Saving Seafood

NOAA awards over $26.4 M for marine debris removal

December 9, 2025 — Thirteen new projects have been funded for over $26.4 million under the NOAA Marine Debris Program, with a focus on abandoned and derelict vessels and fishing gear, and the use of proven debris interception technologies.

Recipients of the funding announced on Dec. 4 by the NOAA Marine Debris Program for fiscal year 2025 included nine for large-scale marine debris cleanup and four using debris technologies.

Pacific Coastal Research & Planning, a small non-profit in the Northern Mariana Islands, was allocated $4.9 million to remove 23 abandoned boats and an estimated 40,000 pounds of derelict fishing gear from the coastal environments of the U.S. Territory of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, and the Freely Associated States of the Republic of Palau and Federated States of Micronesia.

Washington’s Department of Natural Resources received $3.5 million for removal of four large, run-down, and abandoned boats from the coastal and marine waters of Washington State and tidally influenced areas of the Columbia River. These former military vessels were abandoned by their new owners and now pose serious risks to Washington’s waterways, according to NOAA.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

WASHINGTON: A company linked to Patagonia’s founder got the edge in Washington’s land-based salmon race. Some wonder why.

February 20, 2024 — An introductory meeting was enough for a little-known Canadian group with links to the founder of outdoor clothing retailer Patagonia to initiate a partnership giving it first crack at revolutionizing the salmon farming industry in the US state of Washington.

Nova Scotia-based Sustainable Blue left that meeting, in January 2023, with agreement to draft a Letter of Intent (LOI) to develop the first land-based salmon farm in the state, according to multiple emails and documents obtained by IntraFish.

Just three months later, Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz – a key decision-maker on aquaculture policy in the state, and a participant in that meeting – announced the partnership to the public.

The unusual speed of the deal between Sustainable Blue and Washington’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has raised questions among established aquaculture companies, several of which say they were excluded from the selection process or consulted only after the LOI was signed.

The agreement has also invited scrutiny of the relationships between Franz, Patagonia and a non-governmental organization by the name of Wild Fish Conservancy, each of which has campaigned on different fronts against farming salmon in netpens.

This month, Franz was a keynote speaker in Reykjavik at the launch of Patagonia’s new film, “Laxaþjóð: A Salmon Nation”, which is part of a campaign to end netpen salmon farming in Iceland.

Read the full article at Intrafish