New England Archives - Saving Seafood

NOAA takes ‘emergency action’ to open Atlantic cod fishery

April 30, 2025 — NOAA will allow fishermen to harvest cod and other high-value species off the Northeast Atlantic coast beginning May 1, averting what could have been a major disruption to one of the East Coast’s most economically important and environmentally threatened fisheries.

NOAA issued “a temporary rule for an emergency action” Tuesday allowing what’s known as the Northeast Multispecies fishery to open on schedule, even though new regulations governing the management of certain species are not yet in place.

“This action ensures the fishery can continue without interruption,” the agency said in a notice.

Read the full story at E&E News

Fewer Right Whales Born This Year, Scientists Say

April 28, 2025 — At least 11 right whales were born this calving season, the New England Aquarium reported this week.

The number is lower than what scientists hoped, as the critically endangered species faces threats from human-caused activities. Entanglements in fishing gear and boat strikes are the leading causes of death and injury to the population.

Scientists say those injuries make it more difficult for right whales to reproduce and survive.

The 2024 calving season was more encouraging because roughly 20 individuals were born. However, the New England Aquarium noted that by last fall, a handful of newly born right whales had already disappeared.

Read the full story at Rhode Island PBS

Gulf of Maine scallop fishing to be closed a week after area was reopened

April 25, 2025 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced Friday that a section of the Gulf of Maine will be closed to scallop fishing in a few days, as the agency has projected the catch will reach the season quota that was recently set.

NOAA Fisheries said the Northern Gulf of Maine Scallop Management Area will close at 12:01 a.m. Monday, April 28, to all federally-permitted limited access general category scallop vessels. The closure will be in effect until the end of the current fishing year, which lasts until March 31, 2026.

Read the full story at WMTW

The seal population is growing in Rhode Island. Does that mean fewer fish and more sharks?

April 25, 2025 — July Lewis of Save The Bay sees seals as an indicator of environmental health, so she was encouraged when her organization recently counted 755 in Rhode Island waters.

“It tells us the bay is really healthy, and the coastal waters are as well,” said Lewis, Save The Bay’s volunteer and internship manager.

On March 27, forty-three volunteers fanned out along the shore and water at low tide to count seals in Save The Bay’s annual effort. They counted 551 in Narragansett Bay and 204 at Block Island. Save The Bay is a nonprofit organization, which defines its mission as promoting a healthy Narragansett Bay that is accessible to everyone.

The bay’s seal population has been steady over the past several years, while the Block Island population has increased, according to Lewis.

Fisherman: Seals have “voracious” appetites

Chris Brown, 57, who fishes out of Point Judith on his 45-foot Proud Mary, said, “I’ve never seen so many seals in my life.”

“Seals don’t eat potatoes,” Brown said. “They have voracious appetites.”

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

Sen. Collins & Sen. King cosponsor bipartisan bill to ban offshore drilling off the coast of Maine

April 25, 2025 — Senators Susan Collins and Angus King are cosponsoring a bipartisan bill to ban offshore drilling off the coast of Maine and New England.

The New England Coastal Protection Act would ban oil and gas leasing off the coast and in protected areas.

NOAA Fisheries reports ocean and coastal industries generate more than $17.5 billion in New England annually.

Read the full story at WABI

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford dock collapses on waterfront, the third failure in two years

April 25, 2025 — For the third time in less than two years, a hunk of dock fell into New Bedford Harbor on Wednesday afternoon, again raising red flags about neglected port maintenance. The collapse injured no one but dropped a metal shed into the water.

The asphalt-surface dock and the shed dropped into about 20 feet of water late Wednesday afternoon outside the Sea Watch International processing plant along Antonio Costa Avenue, said Gordon Carr, executive director of the New Bedford Port Authority.

He said it happened when no one was around, at about 3:30 p.m. The sunken storage shed had stood in an area that had been blocked by Jersey barriers since a neighboring section of the dock collapsed a year ago.

Carr said there was a “small sheen” on the water Wednesday, but it was not clear what, if anything, was in the shed and if anything spilled into the water.

“There’s a boom out there now to contain” any possible contamination, he said, referring to a long, floating tube used to corral spills of oil and other substances on the water. He said representatives of Sea Watch, a clam and quahog operation that uses that pier to unload catch, were trying to figure out what was in the shed.

Read the full story at The New Bedford Light

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford Fishing Industry Could Benefit From Trump Order

April 24, 2025 — Before the environmentalists and fearmongers in the press get their oil skins, jumpers and mesh undies in a bind over President Donald Trump’s executive order concerning the fishing industry, they need to catch their collective breath and slowly exhale.

First of all, read the damn thing!

The Associated Press says, “The order represents a dramatic shift in federal policy on fishing in U.S. waters by prioritizing commercial fishing interests over efforts to allow the fish supply to increase.”

That is fake news.

The executive order calls for the Secretary of Commerce to immediately consider suspending, revising, or rescinding regulations that overburden America’s commercial fishing, aquaculture, and fish processing industries.

Read the full story at WBSM

Offshore opponents urge Supreme Court to grant Vineyard Wind challenge

April 22, 2025 — Advocacy groups opposed to offshore wind development are calling for the Supreme Court to consider how federal approval of a project off the coast of Massachusetts could be violating recent high court decisions curbing agency authority.

The America First Policy Institute and others recently filed “friend of the court” briefs backing a pair of petitions led by the fishing company Seafreeze Shoreside and the fishing industry trade group Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) seeking to block completion of the Vineyard Wind 1 project.

The briefs are backing the parallel claims before the court: that the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management overstepped its authority and that lower courts failed to properly review the agency’s decision after a Supreme Court decision limited courts’ deference to agency decision-making.

Read the full story at E&E News

MAINE: Lobster industry hails executive order easing fishery regulations

April 22, 2025 — Lobster trade associations in Maine are hailing an executive order from the White House that would ease or eliminate regulations on seafood fisheries.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association “has been fighting government overregulation for years and won a historic court case that challenged draconian whale rules taking a big step forward in ending this abuse of power,” said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association. The executive order “recognizes the challenges our fishing families and communities face and we appreciate the commitment to reduce burdensome regulations and strengthen the competitiveness of American seafood.”

“Maine fishermen have been supporting Maine’s economy for generations,” said Virginia Olsen, a lobster fisherman and director of the Maine Lobstering Union.

Read the full story at Mainebiz

As New England waters warm, invasive sea squirts move in

April 22, 2025 — At a dock on Cape Cod’s Buzzards Bay, a group of researchers and marine biology students lie on their stomachs, peering over the wooden planks to examine what living things are stuck underneath.

Using fishing nets and kitchen spatulas, they scrape samples into plastic trays for a closer look. Kristin Osborne, a sea squirt expert and assistant professor at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, likes to use her bare hands.

“I said I wasn’t gonna get down here and do this, but I can’t help myself,” Osborne said with a laugh while reaching into the chilly ocean. She has a sea squirt tattoo on her left middle finger.

Sea squirts are a type of filter feeding marine invertebrate officially known as tunicates. These colorful blobs can squirt water when removed from their aquatic homes, earning them the nickname.

Read the full story at WBUR

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