Saving Seafood

The Future of Red Snapper Data: Using Active Acoustic Monitoring and Artificial Intelligence to Collect Data

April 16 2025 — In February, NOAA Fisheries took the initial steps to collect more comprehensive fisheries data by testing equipment that will be used to estimate the abundance of red snapper in the Gulf of America. We will use advanced video and acoustic cameras, combined with echosounders and artificial intelligence (AI) to collect these data. It’s a first-of-its-kind attempt to develop next generation surveys to improve and automate detection of red snapper, even in low visibility conditions, using acoustic technologies.

A Way of Life for Coastal Communities

Stock assessments include estimates of recreational catch, effort, and discards (when a fish is returned into the ocean dead or alive). They factor into how saltwater fishing seasons are determined. In the Southeast United States, saltwater fishing is a favorite pastime. Offshore fishing in the Gulf of America specifically has been cited as one of the top reasons people visit the region. Red snapper is the flagship species for what is considered to be the largest recreational fishery in the world. Red snapper are highly prized for their cultural and recreational value. Having an idea of their abundance in the Gulf is crucial for the sustainable management of the species and the coastal economies that rely on thriving fisheries.

NOAA Fisheries’ Responsibility

NOAA Fisheries is responsible for monitoring fish populations, managing stocks, and enforcing regulations, operating under 10 National Standards of sustainability. Our Southeast Fisheries Science Center is responsible for providing stock assessments to inform management. These assessments are a scientific report containing information on the collection, analysis, and details on the condition of a fish stock and estimating its sustainable yield. Managing sustainable fisheries is a dynamic process that requires consistent attention to new scientific information that can guide management actions.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Revitalizing the Gulf: Highlights from 15 Years of Restoration

April 16, 2025 — The Deepwater Horizon oil spill began on April 20, 2010, and resulted in impacts to habitats, natural resources, and communities across the Gulf of America (formerly Gulf of Mexico). Since then, NOAA has taken the lead on more than 60 large-scale projects to restore natural resources. We work with state and local partners, coastal communities, user groups, and other constituents. Below, we’ll highlight key projects that demonstrate the ways we have made progress towards recovery.

Early Restoration

Restoration work across the Gulf began even as damage assessment was ongoing with a large-scale project to restore part of a barrier chain in an area most severely impacted by the spill.

We worked alongside the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority to design and construct the Chenier Ronquille Barrier Island Restoration Project. It improved shoreline stability, restored critical dune features, and created a strong backbarrier marsh platform to support island longevity. The project placed 1.3 million cubic yards of beach and marsh fill designed to prevent island breaching over the 20-year project life. Ongoing monitoring shows that despite severe storm events, the island’s shoreline is intact without new tidal passes. It contributes to coastal protection and restoration in the region.

NOAA also partnered with state Trustees to implement other projects to restore marine resources during the early restoration phase and some of this work continues today. We are:

We work with state and local partners, coastal communities, user groups and other constituents

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

Gulf Council approves new logbook system for Gulf shrimpers

April 14, 2025 –The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council has approved a new electronic logbook system, replacing the current system that hasn’t worked correctly since 2020.

NOAA Fisheries relies on an electronic logbook system to track shrimpers activity in the Gulf of Mexico, currently referred to as the Gulf of America by the Trump administration. The system was built to transmit data over a cellular connection and give regulators a continuously updated “shrimp effort estimate.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MISSISSIPPI: Mississippi legislature votes to expand seafood labeling law

April 8, 2025 — The state legislature of the U.S. state of Mississippi has passed a bill expanding the state’s seafood-labeling law, sending the legislation to the state’s governor to be signed into law.

“We are trying to do everything that we can to help promote seafood [and] to help promote the brand of Gulf fresh seafood, not just for shrimp, not just for oysters, but for all seafood,” Mississippi Senator Scott DeLano (R-Biloxi) told WLOX.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Federal judge blocks offshore lease sale, says feds failed to consider impacts on Rice’s whales

March 31, 2025 — A federal judge on Thursday blocked an oil and gas lease sale in Gulf waters off the coast of Louisiana, finding that a federal agency didn’t adequately take into account how new offshore drilling would impact the highly endangered Rice’s whale.

