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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether the government can require commercial fishermen to help fund a program monitoring herring catches off New England's coast in a case that could undercut the regulatory power of federal agencies.

Whole Foods angered elected officials by announcing its plans to cease buying Maine lobsters after climate change groups downgraded the North Atlantic fishing area’s sustainability rating. Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills and its Congressional delegation sent a note to Whole Foods expressing their “disappointment” in the grocery store giant’s decision to stop buying Maine lobsters, according to the official letter Nov. 22. Whole Foods made the decision after the organizations (Marine Stewardship Council and Seafood Watch) it uses to determine its sustainability ratings downgraded Maine lobster to “the worst rating,” reported The New York Times. “We are disappointed by Whole...

NEW YORK (CNN) – A mysterious red glow above the Pacific Ocean has internet sleuths fishing for answers. From a cockpit 31,000 feet over the ocean, pilot Dustin Maggard saw and photographed a mysterious red glow below. Watch the video report below.

In spite of pleas from Sen. Lisa Murkowski and others, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Coast Guard still say that fishing personnel must wear masks aboard boats.For many Alaska fishermen, having a mask over their nose and mouth during fishing operations is akin to being waterboarded, as wet, slimy masks are difficult to breathe through, create visual barriers, and prevent communication.[CUT]National Fisherman provided its readers with a list of activities in which wearing a mask would create a safety hazard for onboard workers:On-deck tasks which necessitate removing a mask to perform duties due to safety hazards...

An increasing number of fishing boats from North Korea has been appearing off Japan – some in distress, some abandoned and some with dead bodies on board – raising fears about infiltration by spies as tension with North Korea surges.

A coalition of commercial fishing groups filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to challenge the creation of a national monument off the coast of New England. President Barack Obama created the monument in September using executive authority under the Antiquities Act. The monument is called the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, and it is made up of nearly 5,000 square miles of underwater canyons and mountains. The creation of the monument closed the area to most commercial fishing and has been opposed by fishing groups for months. A coalition of the groups filed their lawsuit Tuesday in federal court....

A Gazan fisherman arrested by Israeli security services has revealed how Hamas regularly uses fishermen to smuggle weapons and other military equipment into Gaza. The Shin Bet security service (Israel Security Agency), Israeli navy and Israel Police released for publication Monday afternoon the arrest of 39-year-old fisherman Salim Jamal Hasan Na’aman back in April. Na’aman, a resident of the Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, was initially detained by Israeli naval forces after straying beyond the zone permitted for fishing, as part of the Israeli military’s blockade aimed at containing the Hamas terrorist group. Under Shin Bet interrogation, the...

Oregon Inlet is closed to vessels drawing more than 2 feet, essentially shutting down the charter fishing fleet with four days left in the bluefin tuna season and Easter week approaching. Petty Officer Kathryn Bruner with the Coast Guard in Wilmington said Saturday that the closing was prompted by the latest U.S. Army Corps of Engineers survey, which showed that search-and-rescue vessels can no longer get out of the inlet. Emergencies will be handled by helicopters out of the Coast Guard’s air station in Elizabeth City, she said. A buffer zone of 100 yards on either side of the Bonner...

Federal regulators slapped a six-month ban on most cod fishing off New England this week and are threatening to cut next year’s catch by up to 75 percent, in a move some say will destroy the livelihoods of fishermen across the region. ... NOAA announced several measures, including the ban which expands no-fishing zones, on Monday. But fishermen whose livelihoods rely on catching cod, as well as the coastal communities that depend on money coming in from that industry, worry the new regulations will devastate them.

Obama has a plan to ruin the seafood supply chain with regulations and it’s gonna cost ya. Secretary of State John Kerry has found a new cause now that he’s fresh off his mid-East failures. He is directing federal agencies to work on developing a program to combat seafood fraud upon orders from the imperial president. This follows up Mr. Obama’s proclamation that he would implement his climate change agenda using a pen and a phone. It also follows Mr. Obama’s seizure of a huge swath of the Pacific Ocean for the government, making it inaccessible for drilling and fishing....

U.S. law enforcement agencies are conducting thousands of investigations using a law that makes violating state wildlife statutes a federal crime, often ensnaring hunters and fishermen for seemingly minor infractions. Some even suffer stiff federal prison sentences. Special agents and wildlife inspectors for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conduct about 2,500 investigative cases a year of violations of the Lacey Act, a 1900 law meant to combat illegal trafficking of wildlife. ... Rock star Ted Nugent, an avid hunter and fisherman .. "Good, decent families' lives are being turned upside down and ruined by out-of-control jackboot game agencies, particularly...

