What kinds of short-term fuel cost relief mechanisms are available to get the fishing industry to the end of this fishing season without crippling losses? This blog reviews models from NOAA fishery resource disaster relief, recent USDA agricultural relief programs, the 2020 seafood trade relief program, and the early 2000’s trade adjustment assistance program.

In fishing ports worldwide, fishermen are feeling the pinch of high diesel prices. How can the fishing industry advocate for policy packages that marry (1) short-term price relief to get us through the year with (2) longer term investments in fishing vessel energy efficiency and potentially even exploration of non-petroleum based fuels, to buffer our industry from the price shocks of the future?

Bruce Steele is a Southern California urchin diver who has spent thousands of hours underwater observing patterns and anomalies in the California Current ecosystem. Here, he draws on that experience to describe in intimate detail what that underwater scene looks and feels like at the inception of what is predicted to be one of the most intense El Ninos in over a century.

This is an excerpt from an article published in National Fisherman.

A bill aimed at fostering research on marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) is working its way through Congress. If passed, it would authorize NOAA to designate ocean areas for mCDR testing and make grants to fund this testing. While most fishermen have not yet heard of mCDR (much less talked with their elected officials about it), a few are starting to pay attention—and to let their views be known.

The ReSCUE Oceans Act, would, if enacted, promote federally coordinated mCDR research through grants programs, interagency coordination, and the establishment of designated mCDR research areas with advisory panels to oversee them. What could the ReSCUE Oceans Act mean for fisheries? This blog post will provide some initial answers to this question. A deeper dive can be found in our 19-page policy analysis, “How ‘fishery sensitive’ is the ReSCUE Oceans Act?”

Today, I attended Day One of the Carbon to Sea Initiative’s Annual Convening in Halifax, Nova Scotia, along with a group of other fishermen and fisheries representatives from the US and Canada. I was given five minutes at the podium to talk about Commercial Fishermen as Partners in Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) Field Research. These are my remarks.

Ashley McKinnon is a graduating senior at Brown University who completed her thesis research in collaboration with the Fishery Friendly Climate Action Campaign, focused on exploring lessons learned through fishing community engagement in the LOC-NESS ocean alkalinity enhancement field trial completed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 2025. Listen to a podcast interview with Ashley and read her thesis!

Funding and investment decisions play a major role in shaping any innovation, and mCDR is no exception. But it’s not always clear to communities that stand to be affected by an innovation who is behind those funding decisions or what criteria they’re using to make them. In this blog, inspired by discussion during our webinar on Defining "Fishery Sensitive" Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal, Sarah Schumann explores the philanthopic funding landscape for mCDR and how fishing communities can have a say.

This is an excerpt from an article published in National Fisherman. With the launch of a set of guidance memos last week, the fishing industry established its leadership in a set of novel ocean-based climate interventions that could someday become one of the largest human activities in the ocean: marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR).

At the end of February, the two of us made a trip to Glasgow, Scotland to attend the Ocean Sciences Meeting. This event, which happens every two years, bills itself as “the flagship conference for the ocean sciences and the larger ocean-connected community.” The conference’s offerings included every oceanography-related topic imaginable, but we were there with a focus: to learn everything we could about marine carbon dioxide removal.

In March and April 2025, 34 commercial fishermen and fisheries representatives met online for a series of roundtable discussions hosted through the Fishery Friendly Climate Action Campaign to discuss an emerging set of climate solutions collectively called marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR). Today we announce the publication of a synthesis of those conversations.

This is an excerpt from an article published in National Fisherman. The U.S.’s first ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) field trial in federal waters took place on Aug. 13, with the dispersal of 16,500 gallons of sodium hydroxide into the Gulf of Maine. Led by a team of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) scientists, this milestone represents the culmination of three years of planning, which for the last year has included a steady stream of feedback (including some unvarnished pushback) from the fishing industry.