Nathan Strout is a Portland, Maine-based associate editor of SeafoodSource. Previously, Nathan covered the U.S. military’s space activities and emerging technologies at C4ISRNET and Defense News, where he won awards for his reporting on the U.S. Space Force’s missile warning capabilities. Nathan got his start in journalism writing about several communities in Midcoast Maine for a local daily paper, The Times Record.
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The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has announced USD 60 million (EUR 56 million) in government funding is now available to upgrade Columbia River Basin salmon hatcheries as part of an ongoing efforts to restore the population.
The money is part of the USD 2.6 billion (EUR 2.4 billion) in NOAA funding provided via the Inflation Reduction Act for coastal resilience, fisheries support, and tribal priorities. USD 390 million (EUR
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U.S. lawmakers have reintroduced legislation that would ban most single-use plastic products and pause plastic production as part of a growing movement to tackle plastic pollution.
“Plastic pollution isn’t just a problem for our oceans and climate – it's a massive environmental injustice,” U.S. Representative Jared Huffman said. “Communities are overburdened with plastics’ toxic air and water emissions and
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will investigate 6PPD-quinone, a chemical found in most tires that is toxic to salmon, under the Toxic Substances Control Act.
The action is in response to a petition brought by environmental group Earthjustice on behalf of the Yurok, Port Gamble S’Klallam, and Puyallup Tribes to ban the use of 6PPD in and for tires. While the EPA didn’t outright ban the chemicals, it has granted the
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Canadian commercial fishermen are hopeful ropeless gear could be a solution to address concerns of right whale entanglements in snow crab fisheries, and recent trials are showing that innovative technology can work along the East Coast of Canada.
New ropeless gear that eliminates the vertical lines that can entangle right whales is one possibility, and fishermen have had positive experiences with it in trials along the East Coast of Canada.
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U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has introduced legislation that would create a new grant program that would help the commercial fishing sector gain or preserve access to “working waterfront” areas.
“In Maine, our fisheries are one of our state's most important resources and are vital to our economy,” Collins said in remarks on the Senate floor. “A report of Maine's seafood sector as a whole, which included
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The U.S. Senate passed a package of appropriations bills in late October that included funding for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The legislation includes key provisions for the domestic seafood industry and brings Congress one step closer to providing funding for fiscal-year 2024 and avoiding a government shutdown. Congress agreed to a last-minute deal in September to avert a partial
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The Center for Biological Diversity is planning to sue NOAA Fisheries following the revelation that nine killer whales have been killed during commercial fishing operations in the Bering Sea so far this year.
In October 2023, NOAA Fisheries announced that ten killer whales had been taken as bycatch by groundfish trawlers operating off the coast of Alaska. Only one of the whales survived the encounters.
The Center for Biological Diversity
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The U.S. state of Mississippi is set to dole out USD 6.6 million (EUR 6.2 million) in financial relief to commercial fishermen, seafood dealers, aquaculture harvesters, and live-bait fisheries impacted by the 2019 Mississippi Bonnet Carré Spillway disaster.
The spillway diverts floodwater away from populated areas and into the Mississippi sound, but the surge of freshwater can be damaging to ocean life. Officials believe the fresh-water
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The U.S. House’s Natural Resources Committee has voted to advance the Red Snapper Act, legislation that would limit NOAA Fisheries’ ability to close fisheries in the South Atlantic until a new red snapper survey is completed and incorporated into the stock assessment.
The legislation is the latest front in the battle between NOAA Fisheries and red snapper fishermen, the latter of whom argue that the regulators’ official stock
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The U.S. Department of Commerce has determined fishery disasters occurred in several fisheries in Alaska, California, Louisiana, and Oregon, opening the door for those fisheries to receive federal financial assistance.
Most notably, the department determined a disaster took place across all Oregon chinook salmon fisheries from 2018 to 2020.
“This determination is incredible news for commercial fishers who have been waiting for years to
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