Nathan Strout

The Center for Biological Diversity is planning to sue NOAA Fisheries following the revelation that nine killer whales have been killed during commercial fishing operations in the Bering Sea so far this year.

In October 2023, NOAA Fisheries announced that ten killer whales had been taken as bycatch by groundfish trawlers operating off the coast of Alaska. Only one of the whales survived the encounters.

The Center for Biological Diversity

The U.S. state of Mississippi is set to dole out USD 6.6 million (EUR 6.2 million) in financial relief to commercial fishermen, seafood dealers, aquaculture harvesters, and live-bait fisheries impacted by the 2019 Mississippi Bonnet Carré Spillway disaster.

The spillway diverts floodwater away from populated areas and into the Mississippi sound, but the surge of freshwater can be damaging to ocean life. Officials believe the fresh-water

The U.S. House’s Natural Resources Committee has voted to advance the Red Snapper Act, legislation that would limit NOAA Fisheries’ ability to close fisheries in the South Atlantic until a new red snapper survey is completed and incorporated into the stock assessment.

The legislation is the latest front in the battle between NOAA Fisheries and red snapper fishermen, the latter of whom argue that the regulators’ official stock

The U.S. Department of Commerce has determined fishery disasters occurred in several fisheries in Alaska, California, Louisiana, and Oregon, opening the door for those fisheries to receive federal financial assistance.

Most notably, the department determined a disaster took place across all Oregon chinook salmon fisheries from 2018 to 2020.

“This determination is incredible news for commercial fishers who have been waiting for years to

The U.S. House’s Natural Resources Committee has approved legislation that would finally bring America’s regulations into alignment with amendments to the South Pacific Tuna Treaty signed in 2016.

The 1987 treaty enables American tuna purse-seine vessels to fish in the exclusive economic zones of 16 Pacific Island nations and is key to the ongoing operations of America’s South Pacific tuna fleet. In 2016, the treaty signatories

A bill introduced in the U.S. Congress designed to encourage offshore aquaculture has drawn opposition from a coalition of fishermen opposed to the practice.

The SEAfood Act would authorize NOAA to create an offshore aquaculture assessment program, establish a grant program for aquaculture centers of excellence, and order two reports on aquaculture regulations. Don’t Cage Our Oceans, a group opposed to offshore finfish farming, came out

NOAA has awarded USD 16.8 million (EUR 15.9 million) in funding for 10 projects conducting collaborative research on Gulf of Mexico fisheries and the environment.

“The Gulf of Mexico is a vibrant ecosystem with diverse and productive habitats,” NOAA National Ocean Service Director Nicole LeBoeuf said. “These awards represent NOAA’s commitment to providing the best available science to the natural resource managers who

A NOAA Fisheries analysis found that North Atlantic right whales will go extinct unless vessel strikes and gear entanglements are “considerably reduced.”

The comprehensive population viability analysis was conducted by the NOAA Fisheries North Atlantic Right Whale Implementation Teams and considered three threats to the species: Entanglements in fishing gear, vessel strikes, and changes in prey abundance and availability. Looking at

NOAA scientists believe a 2018-2019 marine heatwave helped lead to a decline in snow crabs in Alaska, according to a study published in the periodical Science this month.

The snow crab population in the Eastern Bering Sea dropped by 50 percent from 2018 to 2019, and in 2021 a NOAA survey found the lowest number of snow crabs in the region since the survey began in 1975. Regulators responded by closing the fishery for the 2022–2023 season.

The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission (WFC) is considering extending a buffer zone prohibiting the commercial harvest of menhaden, also known as pogies, along the coast.

Louisiana introduced a quarter-mile buffer zone stretching across the entire Louisiana coast and a three-mile buffer between Holly Beach and Rutherford Beach this season. On 5 October, the WFC passed a notice of intent to amend the menhaden fishery rules, extending the