Fisheries

A state board has rejected an environmental impact statement submitted by a group seeking permits for commercial aquarium fishing around Hawaii island.

The Texas oyster industry has struggled in recent years because of overfishing, hurricanes and floods, but a new program could be a boon for consumers and the Gulf economy.

Marine species off the west coast of North America from Mexico through Canada inhabit the California Current. The cool, nutrient-rich water supports marine life ranging from invisible phytoplankton to economically important salmon and rockfish.

As COVID-19 affects global food systems, tremendous impacts are being felt by coastal communities and small-scale fishers, many of whom are self-employed and rely on the catch to feed their own households or local communities.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources announced the results of the 2020 Blue Crab Winter Dredge Survey, a cooperative effort with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, which estimates the number of blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay annually.

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) said it anticipates some $16 million in federal aid will be made available to Oregon’s marine-related and coastal fishery sectors impacted by the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to considerable challenges the Indonesian government must face to care for and protect the more than 260 million people spread across the country’s 17,000 plus islands, as well as to safeguard the country’s growing economy. The marine and fisheries sector has been one of the hardest hit, affecting 3.5 million fishers, not to mention fish farmers and those working throughout the supply chain.

Canadian fish harvesters welcomed the announcement Thursday of $469 million in federal support for the sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying they're watching closely for clarity as fishing seasons open across the country.

Sales of Alaska's most popular seafoods are being hit hard by markets upended by the coronavirus, but perhaps none is getting battered worse than halibut. Along with the big losses in the lucrative restaurant trade, Pacific halibut also is facing headwinds from increasing foreign imports.

A new electronic tagging study of 100 Potomac River striped bass sheds light on rockfish migration in Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Coast. University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science researchers found that when rockfish reach 32 inches in length they leave Chesapeake Bay and become ocean migrators. Small fish stayed in the Bay had higher mortality rates than those that undertook ocean migrations.

Management of the Yukon River summer salmon season is in flux.

IF YOU’VE ORDERED OYSTERS — whether raw, grilled, steamed, roasted, blackened, stewed or fried — at a Lowcountry establishment or attended a Southern backyard oyster roast, chances are they were supplied by Maggioni Oyster Co., which celebrates its 150th anniversary this May. The company’s backstory is delicious, too. Maggioni Oyster Co. has been in the same family for five generations and is the area’s largest provider of wild oysters, sustainably harvested from the clean, salty rivers of the Lowcountry.

May 7, Representatives Derek Kilmer (WA-06) and Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA-03) announced that they helped secure $50 million in support for Washington’s non-tribal fishing and shellfish industries. The funding, which is the highest award amount in the country, comes from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, for states, Tribes, and territories with coastal and marine fishery participants who have been negatively affected by COVID–19. The Representatives also helped secure an additional $5 million for West Coast tribes.

Ocean Era of Hawaii plans to install an underwater net pen about 45 miles southwest of Sarasota. The project, called Velella Epsilon, would be capable of raising 20,000 almaco jack, a fish similar to amberjack, each year. Its permits are under review by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Fisherman Marty Scanlon has not returned to his Long Island home since leaving for North Carolina at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in New York.

Like meat processors and farmers, the seafood sector is feeling the COVID-19 effect. Many American restaurants are still closed for sit-in diners, tourism has slowed to almost nothing, and exports to Asian markets are still in limbo. Wild Alaskan salmon, lobster and oyster and fisheries are all preparing for a tough summer.

In a rare bright spot for the fish trade, retail sales have set records, and consumers are trying species that even restaurants shy away from.

A wave of new licenses allowing Chinese vessels into Senegalese waters will “annihilate” the country’s efforts to get its fisheries on a sustainable footing, according to a group representing local small-scale fishermen.

A team of fisheries scientists and marine policy experts, led by a University of Rhode Island researcher, examined how climate change is affecting the ocean environment and found that the changing conditions will likely result in increased fisheries-related conflicts and create new challenges in the management of global fisheries.

Even with more marinas recently reopening, the economic impact of COVID-19 lockdowns to curb spread of the coronavirus is having far-reaching effects on New Jersey’s recreational fishing industry.

BILOXI – Danny Ross, an Ocean Springs shrimper, has been on a boat for as long as he could walk. He remembers driving the family vessel as a kid, having to climb onto the dashboard to see over the steering wheel. “Two spokes to the left,” his dad would direct. He remembers, back on land, getting bad grades in art class because he would only draw one thing.

Citing the pandemic, whale watching, and a lack of exports, one of the three largest whaling countries may be calling it quits.

The National Marine Fisheries Service’s decision to reopen two areas to pelagic longline fishing puts Western Atlantic bluefin tuna at risk and violated four federal laws, according to a lawsuit filed in a Maryland federal court.

On a warm, sunny September morning, bait salesman Roscoe Liebig scanned the harbor’s vacant piers and shook his head in disgust. Liebig recalled his usual surroundings: a full parking lot, a line of fishermen hooking their bait, and oysters peeking out in a low tide. That day, all of it was gone.

Legal and permitting issues are consistently ranked as a critical impediment to domestic aquaculture development. The shellfish industry is growing in coastal areas, which are home to more than half of the population of the continental United States. A variety of legal conflicts can arise as states seek to encourage the development and expansion of shellfish aquaculture. The regulatory landscape facing the aquaculture industry can also be confusing and complicated.

Two fisheries in Russia responsible for catching snow crab and halibut have been awarded certification from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).

Commercial fishermen are protesting an order by California wildlife authorities to close the Dungeness crab fishery in mid-May to protect whales and sea turtles from becoming entangled in fishing gear.

The coronavirus pandemic poses an existential threat to the already beleaguered for-hire fishing boat industry in New Jersey, captains of party boats along the Jersey shore told Breitbart News.

West Hawaii’s coastal waters — closed to aquarium fishing for more than two years — should reopen to just 10 commercial aquarium fishermen, a final environmental impact statement released Thursday states.

Department of Fish and Wildlife takes action to protect whales

Fishermen like Zhu Chunfu have hauled their living from the seas off the Chinese province of Fujian for generations, but what happens when over-harvesting causes fish stocks to collapse?

"The Hand of NOAA," a sculpture in front of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in Silver Spring, Maryland. Photo by Jason Huffman.

The Pacific sardine fishery on the U.S. West Coast appears to be headed for another year of being shut down after a recent National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) assessment showed a low biomass.

Photos Show Louisiana Coast 10 Years After BP Oil Spill

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has launched the government’s new £10m Fisheries Response Fund for England’s fishing and aquaculture businesses.

The fish did not test positive for reportable diseases, Cooke said, and have all been removed from the site.

When the Deepwater Horizon oil spill released 4 to 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, some early projections estimated that the toll on fisheries could reach US$5-10 billion by 2020. Chemicals in crude oil may affect fish and other marine creatures directly, through their toxicity, or indirectly by harming their food or habitat, and the effects can be immediate or long-term.

State fisheries managers insist it is too early to close commercial salmon fisheries to prevent the spread of COVID-19 despite growing concerns from many in small communities about the coming influx of seasonal workers.

As fisheries councils in the U.S. and abroad begin relaxing observer requirements in order to meet safety needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple NGOs have issued a joint statement cautioning against those relaxed requirements becoming permanent.