Author: Mildred Bell

When the shrimp boats remain docked, a certain silence descends upon Bayou Dulac. The only movement is caused by gulls circling low over water that should be churning with activity by this stage of the season, while nets hang motionless from their rigging. Legislative summaries rarely include this type of scene, but it was the one that compelled Louisiana lawmakers to take action that most other states have only discussed. Governor Jeff Landry signed House Bill 857 into law in June at the Jean Lafitte Auditorium, adding what he referred to as “teeth” to the state’s seafood labeling regulations. The…

On the evening of June 23rd, a distinct odor permeates the Lithuanian countryside; it is not woodsmoke from the bonfires, though that is a contributing factor. Fish, including bream, perch, and occasionally a stray salmon if the river has been abundant, are cured slowly over alder coals in improvised smokers that appear to have not changed much since the Teutonic Knights were grumbling about pagan rites in 1372. The earliest known reference to what Lithuanians now refer to as Joninės, or occasionally Rasos, is that complaint, which was documented by a chronicler by the name of Hermann von Wartberge. It’s…

At Spud Point Marina in Bodega Bay, the boats sit low in the dark water before dawn, their engines idling, waiting for captains who already appear worn out. Bait buckets, coiled rope, the smell of diesel and mackerel—a scene that hasn’t changed much in decades—but now there’s an additional layer of anxiety looming over the docks. In an attempt to prevent humpback and gray whales from becoming entangled in fishing lines, California recently tightened its regulations on Dungeness crab fishing, and many of the men and women who depend on it for their livelihood are not happy about this. When…

Outlasting everything around you gives you a certain kind of New Jersey confidence, and Bahrs Landing in Highlands has plenty of it. Located on the water where the Shrewsbury and Navesink Rivers empty into the bay, the restaurant has been serving fresh seafood to hungry patrons since 1917. It’s not a typo. A bad lease renewal is more than most restaurants can withstand, let alone 109 years, two world wars, a few recessions, and the slow churn of a coastline that changes its boardwalks roughly every ten years. Originally a bait-and-chowder stand on a beached houseboat, it has grown into…

This season, a certain type of traveler is showing up at fly shops in Montana who would have been somewhere with a swim-up bar a few years ago. Before sunrise, they arrive in rental trucks, put on waders that never quite stop smelling like a riverbank, and wait six hours in frigid water for something to happen. Most of them will say something similar when you ask how the trip is going: it’s better than the beach. The figures confirm what outfitters and guides have been observing anecdotally for a few seasons. In 2024, about 58 million Americans took up…

In Rockland, Maine, on a gloomy morning, the lobster boats depart as usual, their buoys piled high on the stern and their diesel engines coughing awake before dawn. If you ask fishermen long enough, they will tell you what has changed in the traps. For years, lobster catches have been drifting offshore and northward in search of cooler, retreating water. However, the regulations dictating where and how those boats can fish have not advanced nearly as quickly. The story is starting to revolve around that gap. The federal organization in charge of overseeing the country’s marine resources, NOAA Fisheries, developed…

When a scallop hits a properly heated pan, it makes a distinct sound: a sharp hiss followed by a confident sizzle. However, anyone who has cooked one poorly is also familiar with the opposite sound, which is a wet, deflating fizzle that indicates dinner is already in trouble. Scallops have an odd reputation in American kitchens because of that second sound. Food writers have begun to argue, with surprising conviction, that the humble seared scallop deserves a place above lobster rolls and crab cakes in the pantheon of American seafood because they are costly, intimidating, and often ruined. On its…

Most American supermarkets have a little blue label with a fish outline and a checkmark at the seafood counter. This badge certifies that the product originated from a fishery that satisfies the Marine Stewardship Council’s sustainability standards. When they see it, the majority of shoppers take it as comfort. They are likely unaware that the label represents the standards of a private organization that are completely different from the U.S. federal government’s definition of sustainable seafood, that neither of those frameworks is the same as what the Federal Trade Commission enforces, and that none of it addresses the distinct and…

The wooden drying racks rise along the harbor and hillsides in February in the Lofoten Islands off Norway’s northwest coast. In the chilly sea air, thousands of full skrei—the migratory Atlantic cod that come from the Barents Sea to spawn here during the darkest months—hang, their flesh gradually losing moisture in the same manner that Norwegians have been drying fish since at least the Viking Age. It will take months for the tørrfisk to be ready. Now that the fresh skrei is ready, it may be found in eateries, at quayside stands, and on fishing boats that transport tourists outside…

Mercury is released into the atmosphere when coal is burned in a power plant. It doesn’t remain there. Before settling in soil, lakes, and rivers, where bacteria transform it into methylmercury, a neurotoxic that builds up in fish tissue and becomes more concentrated at each stage of the food chain, it travels—sometimes several of miles. Lake bass, pike, swordfish, and tuna. The most weight is carried by the fish at the top. The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards were created in 2012 with the intention of blocking this pathway at its origin. The 2024 revisions to those regulations tightened that…