Recent Trends Impacting U.S. Fisheries and American Seafood

Maintaining a healthy ocean includes ensuring that fisheries are sustainable and fish stocks are abundant. If you like to eat seafood, go fishing or visit the coast, then how United States fisheries are managed affects you. We see a number of troubling signs that our fishery management system is unraveling at the seams. Here are five concerns we have about the future of American seafood.

1. Funding and staffing cuts to NOAA and NOAA Fisheries threaten sustainable fisheries

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its National Marine Fisheries Service, often called NOAA Fisheries, are the key federal agencies responsible for the stewardship of the nation’s ocean resources and their habitats. This includes managing fisheries and ensuring a safe and sustainable seafood supply.

Unfortunately, NOAA and NOAA Fisheries are facing drastic funding cuts in budget proposals from the administration and Congress. In addition, the agency has lost substantial staff capacity. Between firings, resignations and retirements, NOAA has lost more than 2,000 staff, including nearly 600from NOAA Fisheries.

Many of the staff at NOAA Fisheries come from regional offices and fisheries science centers around the country that are now struggling to fulfill their important mission. For instance, the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, which produces critical science to inform management of some of the biggest and most valuable fisheries in the country, has lost half of its staff. The staff lost at NOAA Fisheries were experts—scientists, managers and others who ran surveys, assessed how fish stocks were doing and analyzed the impacts of different management decisions. They were often closely connected to local fishing communities and had irreplaceable knowledge and experience. Without these staff, core fishery management functions are grinding to a halt. Now Ocean Conservancy is calling on Congress and the administration to ensure NOAA is fully funded and staffed.

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2. Delays in issuing regulations lead to overfishing, reduced accountability and uncertainty for fishermen

In the last several months, we’ve seen regulatory freezes, lags in contract execution and delays in opening and closing fishing seasons. A good example of this happened in September 2025 when NOAA Fisheries failed to close the recreational fishery for greater amberjack. The season for private anglers should not have been open this year since, in 2024, the recreational fishery caught more than double its quota. However, NOAA Fisheries failed to issue the regulations needed to close the fishery on time, and a stock that has been overfished for decades was subject to unsustainable fishing for nearly a month.

At the end of the day, these delays and failures to act are bad for everyone. They mean less predictability for fishermen, who look for certainty and stability to help plan their fishing. They risk harming fish stocks, especially when they allow fishing above sustainable limits. Delaying contracts and firing employees hurts partnerships and collaborations that are key to successful management.

3. Annual national snapshots of the status of U.S. fish stocks have disappeared

Typically, NOAA Fisheries releases its “Status of Stocks” report to Congress each spring. Required by law, this report gives a snapshot of how well U.S. fish stocks are doing overall and provides details on how many stocks are experiencing overfishing and/or are at low populations and need to be rebuilt. This year, the Status of Stocks report for 2024 was not released. While this might seem minor, the Status of Stocks is an important part of having a transparent and accountable fishery management system. Without the Status of Stocks, decisionmakers and the public can’t fully understand whether NOAA Fisheries and its partners are meeting their objective of conserving and managing fish stocks for the greatest overall benefit of the nation.

4. A deregulatory agenda is undermining U.S. seafood competitiveness

The U.S. fishery management system is often considered a model for the rest of the world. The system is far from perfect but, using a strong regulatory framework, it has been largely successful at keeping fish stocks sustainable. Regulations help to ensure management is fair and efficient, incorporates the best scientific information available and balances the need for fishing opportunity now and the need to conserve stocks and marine ecosystems for the long term. Signed earlier this year, an Executive Order on Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness is clearing the way for rapid deregulation of fisheries. The options currently on the table as part of this deregulation are likely to weaken management and cause unintended impacts on other fisheries and the ecosystem. For example, regulations that reduce bycatch often help protect the interests of fisheries whose catch would otherwise be incidentally caught and wasted by another fishery, such as Gulf red snapper caught as bycatch in the shrimp fishery. Weakening those regulations would inadvertently harm one fishery by reducing restrictions on another. In the long run, the best way to have a safe and stable seafood supply in the U.S. is to make sure that we manage fish stocks for sustainability and invest in science and management capacity.

