Fisheries

Planning a salmon barbecue? Your options will be limited this year. With a complete 2019 closure on Fraser River sockeye, due to dismal returns, your options are to buy Alaska sockeye or farmed Atlantic salmon.

Warming temperatures in the Great Lakes are already causing population shifts among cold water and warm water fish, including those in inland lakes.

Maryland officials placed new restrictions Monday on harvesting wild oysters this fall and winter but dropped a plan to shorten the season that had drawn fire from watermen and seafood dealers.

I am eating an oyster on a boat in the Mosquito Lagoon. Dragonflies hover. Herons stalk the edge of the mangrove. Cages bob in chest-deep water, each holding a cache of bivalves in various stages of growth. Mullet breach amid the rows. The floating nursery, like its natural counterpart, is a haven for myriad species, an ecosystem unto itself.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program has awarded $2 million to lobster research projects and a regional lobster extension program.

Greater understanding and transparency of carrier vessel fleet dynamics would help reform management

NOAA Fisheries will continue to work with the Maine lobster industry, others, to address risk the Maine lobster fishery poses to North Atlantic right whales.

The fate of the increasingly rare North Atlantic right whale has always been left up to humans. And, on the American Shoreline Podcast, catch Dr. Michael Asaro, head of the Right Whale Take Reduction Team at NOAA Fisheries. It's "game on" for the last 400 N. Atlantic right whales and the discussion about the best way to save them is heating up. We take you inside the discussions on the American Shoreline Podcast.

The Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Maura Healey, has sent a letter to the coalition of New England governors (NEG) and Eastern Canadian Premiers (ECP) pushing for greater regional effort to prevent more North Atlantic right whale deaths.

Standing above the point where Chief Joseph Dam prevents thousands of chinook salmon each year from migrating upstream in the Columbia River, Darnell Sam praised new technology that could restore salmon runs all the way to Canada and beyond.

(CNN) — A fisherman off the coast of Maine pulled in an incredibly rare two-toned lobster on Friday. It's a one in 50 million find.

Security agencies are keeping a tab on these trawlers since they suspect that they could be carrying survey and snooping equipment

BOSTON – Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey today, September 4, called on the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers (NEG/ECP) to immediately act to protect the North Atlantic right whale, a species on the brink of extinction.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) has announced its intent to withdraw from an April agreement that aims to reduce risk to the right whale population.

It’s not just that proposed federal rules intended to protect endangered right whales from entanglement with fishing gear will be expensive and difficult to implement, industry representatives say. It’s also that they won’t work.

A low-cost satellite revolution is paving the way for real-time monitoring of fishing vessels using synthetic-aperture radar (SAR). SAR allows researchers to monitor ‘dark vessels’ that aren’t transmitting Automatic Identification Signals (AIS) location data. Disabling or manipulating AIS transmitters is a tactic commonly used by vessels engaged in illegal fishing activity.

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association withdrew support from an agreement that calls for Northeast lobstermen to reduce their risk to endangered North Atlantic right whales by 60%.

If you get up early enough in the summertime in Pacific City, you might get to watch the Cape Kiwanda dory fleet launching for a day of fishing — launching right off the beach, into the teeth of the surf.

Peer reviewers from NOAA will analyze assessments for Northeast groundfish stocks from September 9 to 13.

Japanese whaling ships resumed Monday hunting of minke whales in coastal areas off northern Japan's Hokkaido, and are likely to reach their catch quota later this month.

While there are many uncertainties, state regulators plan to enact significant restrictions on flounder fishing including a recreational fishing moratorium that would begin around September 4 and last for nearly a year.

The state of Oregon has secured $15 million for salmon habitat restoration projects throughout the state. The funding comes from the Pacific Coast Salmon Recovery Fund and is distributed by the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board.

Anglers have reported finding a non-native species of fish back in rivers in parts of Scotland.

China drafts law to combat illegal fishing, safeguard stocks

Two years after large numbers were spotted in British rivers, the Pacific pink salmon is set to make a return, potentially endangering Britain's wild Atlantic species. The Environment Agency is asking anglers to record the fish's presence.

New York State’s artificial-reef program has migrated north, with a fresh deployment of inorganic materials creating a new “marine habitat” in the Long Island Sound.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Climate change isn’t a primary suspect in the stunning extermination of Apalachicola Bay oysters, a calamity pegged to a variety of atrocities.

The federal government continues to use explosives despite their ineffectiveness.

The Department of the Interior is content to put fewer fish in the ocean, starving orcas and fishermen alike

Longtime Massachusetts fishing kingpin Carlos Rafael will pay a $3 million civil penalty, and sell his fishing vessels and permits under a final settlement with federal authorities.

