March 6, 2026 — There was a high level of U.S. seafood mergers and acquisitions in 2025, and 2026 is slated to be favorable for continued M&A activity, according to a new report from Mercer Island, Washington, U.S.A.-based M&A advisory firm ACT Capital Advisors.
According to its latest annual Seafood Industry Report, consolidation last year was fueled by high margins, institutional capital, and the desire to scale fragmented sectors, ACT said.
February 20, 2026 — More than two and a half years after a petition was filed, NOAA Fisheries has determined that spring-run Chinook salmon on the Washington coast are not a distinct group from their fall-run counterparts and don’t warrant listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
“NMFS has independently reviewed the best available scientific and commercial information,” NOAA Fisheries stated in a post on the Federal Register. “NMFS concludes that Chinook salmon spring-run populations on the Washington coast do not meet the definition of a species.”
February 6, 2026 — The International Pacific Halibut Commission set the 2026 harvest at a historic low during an annual meeting that drew a Trump Administration political appointee to lead tense U.S. negotiations with Canada over shares of a shrunken fishery.
The four-day late-January gathering in Bellevue, Washington came during a time of tumultuous relations between the two nations.
President Donald Trump’s tariff policy and blustering talk of making Canada part of the United States have spurred widespread anger among Canadians. January has been particularly volatile, as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, at an economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, attacked “coercion” by great powers, while Trump, in a subsequent speech, asserted that “Canada lives because of the United States.”
At the Bellevue halibut meeting, Drew Lawler, a political appointee to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, served as the non-voting head of the U.S.delegation.
In private talks sandwiched between public parts of the meeting, the U.S. delegation threatened economic sanctions, and successfully pressured Canadians to trim the British Columbia share of the halibut harvest, according to sources with knowledge of these discussions.
The commission is charged by a more than century-old treaty with conserving Pacific halibut. There are three voting representatives from the United States, and three from Canada.
January 30, 2026 — The International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) set the 2026 Pacific halibut harvest at a historic low last week, following tense U.S.-Canada negotiations that included threats of economic sanctions against Canadian halibut exports.
The Northern Journal reported that the four-day annual IPHC meeting in Bellevue, Washington, came amid strained relations between the two countries under the Trump administration, whose tariff policies and rhetoric toward Canada have fueled political friction.
Serving as the non-voting head of the U.S. delegation was Drew Lawler, a political appointee to NOAA. During private negotiations, U.S. representatives threatened tariffs or other trade restrictions unless Canada agreed to reduce British Columbia’s share of the halibut catch.
January 29, 2026 — The International Pacific Halibut Commission set the 2026 harvest at a historic low during an annual meeting that drew a Trump administration political appointee to lead tense U.S. negotiations with Canada over shares of a shrunken fishery.
The four-day gathering last week in Bellevue, Washington, came during a time of tumultuous relations between the two nations.
President Donald Trump’s tariff policy and blustering talk of making Canada part of the United States have spurred widespread anger among Canadians. January has been particularly volatile, as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, at an economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, attacked “coercion” by great powers, while Trump, in a subsequent speech, asserted that “Canada lives because of the United States.”
In private talks sandwiched between public parts of the meeting, the U.S. delegation threatened economic sanctions, and successfully pressured Canadians to trim the British Columbia share of the halibut harvest, according to sources with knowledge of these discussions.
The commission is charged by a more than century-old treaty with conserving Pacific halibut. There are three voting representatives from the United States and three from Canada.
The halibut fishery has been in a deep prolonged downturn that has buffeted sport, commercial and subsistence fishermen in Alaska, British Columbia, Oregon, Washington and Northern California. Since the early 2000s, both the average size and overall population of halibut have fallen precipitously, according to scientists.
January 26, 2026 — Total halibut removals for 2026 held steady in every Alaska region; most commercial catches increased slightly. One halibut proposal for non-guided anglers was punted to the NPFMC.
The International Pacific Halibut Commission wrapped up its annual meeting today in Bellevue, Washington.
Below are the breakdowns for total halibut removals – commercial, sport, subsistence, and personal use – for 2026, thanks to Maddie Lightsey at Alaska Boats and Permits in Homer.
January 8, 2026 — Of all the schemes that humans have devised to keep sea lions from gorging on the salmon of the Columbia River basin, none has worked for long. Local officials and researchers have chased sea lions with boats and peppered them with rubber bullets; they’ve detonated noisy explosives. They’ve outfitted the docks where the animals like to rest with uncomfortable spinners, electrified mats, flailing tube men, and motion-activated sprinklers. (“Very surprisingly, they don’t like to get wet on land,” Casey Clark, a marine-mammal biologist at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, told me.) At one point, the Port of Astoria dispatched a 32-foot fiberglass replica of sea lions’ primary predator, the orca, outfitted with real orca sounds, that almost immediately capsized. Scientists have captured sea lions and released them thousands of miles away, as far as Southern California. No matter the tactic, the result is largely the same: Within weeks, or sometimes even hours, the sea lions swim right back.
January 6, 2026 — U.S. President Donald Trump has signed the Save Our Seas Act 2.0 Amendments Act into law, strengthening and reauthorizing a federal marine debris cleanup program for another five years.
“This bill ensures critical work continues to combat plastic pollution before it reaches our ocean and supports the Marine Debris Foundation, strengthening efforts to reduce marine debris and protect coastal communities and wildlife,” NGO Ocean Conservancy said in a social media post. “This is a major step forward to advance NOAA’s mission and a clear example of what’s possible when leaders come together to defend science-based solutions for our ocean. Ocean Conservancy is proud to have long championed the Marine Debris Program as part of our broader NOAA defense work.”
January 5, 2026 — Calm seas and a fair price made for a rosy start to this year’s crabbing season.
Ryan Walters, owner of the F/V Brandy, was among the local commercial crabbers who made their first Dungeness offload of the season on Thursday, Jan. 1, at Safe Coast Seafoods in Ilwaco.
Walters and crew delivered an estimated 28,000 pounds of crab following their first trip of the season, earning $4.35 per pound from the processor.
December 29, 2025 — The pots are loaded and hopes are high.
After a month-long delay, the 2025-2026 Washington commercial Dungeness crab season is underway — much to the relief of local fishermen — kicking off the most lucrative fishery in the Pacific Northwest.
Fast and furious start
Each year, the vast majority of Dungeness is landed in the first two months, turning the first few weeks of the season into a marathon for fishermen and local processors.
By noon Saturday, Dec. 27, at the Port of Chinook, South Bend Products deck boss Herman Sevilla had helped load more than half a dozen boats with thousands of pots, a typical pace for the start of the commercial crab season.
Later in the day, fishing crews were going to begin loading crab bait — a frozen mix of rockfish, tuna, herring — which is then placed in plastic or metal bait jars before going into the crab pot.