5. Managers are taking steps to stop managing fish stocks altogether

Across several regions of the U.S., fishery managers are considering moving fish stocks out of the very federal management system that has made the U.S. a model around the world. In some cases, fish stocks that currently receive active management would be demoted to “ecosystem-component” species that receive little science and management attention, even though they are still caught in fisheries. In other cases, stocks would be moved to management by states, which often have much lower capacity, less funding and fewer requirements. Even worse, some stocks are being removed from management entirely, meaning there will be no management for them in federal waters and little, if any, use of science or monitoring. These stocks are being swept under the rug, and there are few pathways to bring them back into active federal management in the future.

No matter where you live, we all have a connection to the ocean. Together, we can ensure U.S. seafood is safe, sustainable and available for decades to come. Speaking up for NOAA is a crucial way we can help maintain healthy fish stocks and promote thriving ocean ecosystems. Let Congress know you support NOAA and a hopeful future of fish in America.

The post Recent Trends Impacting U.S. Fisheries and American Seafood appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

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What’s Haunting Our Ocean?

When autumn comes around, cue the leaves changing color, pumpkin spice, candies, apple picking and my favorite part of all: the spooky traditions of Halloween. From haunted houses to scary movies, one of the most fun parts of Halloween is getting a little scared.

But have you ever wondered, what is spooking sea life? Believe it or not, one of the scariest and deadliest things to marine life is plastic pollution. But unlike the ghosts, ghouls and monsters haunting our imaginations, plastic pollution is a very real and deadly threat to the animals that rely on a healthy ocean.

Here are a few examples of the types of plastic pollution haunting our ocean:

Ghost Gear

Fishing gear is designed to catch fish, and if lost in the ocean, it continues to catch and kill marine life indefinitely, hence the name “ghost gear” or “ghost fishing”—as if a ghost is still fishing. Ghost gear is the single deadliest form of plastic pollution to marine life. A study of 870 ghost nets recovered from the Puget Sound in Washington state found that they contained more than 32,000 marine animals, including more than 1,000 fish, 500 seabirds and 20 marine mammals.

Fortunately, Ocean Conservancy leads the Global Ghost Gear Initiative^® (GGGI), which is the largest alliance dedicated to tackling ghost gear on a global scale. Our GGGI works with everyone from small-scale fishers to government leaders to remove lost fishing gear from the ocean and promote ways to prevent gear from being lost in the first place.

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Balloons

To most people, the scariest part of the famous horror movie “It” is the clown, but to a seabird, the red balloon he holds is even more terrifying. According to a 2019 study, balloons are the deadliest type of plastic to seabirds. Balloons are 32 times more likely to kill seabirds than hard plastics and even a small shred of a popped balloon can kill a single bird.

Over the last 40 years, volunteers with Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup^® (ICC) have picked up more than 1.8 million balloons littering coastlines worldwide. That’s why Ocean Conservancy has advocated for laws to ban the intentional release of balloons, including the recent balloon release ban that passed in Florida in 2024.

Plastic bags

Who thought the spookiest part of trick-or-treating could be the plastic bag holding the candy? Well, to a sea turtle, it would be. Sea turtles have been known to eat plastic bags, which they mistake for jellyfish, one of their favorite foods. Americans are estimated to use 100 billion plastic grocery bags each year. That means that if it took you two minutes to read this far into the blog, there have been 400,000 plastic bags used in the United States alone.

The solution to prevent plastic bag pollution is simple: We need to use fewer plastic bags in the first place. In June 2025, a peer-reviewed study showed that plastic bag bans lead to a 25% to 47% reduction of plastic bags in the environment. So, to help protect sea turtles from more plastic bags lurking in their homes, remember to use a reusable bag instead of a plastic one, whether trick-or-treating or at the grocery store.

