In 2024, NOAA Fisheries funded several projects to restore habitat in collaboration with recreational anglers through the National Fish Habitat Partnership. Partners in Hawaiʻi, Oregon, and South Carolina have made considerable progress on this work, actively engaging local communities—including anglers—to conserve fish habitat and support access to sustainable saltwater recreational fishing.

NOAA Fisheries scientists have discovered dozens of species over the years, including fish, sharks, whales, and invertebrates. Check out our collection of stories featuring these new kids on the block—how we discovered them, what makes them unique, and why they’re important.

Though gear innovations have reduced seabird entanglements in commercial fishing operations, black-footed albatrosses are still sometimes caught as bycatch in Alaska hook-and-line gear. New genetic tools allow scientists to identify bycaught albatrosses back to individual breeding colonies in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. This genetic stock identification provides a better picture of population-level impacts and opens up the possibility of targeted management.

A new scientific study suggests that the inside waters of northern Southeast Alaska may have provided a temporary buffer for juvenile salmon migrating into the Gulf of Alaska during recent warm water events.

Geoducks (pronounced “gooey-ducks”) are large filter-feeding clams native to Washington. Salish Seafoods—a tribally owned seafood company that also sells clams, oysters, and wild salmon—farms geoducks in a way that connects them to the cultural heritage of the local Squaxin Island Tribe. Geoducks provide economic, cultural, and environmental benefits to Puget Sound.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill significantly impacted commercial fish species in the Gulf of America (formerly the Gulf of Mexico). The Oceanic Fish Restoration Project, part of NOAA’s restoration efforts after the spill, partnered with the pelagic longline fishing community to help rebuild robust fisheries in the Gulf. Participating fishermen agreed to either pause longline fishing for a period or to test out, for free, alternative gear designed to reduce bycatch.

Following a NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement investigation, a Florida fisherman was convicted of poisoning dolphins with an unlawfully used pesticide and killing dolphins with a firearm. Earlier this month, he was sentenced to 30 days in prison and a fine of $51,000. Conflict between anglers and dolphins has been widely documented throughout the Southeast.

A NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement investigation resulted in a civil penalty for a grocery store in Virginia. Experts determined that two shipments of jarred tuna contained tuna from a Nicaraguan purse seiner. Nicaragua is one of seven nations that may not import certain non-fresh tuna products into the United States as they do not meet the dolphin-safe requirements under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.