Maritime Injury Law Blog

Published on: May 19, 2026

NOAA Determines Gulf of Alaska Chinook Salmon Do Not Warrant ESA Listing

For commercial fishermen in Alaska’s Gulf waters, a recent federal decision provides clearer regulatory guidance as the season begins. In May 2026, NOAA Fisheries completed a 12-month review of Gulf of Alaska Chinook salmon and concluded that listing any of the three identified population groups under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is not warranted at this time.

The review was triggered by a January 2024 petition from the Wild Fish Conservancy, which asked NOAA to evaluate whether one or more distinct groups of Gulf of Alaska Chinook should be listed as threatened or endangered. After a preliminary finding in May 2024 indicated the question deserved a closer look, NOAA assembled a review team, worked with Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists, and consulted with Alaska Native Tribes and corporations throughout the Gulf region.

NOAA’s review identified three distinct Evolutionarily Significant Units (ESUs), the scientific term for essentially distinct, self-sustaining salmon populations within the Gulf of Alaska:

Published on: May 12, 2026

Fish Processor Injuries and Your Rights Under Maritime Law

by Nigel Stacey

If you work as a fish processor aboard a factory trawler or catcher-processor vessel, you may not think of yourself as a seaman. You spend your shifts below deck, gutting, filleting, and freezing fish, not steering the vessel or hauling gear. However, under federal maritime law, your job title does not determine your legal rights, where you work does.

Fish processors who work aboard vessels actively operating at sea qualify as seamen under the Jones Act. That distinction matters enormously when something goes wrong.

The line that separates Jones Act protection from state workers’ compensation coverage comes down to one question: were you working on a vessel in navigation when you were injured?

Published on: May 5, 2026

How to Survive an Overboard Fall for Commercial Fishermen

by Nigel Stacey

Commercial fishing remains one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States. Between 2000 and 2019, 878 commercial fishermen died from traumatic injuries on the job, an average of more than 43 deaths per year. Vessel disasters are the leading cause of death however falls overboard are second, accounting for 266 of those deaths, or 30% of all fatalities.

Of all 266 workers who died after falling overboard between 2000 and 2019, not one was wearing a Personal Flotation Device (PFD).

Why Fishermen Don’t Wear PFDs And Why That Has to Change

Published on: April 28, 2026

Six Missing After Cargo Vessel Mariana Capsizes in Typhoon Sinlaku

by Nigel Stacey

On Wednesday, April 15, 2026, watchstanders at the Joint Rescue Coordination Center Honolulu received a report from the vessel manager of the M/V MARIANA, a 145-foot U.S. registered dry cargo ship that regularly transports goods between Guam, Tinian, and Saipan. The vessel’s starboard engine was disabled while carrying six people, leaving it stranded approximately 140 miles north-northwest of Saipan. The crew reported the disabled engine just as Typhoon Sinlaku approached the region.

The U.S. Coast Guard established an hourly communication schedule with the M/V MARIANA through the vessel’s manager. On Wednesday evening, communications went silent, and contact was never reestablished.

On Thursday morning, a U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point HC-130 Hercules airplane crew launched from Guam to search for the vessel but were forced to return to Guam due to heavy winds in the search area. That same day, Super Typhoon Sinlaku made landfall on the island of Tinian with sustained winds of 145 mph and torrential rain. The storm pummeled the region for roughly 48 hours. On Saipan, it triggered flooding, tore roofs from buildings, and overturned vehicles. More than 15,000 residents lost power. The Northern Marianas government requested an expedited federal disaster declaration.

Published on: April 21, 2026

Alaska’s Seafood Industry Consolidation

by Nigel Stacey

This week it has been reported that Silver Bay Seafoods is trying to acquire Northline Seafoods, one of its competitors in Alaska’s salmon processing industry. It was also reported that Northline CEO and co-founder Ben Blakey resigned on April 15^th, 2026, during the acquisition process. For anyone working the Alaska salmon fishery, this is a news story worth following.

Silver Bay Seafoods has experience with acquisitions. The Sitka-based company, owned by a cooperative of roughly 600 fishermen, has rapidly expanded its footprint across Alaska’s seafood processing sector. In 2024, the company acquired Trident Seafoods’ Ketchikan and False Pass facilities. This expansion continued into March 2025, when Silver Bay purchased Cooke subsidiary Icicle Seafoods’ 50% stake in OBI Seafoods. The agreement, established in collaboration with BBEDC, brought eight significant processing facilities into their network. These plants are located in Petersburg, Seward, Kodiak, Larsen Bay, Egegik, Wood River, Cordova, and Naknek. Silver Bay also took over Peter Pan Seafoods’ Valdez operations and other key assets following Peter Pan’s high-profile bankruptcy.

Industry experts point out that if Northline is acquired, only three companies will dominate Alaska’s salmon processing industry. Such a level of consolidation has not been seen in recent years.

Published on: April 14, 2026

NOAA Budget Cuts and Fishing Safety: Your Legal Rights When Training Programs Vanish

by Nigel Stacey

Earlier this year, we reported about how proposed cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service were putting commercial fishermen in Alaska, Washington, and Oregon at greater risk by degrading marine weather forecasts. That threat has not gone away, and now a new federal budget proposal makes clear that it is deepening. This time, the target is not just forecasting. It is the safety training programs that have quietly kept Pacific Northwest and Alaska fishermen alive for decades.