Microplastics

In horror movies such as “The Invisible Man” and “Blair Witch Project,” sometimes the most terrifying threats are those that you don’t readily see. Microplastics, defined as pieces of plastic smaller than 5 millimeters (roughly the size of the eraser on a pencil) are a nearly invisible threat lurking in the ocean. Research shows that 60% of fish studied globally contained microplastics. Microplastics are also ingested by seabirds and mammals. Blue whales—the largest living marine animal—consume up to 10 million pieces of microplastics per day. When animals eat microplastics, studies show they can have negative health outcomes, including reduced food consumption, impaired growth and damage to their DNA.

Currently, Ocean Conservancy is advocating to reduce microplastic pollution at the local, federal and international levels, from the U.N. Plastics Treaty to laws at the state level to require filters on washing machines—a major source of microplastic pollution.

How you can help

While ocean plastic pollution can be scary, there are many ways to take action to prevent it. For example, you can opt for reusable cups or bags and buy in bulk to use less plastic. You can also join or host a cleanup at a local park or beach using Ocean Conservancy’s app Clean Swell^® where you can log what you find and help contribute to citizen science. And finally, join Ocean Conservancy in calling on Congress to tackle plastic pollution during spooky season and beyond—adding your name takes less than two minutes. The ocean and all its creatures are counting on you.

The post What’s Haunting Our Ocean? appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

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Forecasting a Future for South Atlantic Red Snapper

Fishermen and the latest fishery stock assessment agree: There are a lot of red snapper in the South Atlantic. Yet, promising numbers alone do not tell the whole story of red snapper off the U.S. East Coast.

South Atlantic red snapper is a favorite among offshore anglers, but it’s been in a rebuilding plan for almost two decades. The first stock assessment in 2008 determined the red snapper stock was depleted due to overfishing. As a result, managers have had to keep catch limits low and fishing seasons short, and in some years, fishing was prohibited altogether.

But now, there are many small and very young red snapper that have a chance to rebuild this stock so that it better supports coastal communities. These little fish are almost entirely under 10 years old, a concern for a fish that can live up to 50 years. While these younger fish are growing in numbers, the stock is still vulnerable without a healthy population of older fish. That’s because, unlike with humans, older, larger fish are more reproductively successful. If you want a lot of fish to support a fishery, you need a good number of older fish.

The South Atlantic red snapper stock has seen booms of young fish in the past, but they never made it to their later years—why? One big reason is the high number of these fish are caught and discarded at sea by the recreational fishing sector. The number of red snapper caught and released by recreational fishermen in the South Atlantic is estimated to be between approximately 1 million to 4 million fish annually, and almost a quarter of these fish die after release. This number is more than 10 times greater than the sustainable limit of fish that can be caught and kept in the fishery.

There is hope that these young red snapper, if allowed to age, could help successfully rebuild the fishery. That’s the best path towards a future where a healthy stock can support more fishing.

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New approaches and new challenges on the horizon

There are two efforts on the horizon for South Atlantic red snapper that aim to incorporate new science and management approaches with the goal of improving fishing opportunities for the South Atlantic. Both present some real opportunities to improve our management of this stock, but they come with significant risks if not implemented well.

State management of South Atlantic red snapper

The first effort is that policy makers are considering shifting the responsibility of sustainably managing recreational catch of red snapper to a state management system. This would move management away from the U.S.’s current unified federal system administered by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council over to individual state management by Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

State management has been tested on recreational fishing for Gulf red snapper for nearly a decade, and managers are still developing methods to combine their data and management systems to ensure catch is sustainable. Tracking red snapper landings in the Gulf against catch limits remains nearly impossible, and there are signs the stock there is in decline. Changing to a new state management system in the South Atlantic would mean those states would have to support extensive and costly management and data collection systems that manage the fishery sustainably and address the issue of high recreational discards.

