April 16, 2026 — For the first time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is commissioning a new “office of seafood” to represent the nation’s fisheries and agriculture industries.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the new office during a press conference on 15 April.
April 15, 2026 — For the first time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is commissioning a new “office of seafood” to represent the nation’s fisheries and agriculture industries.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the new office during a press conference on 15 April.
February 19, 2026 — A group of U.S. lawmakers has asked the federal government to provide financial support to the nation’s struggling shellfish sector, which they claimed has been hit hard by increased tariffs.
“Tariffs and retaliatory tariffs have led to higher consumer prices, altered supply chains, reduced availability, higher equipment costs, and market instability for farmers of all kinds, including shellfish growers,” the lawmakers said in the joint letter dated 6 February. “In the last year, our strongest trade partners have launched retaliatory tariffs against the United States, causing uncertainty and hurting geoduck, oyster, and other shellfish industries many of our communities rely on as lifelines.”
September 16, 2025 — In 1787, Alexander Hamilton stressed the need for a united national effort to protect America’s ocean resources from stagnation and unfair foreign trade practices. Absent vigorous federal action to free our fisheries from barriers to growth and trade, “that unequalled spirit of enterprise, which signalises the genius of the American Merchants and Navigators, and which is in itself an inexhaustible mine of national wealth, would be stifled and lost.”
Since Hamilton wrote those words, Alaska became first a territory, then the 49th state in the Union, cementing itself as a linchpin of the nation’s food supply, economy and national security.
Alaska has the largest federal fisheries in the nation—roughly 60% of America’s harvest by volume. The Alaska seafood industry produces roughly $6 billion in economic output for the state and employs 48,000 Alaskans.
In addition to feeding our own citizens, fisheries products are among the top three U.S. food, agriculture and related product export categories, and there is soaring global demand for these high-quality, high-value commodities.