Climate change will decrease the world fisheries’ overall maximum catch potential between 2.8% and 12.1% by 2050 based on different greenhouse gas emission scenarios, with the tropics, especially the South Pacific region, getting hit the hardest, says a team of technical experts organized by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Climate change has been steadily warming the ocean, which absorbs most of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, for 100 years. This warming is altering marine ecosystems and having a direct impact on fish populations. About half of the world’s population relies on fish as a vital source of protein, and the fishing industry employs more the 56 million people worldwide.

“Don’t get hit” reads one of the rocks getting dumped into Saginaw Bay to create a new underwater reef. The note painted on the rock is from a student who learned about the project in school.

In California, the native Olympia oyster — nearly wiped out by over-harvesting at the beginning of the 1900s — and the widely farmed Pacific oyster both call coastal estuaries their home.

The new measures, adopted in April by the take reduction team, call for lobstermen throughout New England to reduce the number of vertical lines in the water to mitigate whale entanglements and reduce North Atlantic right whale mortalities by 60 percent.

REEDSPORT, Ore. - Razor clam harvesting is now closed from the south jetty of the Umpqua River south to the California border after tests found elevated levels of the marine biotoxin domoic acid, the Oregon Department of Agriculture and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said Friday.

A new study provides evidence that increasing the abundance of a threatened or endangered species can deliver large benefits to the citizens of the Pacific Northwest.

British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer, Tesco, is updating its salmon standards with the intention of reducing the amount of wild-caught fish that is fed to salmon in aquaculture.

The public is invited to attend a series of committee meetings comprised of members of the Washington and Oregon fish and wildlife commissions to discuss the next steps in the review of salmon management on the Columbia River.

The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources announced Tuesday that they have added two additional days of red snapper fishing for private anglers.

Global outrage should focus on North American fishing and shipping industries as well

Federal officials will meet with fishermen and other members of the public in a series of meetings about possible changes to rules designed to protect vulnerable whales.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Biological oceanographer Sonia Batten experienced her lightbulb moment on the perils of too many salmon three years ago as she prepared a talk on the most important North Pacific seafood you'll never see on a plate—zooplankton.Zooplanktons nourish everything from juvenile salmon to seabirds to giant whales.

Kauai’s fishery managers are saying they are in full emergency-mode after a report of blackchin tilapia in the island’s nearshore ocean, a discovery that could have heavy implications.

Hundreds of thousands of fish turned up dead on the shores of southwest Florida last year due to red tide, affecting area businesses, tourism and more.

Facing swift currents, rising water levels and temperatures that could reach 37 Celcius (98.6 degrees Farenheight), dozens of Canadian engineers, biologists and technicians will spend the coming days moving boulders, scaling cliffs and transporting fish by helicopter in order to save salmon blocked by a landslide.

The program is meant to rehabilitate the shellfish population, which benefits Long Island as a whole.

This year’s historic flooding on the Mississippi River has decimated the coast’s fisheries.

This annual report highlights the work toward the goal of maximizing fishing opportunities while ensuring the sustainability of fisheries and fishing communities.

For the first time, the Atlantic mackerel — native to the Gulf of Maine — has been added to a federal list of overfished species.

Clouds hang low over the hills and a sporadic, warm rain slicks the docks at the Pacific Gateway Marina in Port Renfrew. It should be a good day for anglers around the community, which advertises sports fishing as its specialty, attracting British Columbians and tourists from around the world who want to catch salmon and halibut.

Japanese whaling fleets set sail Monday to hunt whales commercially for the first time in 31 years, a day after Tokyo formally left the International Whaling Commission.

The commercial fishing industry knows Alaska's only member of the US House of Representatives well, and they may not be saying goodbye to him anytime soon either.

Fisheries officers from Kosrae, Micronesia, recently toured the University of Hawaii at Hilo’s Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resources Center to learn more about aquaculture efforts in Hawaii.

The commercial fishing industry on the gulf coast has seen two major disasters in the last 15 years: Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. Now, some fear we’re on the cusp of a third. The culprit: historic flooding from the Mississippi River.

Baby lobsters are continuing to appear in high numbers off some parts of Canada while tailing off in New England, raising questions about what the valuable shellfish's population will look like in several years.

State Rep. Patrick Kearney is sponsoring three bills aimed at helping the state’s commercial fishing and lobster industries.

There are times in this politically contentious period that commonsense legislation still manages to move forward through the congressional process. The Young Fishermen’s Development Act looks like it will be one of these bills that will make it to the finish line.

