Saving Seafood

SCEMFIS funds new project to study menhaden in Chesapeake Bay

October 27, 2025 — As debate over the sustainability of the menhaden fishery in the Chesapeake Bay continues between the fishing industry and environmental groups, the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS) has funded a new project that will create a detailed roadmap for managing reduction fishery more effectively.

SCEMFIS said in a release the new project will feature scientists from Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and NOAA and aims to establish meaningful harvest caps for Atlantic menhaden in the bay. The project will review existing menhaden science – including estimated biomass, migration patterns, and the consumption of menhaden by other species – and find gaps in information that can be filled via more research.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Bay scallops in Virginia were extinct. Now, they’re ‘multiplying exponentially.’

Octobr 16, 2025 — An “unprecedented resurgence” in bay scallops in Virginia could soon open the door for recreational fishing of the species, said scientists at William & Mary’s Batten School and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

Until the 1930s, Virginia held a significant chunk of the scallop industry — even hosting the largest bay scallop fishery in the country. Then, within three years of the population’s peak in Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay waters in 1930, scallops were nearly extinct, according to a VIMS report from 2017. A wasting disease killed eelgrass, the habitat for the scallops, and essentially led to the steep decline. The scallop harvest peaked before wildlife managers noticed any issues with the grass. In response, harvesters turned to clams and the bay scallop population never recovered.

About 10 years ago, though, VIMS researchers began bringing back the shelled creatures, releasing larvae, juvenile and adult scallops into the Chesapeake Bay. Work on restoring underwater grasses in the area had already begun in the early 2000s, and by the time research on scallop restoration started, scientists had restored about 6,000 acres of underwater meadows. According to VIMS, it is the largest and most successful seagrass restoration in the world. It represents “a significant societal and ecological achievement,” said Richard Snyder, director of VIMS’s Eastern Shore Lab.

Read the full article at The Virginian-Pilot

Lobsters face serious risks as oceans heat up

October 6, 2025 — The Gulf of Maine is warming faster than almost every other ocean region on Earth. That single fact has scientists worried about the future of the American lobster, the backbone of a two billion dollar fishery.

Warming, acidification, and marine heatwaves are not just abstract trends here. They are daily realities, reshaping one of the most iconic species in New England waters.

Communities along the coast depend on lobsters not only for income but also for identity. A shift in lobster health could ripple far beyond science labs and touch entire economies.

To understand what lies ahead, researchers at William & Mary’s Batten School and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) have been testing how lobster embryos respond to future ocean conditions. The results point to temperature as the main danger.

Read the full article at Earth.com

VIRGINIA: Stone crabs are calling Virginia waters home — for the first time ever

August 28, 2025 — The Chesapeake Bay might have a new resident, thanks to warming waters and successful habitat restoration.

Blue crabs are the typical catch in local waters. But crabbers on the bay have reported adult stone crabs in their pots on Willoughby Spit, marking the first time the species has been spotted growing in Hampton Roads.

The find could mark an exciting addition to the crab industry in the Chesapeake Bay, according to Rom Lipcius, a researcher and professor at William & Mary’s Batten School at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

Read the full article at The Virginian-Pilot

Chesapeake Bay blue crab population dip worries experts

June 2, 2025 — The most updated edition of the annual Chesapeake Bay blue crab winter dredge survey has found that the blue crab population in the U.S. states of Maryland and Virginia is the second-smallest recorded in recent history. 

The survey, conducted by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, estimated the total crab population to be 238 million, just above 2022’s all-time low of 226 million.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

VIRGINIA: VA Marine Scientists Leads National Program Cleaning up Discarded Fishing Gear, Awarding New Grants

January 16, 2025 — The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) and William and Mary’s Coastal Sciences school are leading the charge nationwide to clean up discarded fishing gear and “ghost pots” from U.S. waterways.

William & Mary’s Batten School and VIMS, administrators of the National Fishing Trap Removal, Assessment, and Prevention (TRAP) Program, has awarded $1.4 million to fund 11 projects to retrieve derelict lobster and crab traps in 2025. This initial round supports projects in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, New York, Washington and the Pacific Island State of Palau, as well as ongoing efforts by the Virginia Marine Debris Program.