BOSTON (AP) — Fisherman Lou Williams sees plenty of harbor porpoises, usually swimming in small pods well away from his boat, unlike the herds of lookalike dolphins that get close enough to ride his vessel's wake. A place Williams doesn't see many porpoises is his nets. "It's a rare occasion," said Williams, 55, who fishes out of Gloucester. "I don't think more than a couple this year." But federal regulators say far too many porpoises in the Gulf of Maine are drowning in fishing gear, specifically the stationary nets that Williams and other fishermen use, called gillnets. The estimated fatalities...

The giant Black Tiger shrimp that Ron Pockrus caught off the Texas coast might be the biggest threat to the $700 million Gulf shrimp industry to come along in years, marine biologists said. Pockrus, the owner of a 13-vessel shrimp fleet operating out of Brownsville, caught the 12-inch, 13-ounce specimen last week. Pockrus said he’s been aware of the species for about three years but hadn’t seen one. Now, he has turned in two to marine and wildlife officials this season. “I have another boat coming in with one on it now,” Pockrus said. “That makes the third one we’ve...

New England lawmakers are asking the U.S. Commerce Secretary for an emergency assessment of the abundance of cod in the Gulf of Maine. ... The six lawmakers also are asking Bryson to freeze the cod catch limit at its current level until the study is complete. Fishermen are facing devastating cuts in cod catch next year

TWO Kiribati fishermen have recounted their struggle for survival while drifting for 33 days in the Pacific before being washed ashore on a remote atoll and solving a 50-year family mystery. Uein Buranibwe, 53, and Temaei Tontaake, 26, told of their ordeal today when they arrived in the Marshall Island's capital Majuro from Namdrik Atoll, 560km from their Kiribati home ... After a month adrift their craft was washed into Namdrik, an isolated Marshall's atoll with a population of about 600 where the first residents they met took them to the only person on the island who spoke their language....

Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown is calling on President Obama to fire the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, saying she’s worsened the fishing industry’s problems. Brown said Saturday in a press conference at the Gloucester waterfront that Obama should replace Jane Lubchenco. In a statement, Brown said Lubchenco was indifferent to the industry’s struggles and wrongly committed to a new management system he says is destroying fishing jobs.

Commercial fishermen will no longer have their regulatory cases heard by Coast Guard Administrative Law Judges. Instead, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that as of Thursday, Environmental Protection Agency ALJ’s will preside over all new fishing law enforcement cases. This measure is being taken in response to an inquiry made by the Inspector General into complaints by commercial fishermen that NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service’s regulatory system was being excessive with its penalties and actions. Jerry Slaff, NOAA public affairs officer, said the EPA will provide judges for regulatory cases for the next two years. He said NOAA...

Michael Milken evokes thoughts of financial wisdom at a level far beyond that of an unsophisticated fishing industry essayist like me. So, when one of the sessions at the Milken Institute Global Conference 2009 is titled "Innovative Funding for Sustainable Fisheries and Oceans," I take notice. The panel for the fisheries session was moderated by Larry Bond, a consultant for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the speakers were David Crane, David Festa, Jerry Schubel, and Jason Winship. Two members from EDF and none from the fishing industry, oh, well. The audio of the session is fascinating, particularly that of...

Captains issue S.O.S., claiming new rules meant to save the fish are killing their way of life. With the height of the New England fishing season getting under way this week, small family fishermen say controversial new rules are destroying their livelihood — forcing them to sell their boats and instead search for work as laborers on larger vessels. “It’s a death knell. It’s the beginning of the end for small fishermen,” said Rhode Island fisherman Joel Hovanesian, 54, who recently sold his boat. Plymouth fisherman Stephen Welch, 50, a father of two, said: “We’re in a crisis right now.”...

As a lifelong commercial fisherman from Rhode Island who is involved with the regulatory process, I have one simple question to ask: Just what are we trying to accomplish with fish quotas? Federally, the science that drives the stock assessments and sets the quotas is so bad that industry has taken it upon itself to provide a better snapshot of many stocks of concern. Predictably, the picture is not nearly as dire as our federal scientists would lead us to believe. Recently, a side-by-side comparison was done, using the new multi-gazillion-dollar research vessel paid for with your tax dollars and...