For better or worse, litigation is a significant part of law-making in the U.S. Frivolous lawsuits are a staple of American culture, and seafood has recently seen an uptick. NGOs and activists filing lawsuits against industry interests based on sustainability claims are becoming more common. Some lawsuits are unfairly damaging the reputation of eco-certification authorities like the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and confusing consumers. But fishing interests have recently punched back with lawsuits of their own. Lobster fishers in Massachusetts and Maine sued the Monterrey Bay Aquarium’s ..read more

A 2018 National Marine Fisheries Service survey estimated the eastern Bering Sea snow crab population at eleven billion crabs, the highest amount ever recorded. Three years later, the population crashed by more than 90%, closing the fishery for the first time in its history (it remains closed).     Where did all the snow crab go? What caused their disappearance? Did they move elsewhere? Did they die? Alaska fishery management is regarded as the best in the world—was this management error? Two years ago, we published an interview with Cody Szuwalski, a researcher at NOAA and le ..read more

Earlier this year, Free et al. published, “Static management presents a simple solution to a dynamic fishery and conservation challenge.” They modeled and compared the overall effectiveness of various management solutions designed to reduce whale entanglements in trap fisheries. The authors specifically looked at the California Dungeness crab fishery and concluded that sometimes, the simplest solution is still the most effective. Free et al. recommended reducing the overall number of pots in the water, above any other management strategy. We covered whale entanglements in trap fisheries nume ..read more

Fish aggregating devices (FADs) are big floating rafts in the middle of the ocean used to concentrate fish in one location to make them easier to catch. Some FADs are moored close to shore, but most are drifting in the open ocean targeting pelagic species like tuna, swordfish, and mahi mahi. Purse seine vessels affix FADs with electronic beacons so the vessel can find them, and many have acoustic fish detectors that relay via satellite how many fish are aggregated under the FAD. FADs increase fishing efficiency, keeping costs and carbon footprint lower than non-FAD fishing, but have potentia ..read more

Last month, Oceana made waves across the pond with Taking Stock: The State of UK Fish Populations 2023, a report that painted a negative picture of fishing in UK waters. The report and press release excluded important context that misled mainstream media into echoing the doom and gloom narrative. The tagline of the press release was, “Half of the UK’s key fish populations are overfished or in a critical state,” which requires some unpacking. Two main variables determine fishery sustainability: the stock size or biomass (B) and the rate of fishing (F). Fishery managers aim for a population s ..read more

Today, Nature published its third critique of Sala et al. 2021, the most covered ocean science paper of the past decade. The ‘official’ publication of Ovando et al. 2023 puts a final nail in the coffin of this case of poor science. Ovando et al. 2023 criticizes the food provisioning model first proposed in Cabral et al. 2020—a since-retracted paper by the same group of authors that preceded Sala et al. 2021. Sala et al. 2021 used 3 models—all 3 haven’t held up to close examination Sala et al. 2021 recommended more marine protected areas (MPAs) using three different computer models to say t ..read more

Ropeless, also called “on-demand” fishing gear aims to reduce vertical lines in the water column for trap fisheries like lobster. These innovations have become a key component of ongoing fishery management efforts to minimize interactions with whales. We have reported on those interactions before, but we have not covered the gear innovations that may provide hope for critically endangered North Atlantic right whales while allowing fixed-gear fishermen and women to stay on the water. In this post, we will review the problems that ropeless fishing gear may solve, summarize the latest tech ..read more

Seafood produced by bottom trawling can have a lower environmental impact than chicken or pork, according to a new review paper published yesterday. Writing in the ICES Journal of Marine Science, Hilborn et al. 2023 argues that banning bottom trawling would increase negative environmental impacts by increasing terrestrial protein production. Hilborn et al. 2023, reviewed dozens of papers about bottom trawling impact, including stock sustainability, bycatch, ecosystem impact, and carbon footprint. Though bottom trawling is generally the most impactful kind of fishing, well-managed bottom traw ..read more

Remember the headlines that claimed bottom trawling released as much carbon as all of air travel? We thought those claims were probably bogus when first reported, but Hiddink et al. 2023, a response paper published May 2023, now makes those claims Officially Bogus. The original headlines came from Sala et al. 2021, a paper published in Nature that garnered more media coverage than any marine science paper of the past decade. We’ve covered the science and follow-ups over the last few years, but here’s a quick summary: Sala et al. 2021 advocated for increasing the number of marine protected ar ..read more

A new study produced by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the University of Washington (UW) provides the first-ever nationwide assessment of non-federally managed fisheries in the United States. United States marine fisheries annually support over 1.8 million jobs, generate $255B in sales, and contribute $117B to the GDP, representing enormous socioeconomic and cultural value nationwide. The scale and significance of fisheries also underpins the critical importance of prioritizing fisheries science and management to ensure that the marine resources we enjoy today will stay healthy for futu ..read more