Saving Seafood

Connecting the next generation of fishermen

October 19, 2026 — Breaking into the commercial fishing industry can be tough for those not from a fishing town or family. To address this, the National Future Fishermen Coalition is working to bring the next generation of deckhands and captains to the fleets from Alaska to the Gulf Coast and up to New England. The coalition is comprised of regional fishing organizations from around the United States, most of whom had already initiated deckhand training programs, but saw the necessity of joining forces, sharing knowledge, and collaborating for a unified national effort.

“The idea came together in an email chain in 2023 where people from around the U.S. realized they were all working independently to address the same problem — the greying of the fleet,” says Maité Duquela Sánchez, coordinator of the National Future Fishermen Coalition. “We officially launched in 2025 as a platform for fishermen of the next generation.”

These efforts will be presented at the first National Future Fishermen Summit on Nov. 20 at Pacific Marine Expo in Seattle. The daylong event will feature a variety of panel discussions, talks, and a chance for young fishermen from around the country to network with each other and build connections for the future.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Groundfish rule brings gear marking changes for 335 vessels

October 16, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries has finalized new gear marking and entanglement-reduction requirements for portions of the Pacific Coast groundfish fleet, including new color-coded lines and buoy markings for vessels fishing with pot and bottom longline gear.

The final rule, published in the Federal Register on Oct. 13, applies to limited entry and directed open access groundfish fisheries in federal waters off Washington, Oregon, and California. Most provisions take effect Jan. 11, 2027, while fishermen will have until Jan. 11, 2030, to transition to manufactured line meeting the new color requirements.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Beneath the surface: what buoys reveal about ocean acidification

October 15, 2026 — What can a buoy tell us about ocean acidification? Quite a lot, especially when it has been collecting measurements for years.

In the California Current, a slow moving southward current that moves from British Columbia to Baja California, long-term observations help scientists track how ocean conditions change over hours, seasons, and years. Since natural phenomena like upwelling and El Niño rapidly alter water chemistry, continuous observations are vital for separating short-term fluctuations from broader ocean acidification trends.

Join Scripps Institution of Oceanography (Scripps) graduate student, Charles Lindsay, at sea as the recent Ocean Time-Series group, led by Uwe Send, deploy and maintain an ocean monitoring mooring off Southern California. In Anchored in the California Current: A Buoy’s View of Ocean Oscillations, readers are taken aboard a “day in the life” look at the work behind long-term ocean observations and the effort required to keep these instruments collecting data.

Read the full article at NOAA Ocean Acidification Program

Endangered southern resident orca population increases by 2 whales in latest census

October 15, 2026 —  The endangered southern resident killer whale population has grown for the second year in a row, offering a bit of encouraging news for the orcas that frequent Puget Sound and the Salish Sea.

The Center for Whale Research (CWR) announced Monday that its annual census counted 76 living southern resident killer whales, an increase of two from the previous year.

Researchers documented four births during the census period, although only two calves survived to the July 1 census date.

Read the full article at KMTR

WASHINGTON: 2 million invasive green crabs captured along Washington state shorelines

October 14, 2026 — More than 2 million invasive green crabs were captured in Washington state from July 2025 to June 2026, smashing previous records.

More European green crabs were trapped in those 12 months than in all previous years combined since the pinchy invaders were first documented in Washington state in 1998.

“We’ve seen some pretty dramatic increases,”  said aquatic invasive species researcher Brian Turner, who’s with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. “It’s not good news.”

Read the full article at KUOW

NOAA Fisheries introduces new West Coast gear rules to reduce entanglements

October 13, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries has rolled out new requirements and voluntary measures to reduce whale entanglements in commercial fishing gear on the U.S. West Coast.

