Saving Seafood

NOAA Fisheries confirms 76 large whale entanglements in 2025

October 6, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries confirmed 76 large whale entanglements in 2025, which is fewer than the 95 confirmed cases in 2024 but higher than the 18-year average of 72.7 cases.

“Entanglements in fishing gear or marine debris represent a continued threat to the welfare and recovery of many whale species,” NOAA Fisheries said in a release. “This includes species that are endangered, such as North Atlantic right whales. Entanglements involving threatened or endangered species can have significant negative impacts on the population as a whole.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

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

Judge rejects delay, keeps Samoa mining lawsuit on track before sale

September 23, 2026 — A federal judge in Honolulu has refused to let the Trump administration delay a hearing that could decide whether a deep-sea mining lease sale off American Samoa broke federal law, leaving open the chance that a court could block the sale before it happens.

U.S. District Judge Jill Otake denied the government’s motion to continue in an order issued Friday. She kept an Oct. 30 hearing intact on Earthjustice’s motion for summary judgment, meaning the case could be decided roughly three weeks before American Samoa’s lease sale, tentatively set for Nov. 19.

Earthjustice’s lawsuit targets the National Marine Fisheries Service, not the Marine Minerals Administration, the Interior agency actually running the sale. The fisheries service issued what’s called a letter of concurrence, agreeing with MMA’s finding that leasing wouldn’t likely harm whales, sea turtles and other protected species. Earthjustice argues the agency never seriously weighed what mining itself, not just leasing, could do to marine life.

The timing carries weight beyond American Samoa. Earthjustice is pursuing a nearly identical case over mining leases planned 47 miles from Guam, and the attorney handling both cases says the Hawaii ruling will shape how the Marianas fight unfolds.

“How things go with American Samoa will greatly inform how things go with (Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands),” said Harley Broyles, the Earthjustice attorney, in an interview Wednesday with The Guam Daily Post, “because of the similarity of the issues.”

Read the full article at The Guam Daily Post

A Winter at Sea Reveals Seasonal Habits of Whales, Dolphins, and Seabirds in Hawaiʻi

August 21, 2026 — The Hawaiian archipelago is teeming with marine life, and winter brings some of the most exciting activity of the year. It’s a season when many whale and seabird species travel to the islands. Migratory baleen whales such as humpback and minke whales are only found in Hawai‘i in the winter, when they seek warmer waters to breed. Others—including various types of dolphins—rely on this marine ecosystem year-round, but scientists have yet to uncover the details of their wintertime habits.

To close that gap, the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center launched a survey in late January 2026. Scientists spent 2 months monitoring these species around the main Hawaiian islands aboard the NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette. The mission, called the Winter Hawaiian Islands Cetacean and Ecosystem Assessment Survey, is only the second of its kind.

Six years after the first winter survey, researchers returned to better understand where, when, and how many whales and dolphins use this habitat. The data from these surveys feed into stock assessments, helping us track the status of these species and make informed conservation decisions. This work is especially important for high-priority species like false killer whales, including an endangered population that lives around the main Hawaiian islands.

Winter conditions at sea can be rough, with higher swells and lots of white caps. This makes animals harder to see. But NOAA scientists are experienced with scientific methods that rise to the challenge. During the survey, eagle-eyed visual observers spied more than 200 groups of whales and dolphins, even in difficult conditions. They documented humpback mothers with their calves, bottlenose dolphins riding the ship’s bow, and pantropical spotted dolphins leaping high into the air. Cutting-edge passive acoustic technology helped detect other whales and dolphins that could be heard but not seen.

In these photos, take a look behind the scenes of the survey and find out which species spend their winters in Hawaiʻi.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Editorial: Menhaden study should provide data needed for bay management

July 10, 2026 — Menhaden may be a relatively small fish but they have an outsized presence in ongoing debates about the health of the Chesapeake Bay. The menhaden industry and environmental groups have sparred for years over what constitutes sustainable fishing and how the annual catch affects the critical ecosystem on which so much depends.

By including $2 million in the recently approved state budget for a neutral and clear-eyed study of menhaden, Virginia lawmakers hope to provide the data needed to chart a thoughtful path forward. This is long overdue, and both sides of the debate are right to celebrate this important step by the commonwealth.

Prized for their energy-rich oil, Atlantic menhaden play a central role in the Chesapeake ecosystem, as they have done since long before Europeans settlers arrived here centuries ago. They eat plankton and small plants that improve the water quality while also serving as a primary food source for other bay animal and marine life, from striped bass to ospreys to whales.

Read the full article at The Virginian Pilot 

Conservation groups to sue NOAA Fisheries, US Coast Guard over West Coast vessel strikes on whales

July 31, 2025 — The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and Friends of the Earth plan to sue NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Coast Guard over vessel strikes on whales and sea turtles off the coast of California.

According to CBD, neither NOAA Fisheries nor the Coast Guard have properly analyzed how California shipping lane designations could contribute to vessel strikes on whales or sea turtles.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Dungeness crab season cancelled for remainder of 2024 in California, Washington

December 10, 2024 — Fisheries regulators on the West Coast are further delaying the opening of their states’ respective commercial Dungeness crab seasons due to the presence of humpback whales and low meat quality, with all but a small portion of Oregon’s coast unlikely to open before the end of the year.

On 6 December, the state of California announced it was delaying the start of the commercial crab season for a third time this year, citing the continued presence of blue and humpback whales in the area. The season was initially slated to open on 15 November.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Scientists make stunning breakthrough that could solve major problem plaguing our oceans — and the solution lies in whale feces

December 6, 2024 — A small team of environmental and ocean scientists in Australia, known as Whale X, may have discovered a way to remove carbon from the atmosphere efficiently, Hakai Magazine reported. The key to their solution is replicating whale poo.

Whale feces are high in essential nutrients that support the growth of phytoplanktons — a microscopic marine algae that feeds the rest of the ocean food chain.

Phytoplanktons also efficiently capture carbon dioxide, as land plants do, clearing the atmosphere of planet-warming gases. Per Hakai, phytoplanktons absorb “roughly 22 megatonnes (22,000,000 tons) of carbon dioxide (CO2) each year — the amount emitted by about 4.8 million vehicles.”

To put this all into perspective, the most efficient carbon-absorbing tree species — the oak tree — captures only 12 tons of carbon dioxide annually, according to the United States National Marine Fisheries Service.

Read the full story at The Cool Down

Conservation groups call on US to ban foreign seafood over whale and dolphin bycatch

December 8, 2023 — Conservation groups want NOAA Fisheries to ban imports from foreign fisheries that are not adequately working to prevent marine mammal bycatch.

“By continuing to allow imports that do not meet U.S. standards, [NOAA Fisheries] NMFS chooses business as usual over the survival of some of the most amazing species on the planet,” Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Senior Attorney and Global Biodiversity Conservation Director Zak Smith said. “Because NMFS has failed to safeguard ocean biodiversity, future generations may never have the chance to protect invaluable marine life.”

Read the full story at SeafoodSource