In 2023, using funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Marine Debris Program awarded an $8 million, four-year competitive grant to the Batten School & VIMS to administer the TRAP program. One important feature of the project will be standardizing data collection practices and establishing a national database to evaluate the environmental and economic impacts of these projects.

Read the full article at Chesapeake Bay Magazine

VIMS scientists critique research linking osprey declines to menhaden industry

November 29, 2024 — There is a long-running battle in Virginia over how to manage the menhaden fishery – and the lack of data about the species continues to be front and center.

Research that touches on menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay has long been contentious, because it helps inform how officials choose to regulate the controversial fishery.

The latest disagreement is playing out in scientific literature. Three scientists at William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science, which conducts research for state regulators, recently published a formal critique of a study linking declines in the local osprey population to the menhaden industry.

The study they critiqued came from another arm of William & Mary: the Center for Conservation Biology, which studies birds.

The center has monitored ospreys for years. Director Bryan Watts said they’ve now seen the birds struggling to reproduce for more than a decade.

His team published a study earlier this year recording the lowest number of osprey chicks since the 1970s. They said the baby birds are dying of starvation, and posit that’s because there aren’t enough menhaden for them to eat.

Read the full article at WHRO

For 2nd year, Chesapeake Bay’s striped bass population is down: Regulators will decide if more rules are needed

November 18, 2024 — Striped bass populations in the lower Chesapeake Bay are not doing well, marking the second year in a row for below-average numbers in Virginia waters.

According to a 2024 survey from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, which monitors the success of young bass in the lower Chesapeake Bay, this year was “significantly lower” than the historical average. In Maryland, the Department of Natural Resources reported it saw the sixth consecutive year that young striped bass fell far below the long-term average.

During the Virginia survey, researchers usually get about 7.77 fish per haul, but the latest count had only about 3.43.

Read the full article at phys.org

Bay Rockfish Survey Brings Bad News, Possible Fishing Bans

October 21, 2024 — Concerns about striped bass have been mounting for years, and catch limits have been tightening. But the tighter limits apparently aren’t doing enough to help this popular fish rebound. And when coastwide fishery managers meet next week, there will be some tough conversations.

On Thursday, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) released the results from their annual surveys of juvenile striped bass (rockfish) in the Chesapeake Bay. For the sixth consecutive year in Maryland and second consecutive year in Virginia, both states’ juvenile indexes came in well below the states’ long-term averages.

The surveys are conducted by field biologists in multiple locations over three months during the summer with 100’-foot long beach seine nets. These surveys track reproductive success and juvenile survival for rockfish spawned in the spring in upper tidal reaches of the Bay’s big rivers. According to this year’s surveys, the 2024 young-of-year index for Maryland was 2.0 fish per sample, much lower than the long-term average of 11.0. In Virginia, the index was 3.43 fish per sample, against the historic average of 7.77.

Read the full article at Chesapeake Bay Magazine 

2022 NOAA Northeast Sea Scallop Survey Results

June 28, 2022 — The NOAA Fisheries Integrated Sea Scallop and Habcam Research Survey is in the books for 2022. Scientists and crew completed their work aboard the University of Delaware’s R/V Hugh R. Sharp on June 13, 2022.

The Atlantic sea scallop population is surveyed every summer by NOAA Fisheries and partnering research groups. This year those partners are the Coonamessett Farm Foundation, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth School of Marine Science and Technology. Each partner surveys an assigned area using similar methods and a standardized survey design. Here, we are reporting results for the survey areas allocated to the NOAA Fisheries-based effort, led by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

Resulting data are used for fishery stock assessments, fishery management, and biological studies. Sea scallops are one of the most valuable commercial fishery species in the nation.

Leg 1 of the survey was conducted May 14 to 23 off the Mid-Atlantic and southern Georges Bank. Researchers deployed the stereo camera and sensor system known as Habcam V4.

Leg 2 was conducted from May 25 to June 3, and Leg 3 operated from June 5 to June 13. On these legs, we deployed both Habcam V4 and a scallop dredge. The dredge is a standardized 8-foot wide New Bedford sea scallop dredge that collects sea scallops for biological analyses.

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries