We’ve teamed up with our Regional Office to launch a joint regional Instagram account! This popular social media platform will help us reach new and more diverse audiences to share who we are, what we do, who we work with, and more. We’re super excited and hope you’ll follow us to learn more about our work to support sustainable fish and seafood, protect and recover marine life, conserve habitats, and ensure healthy marine ecosystems and coastal communities.

We’ve partnered with several U.K. scientific and angling organizations to better understand blue shark stocks and migration. This international science initiative starts this month and their goal is to tag up to 2,000 mature blue sharks off the coast of the United Kingdom. This tagging effort will help shed light on how many stocks there are in the Atlantic since recent genetic studies suggest that there may be a Mediterranean stock in addition to the currently recognized north and south Atlantic stocks. The tagging data will also help identify mating and pupping migration corridors—corridors that may be shifting due to climate change. 

Our spring 2024 Bottom Trawl Survey has finished. Staff and crew aboard the NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow completed resource survey tows and temperature and salinity sampling at 97 percent of the planned 377 stations. They also completed plankton samples at 96 percent of the 116 planned stations. The survey got underway on March 6 and concluded on May 13. This year’s spring survey had three legs, with the third traveling more than 2,100 nautical miles through Georges Bank, Gulf of Maine, and Southern New England waters.

In partnership with state and federal agencies, the Penobscot Nation, environmental non-profit organizations, and universities, scientist Valerie Ouellet has designed a first-of-its-kind study to help scientists better understand the water temperatures in Maine’s Narraguagus River. This summer, she’ll launch a pilot project using specialized infrared camera equipment and a helicopter to map the river’s surface temperatures along the entire Narraguagus River. Her collaborative work not only benefits endangered Atlantic salmon, it also benefits other other migratory fish like river herring.

Hearing can be a very important sense in the ocean, especially in areas where vision is limited. Marine mammals and some fish and invertebrates produce and listen to sound to help them navigate, socialize, establish dominance, attract mates, avoid predators, and find food. Our scientists monitor and study marine animals using passive acoustic technologies like hydrophones—underwater microphones. This helps them identify when and where different species are found and how they might be using sound to survive in the ocean.

This month scientists from our Maine Field Station joined their Maine Department of Marine Resources partners to release nearly 200,000 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hatchery-raised juvenile Atlantic salmon into Piscataquis River and its tributaries. Atlantic salmon are endangered in the United States. Low marine survival, habitat destruction, dams, and climate change continue to contribute to low wild population levels. Historically, Atlantic salmon returned by the tens of thousands to most major rivers of New England. Now, less than 1,000 return to fewer than ten rivers in Maine. We work to recover endangered U.S. Atlantic salmon populations and to conserve other native and sea-run fish and the ecosystems where these fish live. Stocking Maine rivers and streams is one of many recovery and conservation efforts we’re involved in.

A small group of scientists from our science center joined about 140 participants from NOAA Fisheries, NOAA Research, National Ocean Service, and National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service along with several key external stakeholders for the inaugural Climate, Ecosystems, and Fisheries Initiative Summit in La Jolla, California. The initiative is a cross-NOAA effort to build the nationwide, operational ocean modeling and decision support system needed to reduce impacts, increase resilience, and help adapt to changing ocean conditions. The goal of the summit was to ensure effective development and implementation of the decision support system over the next 3 years with Inflation Reduction Act funds. Summit participants discussed build-out plans for specific components of the initiative, including ocean modeling, a data portal, and regional decision support teams. Discussions about user needs and prospective products were also discussed. The East Coast Climate Coordination Group discussed next steps to continue strengthening engagement with managers and decision makers.

When it comes to shark surveys, longevity matters. Fish biologist Michelle Passerotti was the chief scientist for the 2024 Coastal Shark Bottom Longline Survey. During the survey, she wrote a blog highlighting the survey, why it’s valuable for fisheries management, and that they’ve tagged and released more than 10,000 sharks over 35 years. She also shares a few notable catches during this year's survey like a sandbar shark caught nearly 24 years after it was first tagged! 

Passive acoustics is a useful tool for monitoring marine mammals. It's also increasingly important as offshore wind energy development progresses along the East Coast. In NOAA Fisheries’ latest podcast, Passive Acoustics Branch Chief Sofie Van Parijs talks about a study that used passive acoustics to record the sounds in the ocean off of southern New England—an area whales and other marine mammals use. She and her team monitor ambient sounds, fish and marine mammal activity, vessel occurrences, and other noises around offshore wind turbines. These data, along with other tools and technologies, help us prepare for and mitigate the impacts of offshore wind developments. 

The status of U.S. fisheries continues to improve. This message is often lost in the reporting of global overfishing. It’s important to recognize that U.S. fisheries are sustainable and well managed thanks to the Magnuson Stevens Fisheries Management and Conservation Act. 

In the most recent Status of the Stocks (pdf, 11 pages), NOAA Fisheries reported overfishing is occurring in 6 percent of U.S. stocks and that 18 percent of U.S. stocks are overfished. Compare this with the Status of the Stocks 2010 (NMFS 2011), which reported overfishing was occurring in 16 percent of U.S. stocks and that 23 percent of U.S. stocks were overfished. Additionally, the number of U.S. stocks for which overfishing status is known increased from 253 to 364—a 44 percent increase—and the number of U.S. stocks for which overfished status is known increased from 207 to 263, a 27 percent increase. 

The take-home message for me is the status of U.S. fisheries is very good and continues to improve. Additionally, the amount of scientific information available for managers is increasing to cover more U.S. fish stocks. 

There is still more work to do. We need to: 

• Focus on the sustainability of fishing communities through NOAA Fisheries’ Seafood Strategy (pdf, 8 pgs)
• Incorporate the effects of climate change into fisheries science and management through NOAA Fisheries’ Climate Science Strategy
• Continue to advance Ecosystem-Based Management to ensure the coexistence of multiple ocean uses including fishing, conservation, and offshore wind development through NOAA Fisheries’ Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management Policy and Roadmap

We can recognize the work we still need to do, while acknowledging our previous successes.