NOAA is launching an agency-wide effort to gather initial public input on Section 216(c) of the Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. This section directs NOAA to collect recommendations on how to make fisheries, including aquaculture, and protected resources more resilient to climate change. This includes changes in management and conservation measures and improvements in science, monitoring, and cooperative research. We invite your input on how best to achieve these objectives by April 2, 2021.

NOAA Fisheries has named Nancy Majower as our new Chief Information Officer. The Office of the CIO is responsible for website design and development, customer support services, information technology security management, infrastructure management, and software development across Fisheries. In her new role, Majower will align information management and technology resources with NOAA Fisheries’ mission and priorities.

The entangled whale was spotted south of Nantucket last October and re-spotted in poor body condition off Florida’s Treasure Coast in February.

A recent review of North Atlantic right whale health assessment techniques highlights activities to improve monitoring and protection for this endangered species.

Many marine fish and crab species spend their critical early development stages of life in shallow, coastal waters. Scientists at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Auke Bay Laboratories conducted a pilot study using environmental DNA (eDNA) techniques in 2020. They identified more than 40 species in nine sites around Juneau, Alaska.

Pacific sardines are a small but sometimes numerous fish closely intertwined with California’s fishing history. A new study linking climate change and the northern sardine stock fishery shows that they may shift north along the West Coast as the ocean warms.

A 3-year-old male Hawaiian monk seal, RK58, was recently transported from Kauaʻi to Hawaiʻi Island for medical treatment at The Marine Mammal Center’s monk seal hospital, Ke Kai Ola. RK58 was found in a weak, dehydrated condition with numerous infected puncture wounds consistent with dog bites.

The cold snap accompanying the recent historic winter storm in Texas stunned thousands of sea turtles. A massive statewide effort to save these threatened and endangered animals began in mid-February. The extreme weather caused power outages across the state, which also affected some of the sea turtle rehabilitation facilities. Nearly 11,000 sea turtles were recovered statewide and released into the warmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

The Great Lakes are among the nation’s most important natural, recreational, and economic resources. But they face many threats, including habitat degradation, pollution, overfishing, and the spread of invasive species. NOAA and our partners work to restore habitat in the Great Lakes region to support the fish, ecosystems, and communities that rely on them.