Marine Stewardship Council
● Mr. Gustavo Lara, Cargill

Presentations and Videos

Presentations and videos from the 10th Annual State of the Science Symposium are available at https://www.seafoodnutrition.org/state-of-the-science-symposium/.

What’s Next

Building on the discussions and insights shared during the symposium, a white paper outlining key findings and recommendations is in development. The forthcoming publication will highlight important takeaways from the convening and identify opportunities for continued collaboration and action to advance brain health through brain nutrition. The white paper will be shared once completed.

About Seafood Nutrition Partnership

Seafood Nutrition Partnership (SNP) is the leading 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in the U.S. building awareness of the health and nutritional benefits of seafood. SNP addresses the country’s public health crisis through education programs that inspire Americans to incorporate more seafood and omega-3s into their diets for improved health per the USDA Dietary Guidelines. For more information or to support SNP, visit seafoodnutrition.org.

About The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is a Swiss-based foundation launched at the United Nations in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition. Working with governments, businesses and civil society, we aim to transform food systems so that they deliver healthier diets for all people, especially the most vulnerable. For more information, visit gainhealth.org/about.

US senator moves to raise tariffs on Ecuadorian shrimp

October 5, 2026 — U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Mississippi) has introduced a bill to raise tariffs on shrimp from Ecuador in a bid to discourage imports and support the domestic shrimp sector.

“Not much has changed since the federal government found that subsidized Ecuadorian shrimp contributed to material injury to the U.S. shrimp industry, except that Ecuador has only increased its shipments into the American market. As a result, Mississippi shrimpers and their counterparts across the Gulf face greater downward pressure on the prices they can get for their products,” Hyde-Smith said in a release. “The Ecuador Shrimp Tariff Act would work to level the playing field so that American shrimpers and processors can continue to compete and grow.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MAINE: Several whales got entangled along the Maine coast in 2025, federal report finds

October 2, 2026 — A new report finds there were 76 confirmed entangled large whales documented along the coasts of the United States in 2025.

The report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries says five of those entanglements were off the coast of Maine, with another unidentified whale in the Gulf of Maine. There were also two entanglements within the Gulf of Maine off the coast of Massachusetts.

The identified entangled whales off the Maine coast include three humpback whales, a fin whale and a minke whale. Both of the entangled whales off the northern coast of Massachusetts were humpback whales.

There was only one documented entanglement involving a North Atlantic right whale in 2025. That case was off the coast of Georgia.

Read the full article at WMTW

California tops U.S. in whale entanglements, NOAA report finds

October 2, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries has released a report documenting 76 confirmed whale entanglements across the United States in 2025, a decrease from 95 cases the previous year, with California reporting the highest number of incidents.

Scientists expressed concern over the ongoing issue. “It is, I think, disheartening to see the numbers are still remaining high and we’re not seeing that decrease that we were hoping to see,” said Geoff Shester, Senior Scientist and Director of Fishery Innovation for Oceana.

The report revealed that about 46% of confirmed entanglements in 2025 involved commercial or recreational fishing gear.

“When these are confirmed, most of the entanglements are caused by fishing gear. In California, the Dungeness crab fishery is the one that does seem to be the biggest culprit. It’s obviously because that’s the biggest fishery that we have that uses traps,” said Shester.

Read the full article at KSBW

CDC report finds marine toxins continue to present foodborne disease outbreak threat in the US

October 2, 2026 — A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that marine toxins continue to be responsible for most of the noninfectious foodborne outbreaks that occur in the U.S. every year, and of the cases reported, nearly all are linked to two types: scombroid toxin and ciguatoxin.

Using data from the CDC’s Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System (FDOSS), the study analyzed 402 noninfectious foodborne disease outbreaks that occurred from 2011 to 2023 and led to 1,280 illnesses, 96 hospitalizations, and one death. The CDC explained that for an incident to be an outbreak, there must be two or more cases of a similar illness that are associated with a common food exposure.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

As Trump rolls back endangered species protections, US lawmakers push bill to support their recovery

October 2, 2026 — With the administration of U.S. Donald Trump moving quickly to roll back endangered species protections, some U.S. lawmakers have introduced a bill to support and improve species recovery efforts.