The proposed federal fiscal year 2027 budget calls for a $1.6 billion cut to NOAA’s overall budget, a 32 percent reduction that would eliminate entire programs. Congress rejected an identical proposal for FY2026, but the proposed cuts keep coming. The agency has experienced significant staffing reductions due to recent layoffs and attrition. Alaska fishermen reported greater uncertainty about storm forecasts during the 2025 season, and the conditions driving that uncertainty have not improved.

What is different this year is that the scope of that threat has expanded. The proposed cuts are not limited to weather forecasting offices and buoy networks. They also target the federal programs that fund commercial fishing safety training, specifically the Commercial Fishing Safety Research and Training program and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) fishing industry programs.

Published on: April 7, 2026

Deadliest Catch Deckhand Todd Meadows’ Cause of Death Revealed

by Nigel Stacey

The official cause of death has been released for Todd Meadows, the deckhand who died February 25, 2026, after falling overboard from the F/V ALEUTIAN LADY during filming of Deadliest Catch Season 22. Todd Meadows cause of death was reported as drowning with probable hypothermia and submersion in cold water. The Alaska Department of Health has ruled the incident an accident.

The F/V ALEUTIAN LADY is one of the vessels featured on the long running reality series. Meadows had joined the crew in May 2025 and had not yet appeared on air at the time of his death. Captain Rick Shelford announced the loss on social media, calling it “the most tragic day in the history of the Aleutian Lady on the Bering Sea.” He remembered Meadows as someone whose enthusiasm and strong work ethic made him family almost immediately.

Meadows was from Montesano, Washington, and leaves behind three young sons. A GoFundMe established in his memory has raised more than $60,000.

Published on: April 7, 2026

Gloucester Crew Rescued After Fishing Boat Runs Aground

by Nigel Stacey

At 7:47 p.m. on April 4, 2026, first responders in Gloucester, Massachusetts were called when the F/V LEGACY ran aground on rocks about twenty yards from shore. Waves battered the hull and pushed the boat harder against the rocks, causing increasingly severe damage.

The two crew members were unable to free the vessel from the rocks. First responders called in the U.S. Coast Guard, which responded with a 47-foot rescue boat from USCG Gloucester Station but even that effort could not pull the F/V LEGACY free from the rocks. As conditions worsened, the decision was made to evacuate the crew.

A coordinated response by Gloucester Fire Engine 1, Ladder 1, and Rescue 1 worked alongside police and the harbormaster to rescue the fishermen. Firefighters had the crew don survival suits, tossed rescue lines to them, and helped them off the rocks onto dry land. Both fishermen were evaluated by officials at the scene, and no injuries were reported. The U.S. Coast Guard remained on the scene to monitor the vessel.

Published on: April 6, 2026

Five Crew Members Rescued from Grounded Vessel Near Umnak Island

by Nigel Stacey

On April 2, 2026, the 58-foot F/V OCEAN BAY ran aground on Umnak Island’s northern shore in the Aleutians. At 4:45 a.m., the U.S. Coast Guard Arctic District Command Center in Juneau received a report that the vessel was taking on water. Watchstanders immediately coordinated a multi-asset response, dispatching an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew and an HC-130 Hercules airplane crew from U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak and diverted the Cutter WAESCHE to the scene.

A Good Samaritan vessel, F/T SEAFREEZE ALASKA, a 295-foot factory trawler, was first to arrive on the scene at approximately 5 a.m. The Hercules crew and WAESCHE reached the area about three hours later. By that time, the crew of the F/V OCEAN BAY had successfully stopped the flooding and dewatered the vessel.

The Jayhawk aircrew arrived at approximately 11:15 a.m. and hoisted all five crew members to safety, transporting them to Dutch Harbor for medical evaluation. Resolve Marine has been contracted to oversee salvage operations on the grounded vessel.

Published on: March 31, 2026

NTSB Finds Captain’s Sleep Debt Caused the Grounding of F/V Eileen Rita

by Nigel Stacey

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released its findings on the April 11, 2025, grounding of the commercial F/V EILEEN RITA near Green Island, approximately eight miles east of Boston. It has been determined that the cause was preventable; the captain fell asleep at the helm. The complete report can be found at NTSB.

The 86-foot scallop dragger left Boston Harbor at 10:00 p.m. on April 10, 2025, to fish Stellwagen Bank and was returning to port when the grounding occurred at 7:31 a.m. The NTSB found that in the 48 hours before the accident, the captain had logged only eight hours of sleep which were broken into three short segments. He was alone on watch while the two deckhands were asleep, and the vessel was on autopilot when he nodded off. He had adjusted the heading 15 to 20 degrees to port in an effort to clear a lighthouse, sat down, and fell asleep. About ten minutes later, the F/V EILEEN RITA struck the rocks.

“I didn’t realize how tired I was…until it was too late,” the captain told investigators. It is a sentence that will be familiar to anyone who works at sea.