NOAA Fisheries

What happens when you trade 20+ acres of concrete and asphalt for a vibrant wetland? Life returns. 🐟✨ For more than a decade, NOAA Fisheries, California Trout, Cal Poly Humboldt, and a coalition of partners worked to transform degraded fish habitat on California's Prairie Creek into a thriving floodplain ecosystem. The team turned a former industrial lumber mill site in Northern California's redwood country into habitat for threatened coho salmon, Chinook, and steelhead. This amazing collaboration led to: 🌊 1 mile of restored creek & 50 acres of floodplain 🌱 420,000+ native plants planted 🤝 Return of ancestral land ('O Rew) to Yurok Tribal stewardship 🥾 New trails and recreation access for the community This restoration project isn’t just restoring the landscape—it’s helping to restore the community. 👏 Maybe you’re wondering: how can you tell whether a large habitat restoration project succeeded? Follow the fish. 🐟🔬 Researchers tagged juvenile coho salmon with microchips (PIT tags) to track them before, during, and after habitat construction at Prairie Creek. This helps us understand how restored channel and floodplain habitat influences growth, survival, and recovery of threatened coho salmon. They found several early signs of success: Juvenile coho salmon using the restored off-channel habitats grew up to 2x faster than fish staying in the main channel. PIT-tag data revealed an estimated 2.6% marine survival rate for the 2023 juvenile cohort—more than double historical estimates of ~1%! Monitoring at Prairie Creek will continue through at least 2028. Part 1: https://lnkd.in/dXinMzSM Part 2: https://lnkd.in/dbMUUgSU

Last month, NOAA Fisheries authorized an emergency import to rescue 28 beluga whales from a closed marine park in Canada—ensuring the whales will receive the specialized medical care they need from facilities accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, we can authorize imports of marine mammals when medical care is needed and unavailable elsewhere. So far, 13 belugas have safely arrived through two carefully coordinated transfers, and all are settling into their new surroundings at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Illinois, and SeaWorld Texas. The remaining whales will arrive in the coming weeks—with Georgia Aquarium and SeaWorld San Diego also welcoming some of the whales. Connecticut’s Mystic Aquarium is playing a critical role in helping make these transports possible by providing equipment and staff, and by accepting a beluga already at Georgia Aquarium to make room for the new arrivals. This is one of the largest and most complex rescue and relocation efforts ever coordinated for captive marine mammals. On the U.S. side, the rescue has required close coordination and collaboration between the facilities, NOAA Fisheries, USDA, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), veterinarians, animal care experts, and transport specialists across the nation. We’re grateful to our partners for their expertise, dedication, and commitment to the welfare of these animals. Follow their accounts to see how the belugas are doing. #BelugaWhales #MarineMammals #WhaleRescue #BelugaRescue

It’s National Oyster Day! ✨🦪✨ Have you ever wondered how chefs make shucking look so easy? Watch as Chef Jeremy Sewall—from New England-based Row34 restaurants—shares his tips and techniques for opening oysters. Whether you’re a first-timer or looking to sharpen your skills, here’s to celebrating one of the ocean’s most loved seafoods! Oysters are more than a delicious treat—from fueling local economies to filtering water and creating habitat for other critters, they do it all.  Learn more about the mighty oyster and find inspiration for your next recipe: https://lnkd.in/gMUXjy3n #NationalOysterDay #SustainableSeafood #Oysters

NOAA is seeking public input on where to focus the search for identifying new Aquaculture Opportunity Areas in U.S. waters. These are defined geographic areas that have been evaluated for commercial aquaculture. Your feedback will help inform the science-based process for identifying locations with the potential to support sustainable aquaculture while considering environmental, economic, and social impacts.   Make your voice heard by attending one of three public listening sessions or submit a comment through the Federal Register. The deadline for comments is September 14, 2026. Details on how to provide your input: https://lnkd.in/gX-e2H-a

A little Friday Find for you! 🐙 Sometimes bringing up a trawl net is like opening a treasure chest. When our Teacher at Sea, Amelia Black, was on a groundfish survey in the Gulf this summer, they pulled up a large helmet shell … with an octopus hiding in it! Queen helmet shells are created by large marine snails. After the snail leaves the shell or dies, other animals sometimes move in and use the empty shell as a home. In this case, it was a common octopus. We measured and weighed it (when scientists measure an octopus, they measure only the head). Then we put it back in its shell and released it back into the ocean.

We are hiring a foreign affairs specialist who will be stationed in Silver Spring, Maryland. As a Foreign Affairs Specialist, you will perform the following duties: 🐟 Plan, coordinate, and provide input on related work to departmental formulation and direction of the foreign affairs of the United States, bearing on international fisheries relations, including bycatch and conservation of protected living marine resources. Implement seafood trade monitoring programs: Antarctic Marine Living Resources Program, the Highly Migratory Species International Trade Program, the Seafood Import Monitoring Program, the Tuna Tracking and Verification Program, and Certification of Admissibility requirements. 🐟 Negotiate and implement sustainable international management measures for living marine resources through regional fisheries management organizations, regional partnerships and protected species conservation organizations. Respond to stakeholder requests for assistance with program requirements and compliance. 🐟 Exercise responsibility as an independent specialist to analyze information to comply with international fisheries management, protected species conservation and trade measures, including formulating and executing capacity building efforts as directed. 🐟 Perform analysis of information on sustainable fisheries management, illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, bycatch of protected living marine resources and trade. Implement trade monitoring programs to combat IUU fishing. Facilitate trade and achieve other policy objectives. Applications are due by August 6, 2026. For upcoming positions and tips for how to apply on USAJobs visit: https://lnkd.in/e3MTN6Gd #WorkAtNOAAFisheries; #Careers; #NOAA

It’s summer vacation time—will you be spending it in your favorite habitat? Whether you’re snorkeling in a coral reef, kayaking through a marsh, fishing off a pier, or boating in an estuary, tell us which habitat is your happy place. #HabitatMonth Photo 1: A kelp forest in California with juvenile blacksmiths swimming around. Credit: Laura Tesler Photo 2: Stand-up paddle boarders explore marsh around Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. Credit: Hank Carter Photo 3: The Salmon River, which is part of the Snake River Basin in Idaho. Credit: Adobe Stock Photo 4:  scientist prepares to photograph a reef at Swains Island during the 2023 National Coral Reef Monitoring Program survey in American Samoa. Credit: NOAA Fisheries (Permit NMSAS-2023-002) Photo 5: A kelp forest off Catalina Island, California. Credit: Adam Obaza Photo 6: Sunrise in Little Port Walter, Alaska. Credit: NOAA Teacher at Sea Photo 7: Mooring buoys at Sombrero Reef in the Florida Keys. Credit: Daniel Eidesmoe Photo 8: The Penobscot River at sunset. Credit: Penobscot Indian Nation Photo 9: Aerial view of Drakes Bay in Point Reyes, California. Credit: NOAA Fisheries

We’re seeking public input on potential updates to the regulations that implement the Fish and Fish Product Import Provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The goal is to explore ways to streamline and improve how the program works, while continuing to support efforts to reduce marine mammal bycatch around the world. Public comments are open through September 28, 2026: https://lnkd.in/dvcY8ymQ