Fecal matter, killer algae, too much water, not enough water—Florida's hydrological disaster is killing its legendary inshore fishing

Editor’s note: Jim McClintock, Ph.D., a professor of polar and marine biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is one of 25 nationwide scientists developing a definitive report on the effects of climate change and leads annual educational Climate Change Challenge cruises to Antarctica. This Op-Ed was originally written for Al.com.

We must deal with conflicts among ocean users while maintaining the health of the marine ecosystem.

Salmon farming is going through unprecedented change. Industry giant Mowi has offered to move away from "contentious" sea loch sites in north-west Scotland, in exchange for permission to replace the capacity in wilder waters.

Bethel-based KYUK reports water temperatures near the town broke into the low 70s earlier this week. That’s the highest river temperature ever recorded there.

Cuba enacted new fisheries legislation over the weekend that represents its first national change since 1996 and a major shift in current fisheries policy, helping to ensure coordinated management of marine resources between Cuba and other countries in the region, including the United States, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) reports.

Shrimpers say changes are a good sign but not enough

In 2015, a nesting record of 289 nests was set, followed by a new record in 2016 when 325 sea turtle nests were found on Seashore beaches.

Peak landings in Alaska's prolific Bristol Bay fishery were reached July 8 with some 2.55 million sockeye caught that day alone. But strong catches continue to come in, according to data from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) and bay's harvest now looks like it will see another 14m sockeye above the 26.1m harvest level that biologists first predicted.

Union members: Regs would hurt Maine lobstermen

New research identifies a perfect storm of warming waters and reduced food to blame in the collapse of the once lucrative jumbo squid fishery off Baja California.

When Gosman’s Dock, 14 acres of restaurants and shops at Montauk Harbor, went on the market for $52.5 million in 2015, it signaled the latest evolution in a "discovered" coastal town that used to be all about surfing, fishing and dive bars. But walk past the dumpster and ice machine onto the dock that stretches into the harbor, and you’re in another world.

The vigor with which the government has prosecuted its crackdown in domestic waters has certainly been unprecedented this year in China – it seems that every village government in the country has had a publicity event that involves pouring bags of fish seedlings into local waters.

Until recently, the growth of fishing was largely unregulated, leading to over-capacity of fishing boats, inter-state conflict and overfishing of some species.

“Rebuilding fish populations can increase revenue and jobs in coastal communities. The United States has some of the most stringent and effective legislation in the world mandating fisheries rebuilding. It has successfully rebuilt a total of 45 fish stocks resulting in more resilient ecosystems and greater economic opportunities for the fishing industry,” says Laughren.

The B.C. government says helicopters will be used to fly thousands of salmon to their spawning grounds upstream on the Fraser River to avoid a rock slide.

The US east coast state of New Jersey is undertaking a "full review of its lobster management" practices, including possible changes to the minimum size, following a continued drop in landings, the New Jersey Evening Post reports this week.

Oregon wildlife officials have proposed new regulations to avoid entangling whales in commercial fishing gear used by the state’s Dungeness crab industry.

Climate change may be depriving juvenile fish of their most crucial early food source by throwing off the synchronization of when microscopic plants known as phytoplankton bloom and when fish hatch, according to Princeton University researchers. The long-term effect on fish reproductivity could mean fewer fish available for human consumption.

A rally designed to draw attention to impending federal regulations that would strike a big blow to the local lobster fishing industry drew hundreds of fishermen, their families and supporters from up and down the coast to the Stonington Commercial Fish Pier.

The fish, critical to local economies and the food chain, were already under pressure from human infrastructure like dams. Climate change is turning up the heat.

Coastal First Nations is an alliance of Wuikinuxv Nation, Heiltsuk Nation, Kitasoo/Xai’xais Nation, Nuxalk Nation, Gitga’at Nation, Metlakatla Nation, Old Massett, Skidegate, and Council of the Haida Nation.

Between March and June of this year, blue crab harvests declined by approximately 25 percent of their previous five-year average. Wild shrimp harvests are down by approximately 40 percent for the months of May and June compared to previous years, with shrimp landings from 2012-2016 having an average annual worth of $17,766,000.

The European Commission has detected “significant weaknesses” in how Ireland controls fish catches within EU waters, highlighting issues around weighing and an “ineffective sanctioning system for offenses”.

Maine’s lobster industry has found itself in something of a climate change sweet spot.

A newly modified Deep Blue 1 -- China's largest offshore salmon farm -- has been towed back to sea following "regular maintenance", which includes the retrofitting of a large 35-meter tower.

Federal regulators are scheduling a series of public hearings on proposed new fishing-gear rules that aim to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale from potentially deadly entanglements.

Scientists studying this year’s “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico announced on Thursday, 1 August, that the size of this year’s zone is about 6,952 square miles.