The ruling from Judge Amit Mehta in the U.S. District court for the District of Columbia will require the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management, which oversees the sale of oil and gas leases in federal waters, to conduct additional environmental reviews before the lease sale proceeds. The current lease sale is not canceled, but will be subject to additional environmental review.

The court also ruled that BOEM did not fully take into account the impact of greenhouse gas emissions that would result from the new oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico, also referred to as the Gulf of America after President Donald Trump moved to rename it via executive order.

“BOEM acted arbitrarily by failing to address the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS’s) determination that the whale’s habitat range extends into the western and central Gulf,” Mehta wrote in his ruling.

Read the full article at NOLA

FLORIDA: Two ocean drones launched to map Florida’s coastline for the first time

March 31, 2025 — Florida’s coastline is about to get mapped, and it’s all thanks to two unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) launched in St. Petersburg.

The USVs, managed by the company Saildrone, are helping the Sunshine State on its multiyear mission to survey coastal waters within the continental shelf.

“At 2,170 kilometers long, Florida’s coastline is second only to Alaska among U.S. states,” the company says. “Many parts of the Florida coast remain unsurveyed, with existing nautical charts relying on outdated and low-resolution data.”

The Florida Seafloor Mapping Initiative may be the solution. Saildrone explains in news releases that the “Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) is managing the project, using $100 million in state funds to collect the data and create a public portal for the new imagery and information.”

Read the full article at NBC Miami

LOUISIANA: Seafood testers find Shreveport restaurants deceiving customers with foreign shrimp

March 27, 2025 — Undercover seafood testers sampled a selection of restaurants in the Shreveport area this month and detected what they say is the highest shrimp fraud rate they have recorded to date in Louisiana.

SeaD Consulting, a food testing company that has been making headlines for uncovering seafood fraud at restaurants and festivals across the Gulf Coast, announced in a news release Wednesday that a “troubling” 58% of the restaurants sampled were deceptively serving foreign shrimp falsely presented as if it were domestic in violation of state law.

The company’s use of genetic testing found a total of 17 out of 24 restaurants sampled, or 71%, served foreign farm-raised shrimp. Fourteen of those, or 58%, did so deceptively by mislabeling the country of origin or refusing to indicate it on their menus or restaurant signage.

The sampling, taken March 8-10, is so far the highest inauthenticity rate that SeaD has recorded in Louisiana since it first launched its testing efforts last year at the Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival in Morgan City.

The company does not identify the restaurants that aren’t following the state’s labeling law, opting instead to raise awareness of its existence.

SeaD executive Erin Williams said six of the restaurants were “blatantly being deceptive” by explicitly mislabeling their dishes as “Gulf shrimp” rather than just falsely suggesting it.

It is illegal under federal and state law to mislabel imported seafood as local and can result in fines or other penalties. In some instances, seafood fraud offenses at the federal level can yield criminal charges or even prison time, such as in the 2024 convictions of two Mississippi restaurant owners, one of whom was sentenced to eight months in prison.

Local seafood was once easy to find in Louisiana, but an influx of cheap foreign catch, particularly shrimp and crawfish, has flooded the market over the past two decades.

Williams said she believes there is less public awareness in the Shreveport area of the foreign seafood problem and the plight of the coastal communities that depend on commercial fishermen.

Read the full article at the Louisiana Illuminator

LOUISIANA: How Louisiana’s Menhaden Industry is Leading in Sustainability

March 24, 2025 — Louisiana’s menhaden industry plays a critical role in the state’s coastal economy, providing jobs and generating millions in economic impact. Together, the industry supports over 2,000 direct and indirect workers, providing good wage jobs in rural coastal communities and contributing $25 million to state and local economies. In a state where commercial fishing is a backbone of our culture, these jobs help keep coastal communities alive.

At the same time, we recognize our responsibility as stewards of the Gulf menhaden resource and have taken proactive steps to ensure the sustainability of our fishery.

While net tears and fish spills are extremely rare, we acknowledge such incidents are unacceptable. That’s why we’ve invested in cutting-edge technology to further reduce occurrences. Over the past four years, the industry has made 65,000 fishing sets, of which only 44 experienced net tears—a minuscule 0.067% incident rate.

Net tears are largely caused by sharks which strike the nets attempting to access the captured fish inside them. The significant increase in the shark population along the Louisiana coast has resulted in an increased incidence of net tears in recent years.