South Atlantic Red Snapper Research Program

The second effort is a new research program, the South Atlantic Red Snapper Research Program, that seeks to answer this question: “How many red snapper are there?” This study combines several scientific survey approaches, including novel methods using fish genetics, to estimate the abundance of red snapper in the region. The preliminary report (released last week) provides two estimates of population size and cautions that the results should not be misinterpreted prior to peer review and integration with other available data sets and assessments.

The science that underlies fishery management involves many interconnected variables, which means that changing one of those factors requires scientists to assess the changes to the whole system. Our understanding from a population count is connected to our estimates of how well we think the fish are reproducing and how many are dying. It will be important for managers to not overinterpret the results and change catch levels before the study has been peer-reviewed, revised and added into the stock assessment process.

The South Atlantic red snapper fishery–abundant in potential, with the right protections

Scientists, fishermen and managers have a chance to protect a generation of young fish that are just entering into their productive years. Although there are many complexities in charting a way forward for red snapper, a simple choice will decide their future.

If allowed to mature, these fish could usher in a golden era of red snapper fishing in the South Atlantic. But raising catch limits too high, or losing our ability to monitor catch, will wipe out these young fish and cause our best chance in years for a huge, healthy fishery to slip away for today’s fishermen and for future generations.

Ocean Conservancy is working collaboratively with many partners to keep the red snapper stock sustainable. Our policy experts and scientists attend fishery management council meetings, share comment letters, track red snapper landings and monitor rebuilding progress. We’re not working only for red snapper—we’re also working for a healthy ocean and thriving planet, forever and for everyone. Please make a gift to Ocean Conservancy today and make a difference for the future of our ocean.

The post Forecasting a Future for South Atlantic Red Snapper appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

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What is a DAF and How Can it Support the Ocean?

A person’s legacy is often defined by the people they’ve touched and the causes they’ve supported throughout their lives. A Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) provides an opportunity to be a part of the solutions driving a healthier ocean and a thriving planet for future generations.

You can create lasting impact for our ocean and those you care about by establishing and giving from a DAF today. This investment account is designed to make charitable giving an efficient and fiscally-savvy choice for donors. Making a DAF gift is easy and helps Ocean Conservancy continue to unite science, people and policy to inspire global action for our ocean.

What is a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF)?

A Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) is an investment account created specifically for individuals to make charitable donations.

Through DAFs, you can contribute money, stocks or other assets and, depending on your DAF provider, you may receive an immediate tax deduction.* Your funds are held with the possibility of growth over time and when you are ready to donate, you can specify an organization, like Ocean Conservancy, to support.

What is DAF Day?

DAF Day is October 9 and was created to showcase the benefits and impact of DAF-giving for charitable organizations and for donors. Now giving from your DAF is easier than ever with options to streamline your giving and inspire others to take action for causes that matter most to them, like protecting our ocean, forever and for everyone.

How can a DAF help support our ocean?

Every second breath we take is made possible by the ocean and life on Earth would be unrecognizable without it. Ocean Conservancy supports evidence-based solutions that protect marine wildlife and clear out toxic plastic pollution.

No matter how close or how far you live from the coast, the ocean touches your life through weather, recreation, nutrition and more. Using your DAF to support the ocean is one way you can share your love for this vital aspect of our world and safeguard it for generations to come. Giving a DAF donation can help shape a healthier ocean. When you select Ocean Conservancy for your DAF, you are supporting bold action for a thriving ocean. The research, advocacy and actions that can protect ocean biodiversity and address rising ocean temperatures.

We all have a stake in the health of our ocean, and now there are more options to pledge your support with DAF. Consider taking time on October 9 to give a gift from your DAF to support the work of Ocean Conservancy and a brighter future for the ocean we share.

Together, we can leave the ocean cleaner and healthier for tomorrow.

If you don’t have a DAF, there are other great ways to support ocean protection, and every gift helps keep our ocean healthy and thriving.

• Donate stocks of appreciated securities: Give in a tax-smart way and maximize your impact.
• Make a gift from your IRA (if 70 ½ or older): Satisfy your annual required minimum distribution with a gift for the ocean.
• Include Ocean Conservancy in your estate plans: Leave a lasting legacy for the ocean.
• Looking for something else? See all ways to give here.

