Bluefin tuna have recovered strongly from overfishing. When can we consider them sustainable to eat ..read more

If you’ve ever eaten cod, flounder, hake, or hoki, you’ve likely eaten a fish caught via bottom trawl, a fishing method defined by towing a net along the sea floor. Bottom trawling is one of the most common forms of fishing but has been increasingly scrutinized for its destructive potential. “Potential” is the keyword: poorly-managed bottom trawl fisheries can have significant impacts on the plants and animals living on (and in) the seafloor, while well-managed ones are often sustainable by any metric. In this post, we compare good vs. bad trawl management and evaluate the four main ways to ..read more

A recently proposed method to evaluate biodiversity protection in U.S. marine waters is severely flawed and will damage U.S. interests if adopted by NOAA. Gignoux-Wolfsohn et al. 2024, published in One Earth, only considered U.S. waters sufficiently protected if they are no-take areas, despite strong evidence that other forms of protection may be equally or more effective. The net result of Gignoux-Wolfsohn et al. 2024 is a catalog of what biota are found in no-take marine protected areas (MPAs), not an effective framework for marine biodiversity protection. Frameworks are important tools in ..read more

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