Read the full article at The Advocate

Department of Commerce Announces 2022 Appointments to the Regional Fishery Management Councils

June 28, 2022 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The U.S. Department of Commerce today announced the appointment of 20 new and returning members to the regional fishery management councils that partner with NOAA Fisheries to manage marine fishery resources.

Established by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, councils are responsible for developing region-specific fishery management plans that safeguard and enhance the nation’s fisheries resources. Council members represent diverse groups, including commercial and recreational fishing industries, environmental organizations, and academia. They are vital to fulfilling the act’s requirements to end overfishing, rebuild fish stocks, and manage them sustainably.

NOAA Fisheries works closely with the councils through the process of developing fishery management plans. We also review, approve, and implement the plans.

Each year, the Secretary of Commerce appoints approximately one-third of the total 72 appointed members to the eight regional councils. The Secretary selects members from nominations submitted by the governors of fishing states, territories, and tribal governments.

Council members are appointed to both state-specific and regional seats—also known as obligatory and at-large seats, respectively.  Council members serve a three-year term and may be reappointed to serve three consecutive terms.

* Asterisk following a member’s name indicates a reappointment

New England Council

The New England Council includes members from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. 2022 appointees will fill one obligatory seat for New Hampshire, and two at-large seats.

Obligatory seat

Peter Whelan (New Hampshire)

At-large seats

Eric Hansen (Massachusetts)

Richard Bellavance (Rhode Island)*

Mid-Atlantic Council

The Mid-Atlantic Council includes members from the states of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. 2022 appointees will fill one obligatory seat for Delaware, and three at-large seats.

Obligatory seat

Paul ‘Wes’ Townsend (Delaware)*

At-large seats

Scott Lenox (Maryland)*

Peter Hughes (New Jersey)*

Ken Neill (Virginia)

South Atlantic Council

The South Atlantic Council includes members from Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. 2022 appointees will fill two obligatory seats for North Carolina and South Carolina.

Obligatory seats

Robert ‘Tim’ Griner (North Carolina)*

Gary Borland (South Carolina)

Caribbean Council

The Caribbean Council includes members from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The 2022 appointee will fill one at-large seat.

At-large seat

James Kreglo (U.S. Virgin Islands)

Gulf Council

The Gulf Council includes members from Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. 2022 appointees will fill two obligatory seats for Mississippi and Texas, and one at-large seat.

Obligatory seats

Michael McDermott (Mississippi)

Troy Williamson, II (Texas)*

At-large seat

Thomas Frazer (Florida)*

Pacific Council

The Pacific Council includes members from California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. The Pacific Council also includes one Tribal seat. 2022 appointees will fill one obligatory seat for Idaho, and one at-large seat.

Obligatory seat

Peter Hassemer (Idaho)*

At-large seat

Marc Gorelnik (California)*

North Pacific Council

The North Pacific Council includes members from Alaska and Washington. 2022 appointees will fill two obligatory seats for Alaska.

Obligatory seats

Angela Drobnica (Alaska)

Nicole Kimball (Alaska)*

Western Pacific Council

The Western Pacific Council includes members from American Samoa, Guam, Hawaii, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. 2022 appointees will fill one obligatory seat for American Samoa, and two at-large seats.

Obligatory seat

William Sword (American Samoa)*

At-large seats

Judith Guthertz (Guam)

Shaelene Kamakaala (Hawaii)

 

Louisiana Seafood Economic Damage Assessment Opens Door For U.S. Seafood To Assess Treatment in Disasters

February 1, 2022 — Halfway between Lafayette and Abbeville on Highway U.S. 167 is the little town of Maurice.  A short hop-skip and a jump off the highway lays a backyard seafood store known for some of the freshest, highest quality shrimp and seafood in the state. Instead of a garage you find a homemade freezer housing Granger’s Seafood’s own brand of shrimp, crab, alligator, and other Louisiana products.  Problem; like a lot of the rest of Louisiana seafood industry theirs is in jeopardy of disappearing.

Al and Cheryl Granger business was not physically damaged by any of the six major storms hitting the state during the past two-years.  But like those to the east and west of them that were, they are struggling to survive.

“That Hurricane Ida in the east makes me cry for those people, we were blessed over here,” said Cheryl Granger who operates the store while her husband shrimps.

Read the full story at Gulf Seafood News