“Protecting the thousands of endangered species and strengthening recovery efforts must be a bipartisan cause – it is a shared responsibility that takes all of us. My new legislation with Senator [Pete] Ricketts [R-Nebraska] updates the Endangered Species Act to ensure policies that will help species on the verge of extinction survive and recover are implemented efficiently, based on science, and in partnership with private landowners and states. We must all do our part to leave the world a better place than we found it,” U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-California) said in a release.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

The Scramble for the Open Seas

September 30, 2026 — Over the last half millennium, societies around the globe competed to divide up the world’s land. Nearly every square inch of soil outside Antarctica is now owned and tucked within national borders. But the oceans have largely been spared that fate. There were times throughout history when countries tried to gate and regulate the seas, but they were too vast to be controlled for long periods. During the Cold War, as technology made it far easier to imagine partitioning the world’s waterways and seabeds, great powers avoided an unrestrained race to grab the oceans. Most governments agreed to deal with them through a patchwork of treaties and multilateral bodies that sought to guarantee freedom of navigation in international waters and assign coastal seabeds to adjacent littoral states.

That order is now collapsing. The Houthis are disrupting shipping in the Bab el Mandeb Strait, the gateway to the Red Sea. Iran and Oman are planning to charge ships fees for using the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for global energy supplies and fertilizers. In July, U.S. President Donald Trump even floated the idea that the United States could impose its own toll on Hormuz, only to later drop the plan.

Other governments, too, are jockeying to claim international waters and marine resources for themselves. Russia is trying to assert control over vast swaths of Arctic waters and seabeds, China is building artificial islands in the South China Sea, the United States has expanded its claims to seabeds beyond its exclusive economic zone, and many countries are laying the groundwork to mine the ocean floor for critical minerals.

The institutions that have kept the oceans free and open are failing, and great powers have, in key areas, stopped abiding by the rules that have held for decades. States are already making moves to control the seas. If governments rush to claim the world’s waters, as they did its land, they will make global commerce more difficult and encourage a new era of seaborne conflict. A world in which the oceans are carved up will invariably be poorer and more dangerous.

Read the full article at Foreign Affairs

Diesel at $6.52 squeezes fishing fleets as lobster demand sags

September 28, 2026 — The national average U.S. diesel price hit $6.529 per gallon for the week of September 21, its 11th consecutive weekly increase, according to EIA data reported by Logistics Management — and nowhere is that pain more concentrated than on the nation’s fishing docks.

Heating Oil futures (CME:HO1!), the most direct commodity expression of the diesel crunch, were trading at $4.64 per gallon ahead of Monday’s NYSE open, up 3.88% from Friday’s close and more than double their 52-week low of $2.31, per Investing.com data. Equity investors looking for a direct market handle on fishing-sector margin pressure can watch two thresholds: Clearwater Seafoods trades as a proxy for seafood-processor economics, and analysts note that a move by HO1! through $5.00 per gallon would represent the point at which fuel costs exceed most mid-sized fleet operators’ break-even assumptions, likely forcing further capacity reductions and order-book deterioration for processors like Clearwater. That trajectory tracks precisely with what commercial fishermen are paying at the pier.

Cape Cod fisherman Sam Fuller told the Cape Cod Chronicle that diesel at the Chatham fish pier reached $6.44 per gallon, nearly double the $3.48 he paid a year ago. His vessel burns roughly 200 gallons per week. “Unfortunately fishermen, we’re the end of the line. We can’t raise our rates,” Fuller said. “Everything we’re using now is going up.” The quote captures the structural trap: unlike trucking companies or airlines, fishermen have no mechanism to pass fuel costs downstream. Dock prices for their catch are set by buyers, not sellers.

Read the full article at Investing.com

US Congress sends Illegal Red Snapper and Tuna Enforcement Act to Trump

September 25, 2026 — U.S. Congress has sent the Illegal Red Snapper and Tuna Enforcement Act to President Donald Trump to be signed into law after the Senate agreed to changes made to the legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The legislation aims to enable law enforcement to test where seafood products originated from, helping officers suss out products harvested through illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

21 states challenge ESA changes that could affect US fisheries

September 24, 2026 — A coalition of 21 state attorneys general is challenging the Trump administration’s changes to the Endangered Species Act (ESA), setting up a legal fight over rules that could affect commercial fisheries, species protection, and marine habitat.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta co-led two lawsuits filed against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries. The states are challenging revisions involving the definition of “harm,” critical habitat designations, and protections for species listed as threatened.

The lawsuits ask the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to vacate the rules, arguing they violate the Endangered Species Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act.

The changes could be particularly relevant to commercial fishermen because NOAA Fisheries administers the ESA for many marine and anadromous species. ESA protections can influence fishing regulations, federal permitting, habitat protections, and measures intended to reduce interactions with protected species.

Read the full article at National Fisherman