*Please consult your financial or tax advisor about tax benefits associated with your gift.

The post What is a DAF and How Can it Support the Ocean? appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

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40 Years of Cleaner Beaches Powered by People and Community

Earlier this summer, my daughter and I walked along the shores of Sitka, Alaska, to pick up plastic pollution with 35 other volunteers. We scanned the beach together with a single goal: to make a place we care about cleaner and safer for people and marine life. 

Partners and community members representing all facets of Sitka took time away from their days to clear plastic waste and other trash from this incredible shoreline. I’m grateful I could share this vibrant town and its rich cultural heritage with my family for the 40th International Coastal Cleanup® (ICC).

Community connections and a legacy of service are at the heart of each cleanup. Just as my father sparked my love of marine life, Kathy O’Hara, ICC co-founder, was inspired by her grandfather’s love of the ocean to start the yearly beach cleanup along the Texas Gulf Coast that would eventually become the ICC. 

Tracing the impact of cleanups around the world

From the very beginning, founders Kathy O’Hara and Linda Maraniss knew data was an important part of the process. Over the last 40 years, we’ve evolved from paper cards to Clean Swell®, an app that connects users around the world to Ocean Conservancy’s global marine debris database.

The ICC has blossomed from a handful of volunteers in a few locations to nearly 19 million volunteers around the world conducting cleanups year-round. 

Over the years, I’ve fielded a familiar question: Does cleaning our beaches really make a difference? The answer is a resounding yes. Yet, there are times that test our resolve, like proposed cuts to vital research funding for fisheries and rollbacks on crucial ocean protection laws. In those moments, I remember that not only are we making our local shoreline safer, healthier and more beautiful—we’re also collecting vital data that we publish every year in one of the longest running continuous datasets of ocean debris available. This data helps us identify—and solve—the biggest challenges facing our ocean. 

Thanks to the dedicated Coordinator Network, millions of volunteers and Ocean Conservancy staff, we are able to publish an annual ICC report that is changing mindsets and legislation in favor of cleaner coasts.

Our ICC collection research report, “What The Foam?!”, provided fuel for the introduction of the Farewell to Foam Act, which would phase out single-use plastic foam such as food containers, coolers, and packing peanuts nationwide.

Since 1986, volunteers have counted, collected and removed more than 400 million pounds of plastics and other debris from our coastlines and waterways through the ICC. 

We hope that one day, cleanups will no longer be necessary, but today, we know we are making an immediate difference for our ocean. By finding and removing plastics, protecting rare species like the pocket shark found in the Gulf of Mexico and threatened coastal species like the  Florida manatee, Ocean Conservancy is taking an all-hands-on-deck approach to our work.

Small actions can make big ripples

Another aspect of the ICC that keeps me inspired is the stories and connections made between the dedicated Coordinators who manage cleanups throughout the year.

One story that struck a chord with me was about a cleanup where volunteers collected hundreds of cigarette butts. The cleanup coordinator brought those buckets and buckets of cigarette waste to the local city hall—and as a result the city voted to ban smoking on that beach, significantly reducing the number of cigarettes polluting the shoreline. 

A day spent cleaning on the coast ripples out far beyond the beach and the community where the event takes place. I can say with confidence that every piece of plastic, rubber and metal removed helps to build physical evidence, research and public support with measurable benefits for our ocean.

Our work would not be possible without you

I am full of gratitude for each and every person who has cleaned up a local shoreline, waterway or city street; spread the word about a cleanup or recorded their impact in Clean Swell®. 

Whether you attended your first cleanup this year, volunteered for the last 40 or decided to start your own local cleanup, your contribution is deeply appreciated by all of us at Ocean Conservancy. 

We invite you to join a cleanup near you or start one of your own. There are so many ways to support our ocean, and whatever way you choose, we hope you will join us for the next 40 years of impact. 

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