June 19, 2026 — In the Senate Wednesday, Mississippi Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith introduced the ‘Save our Shrimpers’ Act.
This is legislation aimed at preventing taxpayer dollars from helping finance foreign shrimp farms.
Trump administration walks back plan to cut ocean observation after legislative effort
June 18, 2026 — The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has walked back plans to dismantle a deep-ocean observation system after pushback from members of Congress.
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) announced recently the administration was planning to dismantle the USD 368 million (EUR 321 million) Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI). The OOI consisted of multiple underwater monitoring arrays, which provide openly accessible data to oceanographers, researchers, educators, and the public and contributed to everything from storm forecasting to fishery health.
Congress takes major leap in cracking down on illegal fishing; protecting U.S. seafood industry
June 16, 2026 — Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing undercuts the U.S. market with cheap seafood, depressing prices, and squeezing out the operators who follow the rules. Combating IUU fishing remains a high priority for U.S. commercial fishermen, environmental groups, human rights advocates, and Congress.
Last week, there were two noteworthy developments in that fight: the House passed the Stop Illegal Fishing Act (H.R. 6338), and Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Roger Wicker (R-MS) introduced the Protecting U.S. Fishers from Illegal Foreign Flags Act of 2026 (S. 4720).
How Does Farmed Seafood Rely on IUU Fishing?
The U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) explained in its 2024 List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor report that fish harvested in Thailand involves forced labor and that a quarter of that harvest goes into fishmeal for animal feed. The majority of that feed ends up used in Thai shrimp and poultry farms. And much of that Thai shrimp, raised on fishmeal harvested through forced labor, ends up on American plates. In 2025 alone, Thailand shipped nearly 60 million pounds of shrimp products to the U.S. market, worth over $304 million.
Administration Commercial Fishing Industry Wins
June 12, 2026 — Through the strategic use of the Magnuson-Stevens Act and executive action, NOAA Fisheries has successfully removed red tape, reversed decades-old closures, and maximized harvest quotas. These actions have unlocked billions of dollars in economic value, secured vital domestic supply chains, and established collaborative partnerships with the commercial fishing fleet.
Unleashing Historic Economic Value and Quota Increases
The Administration has expedited openings and increased catch limits based on the best available science, delivering financial returns to coastal communities.
Alaska Groundfish ($2.9+ Billion Impact)
Novel Approaches to Allow for Opening of Fisheries
NOAA Fisheries published final rules for harvest specifications in both the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands in 2025 and 2026. This decisive administrative action ensured these critical groundfish fisheries opened on time, with quotas strictly grounded in the best scientific information available.
Economic Impact
These fisheries include the Bering Sea pollock fishery, the largest U.S. fishery by volume. According to the 2024 Economic Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation report (the best available data as of February 2026), these timely rulemakings secure a total value of $301.1 million for the Gulf of Alaska groundfish fisheries and more than $2.64 billion for the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish fisheries.
Pacific Halibut Fishery ($126.5 Million Value)
Expediting Opening of U.S. Halibut Fishery
NOAA revised its approach to data collection and regulatory implementation in order to allow for the timely opening of the Alaskan Groundfish and Halibut fisheries.
Economic Impact
While 2025 estimates are pending, in 2024, commercial landings of Pacific halibut in Alaska totaled approximately 14.37 million pounds and were valued at more than $126.5 million, according to the NOAA Fisheries Alaska Region catch accounting system and fishery volume and value reports.
Reviving West Coast Salmon ($76 Million Impact)
2026 Ocean Harvest Salmon Management Measures
This action resulted in the first full commercial salmon fishery off the West Coast in 3 years. The 2026 fisheries will successfully expand fishing days in the California recreational and commercial fisheries and southern Oregon compared to 2025.
Economic Impact
The 2026 season will support more jobs and more than $76 million in revenue or value. This represents an anticipated 63 percent increase in coastwide commercial ex-vessel value and an increase of more than 30 percent in community income impacts for the recreational fishery compared to 2025.
US House passes agriculture appropriations bill with more funding for Office of Seafood
June 10, 2026 — Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives included another year’s worth of money for the new Office of Seafood within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in a fiscal year 2027 appropriations bill funding the department, along with other seafood provisions.
The bill includes several of the priorities and stipulations outlined in the fiscal year 2026 agriculture appropriations legislation, which was passed by Congress in November 2025 following a multi-week shutdown of the federal government.
US bill would direct NOAA to create portable shrimp origin test
June 10, 2026 — U.S. Representative Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) has introduced legislation that would require NOAA to establish a portable chemical test that can reveal the origins of shrimp.
“South Carolina shrimpers have been undercut for years by foreign imports with no accountability and no transparency,” Mace said in a social media post. “Our SHRIMP Act puts an end to this. They have earned a level playing field. We are delivering it.”
US bill targets flags of convenience
June 8, 2026 — A pair of U.S. senators have introduced legislation to crack down on flags of convenience, aiming to ensure that nations enabling the practice are considered to be engaging in illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
“Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing puts the United States seafood industry at a competitive disadvantage. Our maritime laws are built to protect fishermen and improve environmental and labor standards, but many bad actors use the flag of convenience to exploit gaps in those laws. Closing this loophole benefits fishermen, consumers, and the fishing industry,” U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) said in a release.
Offshore Parity Act would help state shrimpers operate year-round, Mississippi official testifies
June 5, 2026 — A Mississippi state official testified in favor of expanding state fisheries control from three to nine nautical miles off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, a change proposed in the recently introduced Offshore Parity Act.
Advocates of the legislation claim it’s unfair that Texas and Florida are able to control fishing up to nine nautical miles off their coast, while the three other Gulf states only control three nautical miles due to the Submerged Lands Act of 1953. During a 3 June hearing held by the U.S. House Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries, Mississippi Department of Marine Resources Executive Director Joe Spraggins told lawmakers it was critical to his state’s fishers to expand state control.
US bill would authorize commercial fishing in marine national monuments
June 4, 2026 — A bill being considered in U.S. Congress would prohibit presidents from prohibiting commercial fishing in marine national monuments, codifying that fishing activities in those areas must be regulated under the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA).
Successive presidents’ administrations have used the Antiquities Act to unilaterally establish national marine monuments or to change the protections granted within them, and commercial fishing groups have long bemoaned the use of that power to ban fishing within their boundaries. Former U.S. President Barack Obama prohibited commercial fishing within the nearly 5,000-square-mile Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument when he established it in 2016, and later presidents have alternated between reallowing commercial fishing or banning it again; most recently, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order reauthorizing commercial fishing in the marine national monument.
Panel takes up bill to expand state control of Gulf waters
June 2, 2026 — A House Natural Resources subcommittee will take up bipartisan legislation during a hearing this week to expand the authority of certain states over the Gulf of Mexico.
The Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries will scrutinize Mississippi Republican Rep. Mike Ezell’s H.R. 8542, the “Offshore Parity Act,” which would expand state control of waters off Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Coastal states have jurisdiction of waters immediately past their shores, with federal control of the outer continental shelf generally beginning past 3 nautical miles.
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