July is Habitat Month at NOAA Fisheries. Habitat Month is an annual campaign to celebrate the importance of healthy habitat and their benefits. This year, we are focusing on reconnecting with habitat. Habitat connectivity, such as opening up river habitat and reconnecting tidal wetlands, is an important part of the work we do.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature recently changed its Red List Category for North Atlantic right whales from Endangered to Critically Endangered. The criteria used to evaluate this change are outlined in the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria, Section V. Within the United States, North Atlantic right whales are already in the highest risk category possible under both the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act (Strategic and Depleted) and U.S. Endangered Species Act (Endangered).

NOAA Fisheries scientists are developing ways to use near-infrared spectroscopy analysis of otoliths (fish ear bones) to more quickly provide accurate information for sustainable fisheries management. This technology has already proven its value as a time- and cost-effective method to determine the age of fish.

A team of scientists at NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center is demonstrating that it is possible to accomplish a lot while teleworking. Their job is to study and estimate fish age, growth, and reproduction for a number of commercially important fish species from the Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska, and Aleutian Islands.

For Habitat Month we spoke to Mark Zimmermann, fisheries biologist, Groundfish Assessment Program. Mark spends much of his time studying marine habitats in Alaska.

In 2007, Ken Phippen watched the removal of Savage Rapids Dam get underway on Oregon’s Rogue River. It reopened more than 150 miles of habitat to protected salmon and steelhead—a monumental achievement for salmon conservation that many hoped would be only the first of several dams to be removed.

This is National Ocean Month and a good time to enjoy the sustainably harvested seafood the ocean provides. Aquaculture—also known as fish and shellfish farming—increases that harvest. NOAA Fisheries has long supported aquaculture, which generates hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and thousands of jobs on the West Coast.

Deron Verbeck is one of the more prolific taggers in the Hawaiʻi Community Tagging Program. As a professional wildlife photographer, he has provided more than a decade’s worth of oceanic whitetip photos to the program

Learn more about Mel Landry's habitat conservation work as a Marine Habitat Resource Specialist. Mel Landry is a Marine Habitat Resource Specialist. He has worked for NOAA for 9 years and currently works in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

NOAA Fisheries is recommending nearly $20 million in Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding. It will support new and existing multiyear partnerships to implement seven projects to restore shorelines, fish passage, and wetlands. These efforts will restore habitat and improve resilience in degraded Great Lakes ecosystems.

American shad are lucky to have Carl Alderson as their steadfast champion. For the past decade, Carl has been restoring habitat for them and other migrating fish in the northeastern United States.