Saving Seafood

Washington

Panel to debate overhaul of marine mammal law

July 21, 2025 — A House Natural Resources subcommittee on Tuesday will meet to discuss a slate of bills, including a controversial draft to reform the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

The discussion draft, credited to Alaska Republican Rep. Nick Begich, would scale down the scope of the MMPA and raise the bar for the federal government to take action to protect marine mammals like whales, dolphins, seals and polar bears. Environmental advocates have warned that, as written, the bill would gut the MMPA and expose myriad species to extinction.

Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.), chair of the Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee, earlier this year called the MMPA “well-intentioned” but nevertheless complained that “ambiguous, outdated and unclear language has proven unworkable.”

Read the full article at E&E News

Senate passes Alabama-backed bill to block illegal red snapper and tuna imports into the U.S.

July 18, 2025 — A bill aimed at protecting local fishermen from illegally caught fish being sold in the U.S., passed the Senate with the support of both senators from Alabama.

The Illegal Red Snapper and Tuna Enforcement Act, co-sponsored by Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), instructs the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to create a standard method of identifying the country of origin for red snapper and some species of tuna that is imported into the United States.

Read the full article at WHNT

US Senate could ban Chinese seafood from military commissaries, dining facilities

July 17, 2025 — The U.S. Senate is considering legislation that would ban the U.S. Department of Defense from purchasing Chinese seafood for its commissaries and military dining facilities.

The Senate version of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act – annual legislation authorizing funding for the U.S. military – includes a provision that would, if passed, prohibit the military from serving or selling Chinese seafood and aquaculture products.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US Senate passes bill to develop testing for red snapper, tuna origins

July 16, 2025 — The U.S. Senate has passed a bill directing the federal government to develop a new field test kit that can identify the country of origin of red snapper and tuna, giving law enforcement a new tool to discover illegally caught or imported fish.

“Seafood that’s caught illegally or intentionally mislabeled rips off consumers and makes it harder for law-abiding U.S. fishermen to compete,” U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said in a statement. “Our bill will help fight against anyone who tries to pass off cheap foreign tuna for high-quality ahi from local Hawai‘i fishermen.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US Senate bill would create a seafood industry liaison within USDA

July 14, 2025 — The U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations has approved legislation that would create a new seafood industry liaison position within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

On 10 July, senators on the committee voted unanimously in favor of the 2026 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, which provides annual funding and guidance for the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The legislation included several seafood and aquaculture appropriations, most notably establishing a new seafood representative within the USDA.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Trump’s NOAA pick stands by budget cuts, calls staffing ‘a top priority’

July 10, 2025 — President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told a panel of U.S. senators on Wednesday that he would make it “a top priority” to fill staffing shortages created by recent firings and buyouts across the National Weather Service, while also standing by the administration’s proposal to make drastic cuts to weather and climate research budgets.

In a confirmation hearing imbued with concern over how to prevent disasters like the deadly Texas floods, Neil Jacobs shared ideas such as using satellites to improve severe weather warnings and “modernizing” NOAA’s weather radios, which use radio signals to broadcast emergency information. Jacobs was not asked to weigh in on what may or may not have contributed to the disaster in Texas. But he stressed a desire to see the more than 120 Weather Service forecast offices across the country be fully staffed.

As Jacobs answered senators’ questions, he signaled a future in which the agency’s sprawling weather and climate research enterprise could be diminished and more closely tied to the process of weather forecasting. And he repeatedly hinted at opportunities for government scientists to collaborate with the private sector, something that Republican strategists emphasized in the policy plan known as Project 2025.

Read the full article at The Washington Post

Dealing with Trump’s megabill remains a work in progress

July 9, 2025 — On July 3, the U.S. House narrowly passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, sweeping federal legislation that extends tax cuts and reduces social safety net programs. President Trump signed the bill into law during a ceremony held the following day.

For coastal fishing communities endeavoring to protect access to their fisheries and fisheries habitats, efforts to deal with the legislation remain a work in progress.

One possible saving grace was that before it went to the House, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, dropped from the H.R. 1 package in the Senate a contentious plan to sell between 2.2 million and 3.3 million acres of public lands in 11 western states for the construction of housing.

“Public land sales or privatization could cut off lifelines to water, or at the very least, create disruptive and unnecessary uncertainty,” said Michelle Stratton, a fisheries scientist and executive director of the Alaska Marine Conservation Council in Anchorage. “Without reliable public access to harbors, fish camps, and boat ramps, especially on or near federal lands, Alaska’s small boat fishermen can’t operate or know how to prepare for their season.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act includes several seafood provisions

July 8, 2025 — U.S. President Donald Trump has signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, an omnibus piece of legislation enacting the president’s policy preferences into law.

While the U.S. Senate made substantial changes to the bill before passing it, several seafood provisions included in early versions of the legislation survived the final cut, and a few additional carveouts were added for the Alaska fishing sector during last-minute negotiations.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Senate budget vote set mixed prospects for offshore wind

July 3, 2025 — The U.S. Senate’s squeaker 51-50 vote to approve the Trump administration’s program agenda appeared to strike a huge blow against offshore wind energy and other renewable energy development.

But opponents of offshore wind insist the legislation does not go far enough. The final version pulled back a proposed excise tax that would have penalized wind energy developers, after Iowa Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley, both R-Iowa, opposed it for their state’s wind energy generation and manufacturing industry.

“The Senate bill looks like it has a 2027 ‘placed in service’ cutoff for new solar/wind subsidies,” wrote Alex Epstein, a prominent activist and fossil fuels advocate, in a fiery July 1 social media post widely shared among offshore wind opponents. “But one last-minute paragraph makes it worthless – because projects making a recoverable 5% investment in the next 12 months are exempt!”

President Trump pledged to stop all projects in U.S. waters “on day one” of his second presidency and issued an order hours after his Jan. 20 inauguration to implement that ban. In mid-April, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered a halt to work on Equinor’s Empire Wind 814-megawatt project off New York, thrilling project opponents.

But a month later, the Trump administration relented, after making a deal with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for permitting new natural gas pipelines from the Marcellus gas fields in Pennsylvania through New York State.

With the July 1 Senate vote, offshore oil and gas interests appeared to be clear winners. With final passage still required in the House – and continued criticism by the hardline Republican conservatives’ caucus – industry advocates pushed for support.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

National Fisheries Institute Statement on Section 139L of the OBBB Act

July 3, 2025 — The following was released by the National Fisheries Institute:

NFI has been working diligently to help the seafood community benefit from the type of programs the agriculture sector has enjoyed for decades. This provision is a quintessential example of that work. Seafood, like ag, produces products that are vital to food security in this country. Meanwhile, our fishermen, producers and processors, who provide almost 1.6 million U.S. jobs, ensure the healthiest animal protein on the planet makes it to American plates, a true public health benefit.  

Lisa Wallenda Picard
President & CEO