“This rulemaking is, in part, in response to increased rates of entanglement of humpback whales with Pacific Coast fishing gear since 2014,” NOAA Fisheries said in its release. “Marine animals, like whales and turtles, can get caught in fishing gear, which can prevent them from eating or cause serious injury or death. The animal most often entangled in gear associated with the Pacific Coast groundfish fishery is the humpback whale.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NOAA invests $45.7 million to improve ocean observing systems

October 9, 2026 — NOAA’s U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS®) Office announced today 11 new five-year cooperative agreements to support regional and national ocean observing. These agreements will enable U.S. IOOS regional associations to operate regional coastal observing systems (RCOSs) throughout U.S. waters, and will provide $45.7 million in funding for the first year.

Data collected from ocean observations:

  • Supports anglers, aquaculturists, shipping and logistics managers, and coastal communities in making sound economic and safety decisions;
  • Supports management and mitigation of coastal hazards, such as flooding and harmful algal blooms; and
  • Provides essential information for weather forecasting and national defense.

The regional associations are a fundamental part of the national observing system, and help ensure that the system is both effective and efficient. They are federally certified to collect and manage high-quality observing data, forming robust partnerships with local stakeholders and coastal communities. As the regional component of the nationwide U.S. IOOS network, regional associations meet local needs by using stakeholder feedback to guide the development of RCOSs while also integrating national priorities and requirements.

These cooperative agreements are awarded every five years through a competitive process and support the continued operation and modernization of our nation’s coastal, ocean and Great Lakes observing capabilities. Total awards include additional funding from other NOAA offices in the National Ocean Service, National Weather Service, NOAA Fisheries, NOAA Satellites and NOAA Research.

Read the full article at NOAA Ocean Services

ALASKA: Pollock trawlers feel cast as the villains of Alaska’s U.S. Senate race

October 7, 2026 — Cole Hockema, operator of the 104-foot Pacific Storm, is disappointed that pollock fishermen like him have no champions in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race.

“It’s just such easy, low-hanging fruit, essentially, to get votes, is to be against trawling,” he said.

The pollock industry, America’s largest fishery, has been hit with a tsunami of popular discontent in Alaska this election season, with loud demands for a ban on trawling. The problem is bycatch — the thousands of salmon and metric tons of halibut the pollock fleet catches by accident. Anger about these wasted fish has sparked a movement that’s flexing its political muscle, and it could be decisive in Alaska’s tight Senate election.

Amid the barrage, the pollock industry — the source of the fish in fish sticks and McDonald’s Filet-o-Fish — is feeling misunderstood.

Trawl opponents focus their harshest critiques on the biggest players in the pollock fleet — the massive catcher-processors, floating factories that are homeported mainly in Seattle, and the substantial number of trawlers owned by out-of-state corporations.

Read the full article at Alask Public Media

ALASKA: Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust secures federal grant to strengthen data collection capabilities

October 6, 2026 —  The Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust (ASFT), a Sitka, Alaska, U.S.A.-based fisheries advocacy organization, has received a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) grant for USD 293,000 (EUR 260,479) to expand its fishery data collection capabilities across 20 salmon troll fisheries in Southeast Alaska.

According to an ASFT release, the organization is planning to work with Bellingham, Washington, U.S.A.-based fishing data firm Real Time Data’s (RTD) application called “Deckhand,” which allows salmon trollers to collect and aggregate catch and observation data on a daily basis.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Trump tried to make allies of fishermen. Some are turning on him

October 5, 2026 — John Evich, a commercial fisherman in Washington and Alaska, has voted for President Donald Trump three times, viewing him as someone who would fight for his industry.

But these days, Evich is weary of the high cost of doing business at sea, with fuel prices rising and trade hostilities with Canada jeopardizing markets for the crabs that he pulls off the ocean floor.

“If somebody came along that was going to do a better job, I would vote for them in a heartbeat,” he said.

Evich’s sentiment, echoed throughout the U.S. seafood industry, is another piece of a political puzzle that is working against Trump in the midterm elections. Dissatisfaction among commercial fishermen could cause collateral damage for Republicans in competitive races in Washington, Alaska and Maine.

“Having those costs be so much higher this year has really undermined the viability of some of our fisheries,” Alaska fisherman Linda Behnken said.

Read the full article at The Associated Press