Saving Seafood

Canada announces North Atlantic right whale protections for 2026

March 27, 2026 — Canada’s government has announced several measures to help protect highly endangered North Atlantic right whales in upcoming commercial fishing seasons, keeping some protections in place and adding a few new actions to help reduce entanglements and vessel strikes.

“The North Atlantic right whale is one of the most endangered animals on the planet, and we have a responsibility to act. Canada’s protocols are in place, and our whale-safe fishing gear pilots are showing real results. We can protect this whale and support our harvesters,” Canada Minister of Fisheries Joanne Thompson said in a release.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Cooke set to take operational control of Avramar Greece

March 20, 2026 —  Canada-based seafood giant Cooke is set to take operational control of Greece-based seafood firm Avramar Greece after signing a memorandum of understanding to take on the company’s debts.

Avramar Greece was first separated from Spain-based Avramar Seafood due to financial issues with the Greek business, which began pursuing a sale in 2023. Multiple bidders emerged to purchase the company, which has become a major player in Mediterranean aquaculture producing sea bass and sea bream. According to Cooke, Avramar Greece “is a vertically integrated operation, which includes hatcheries, marine farm sites, processing and packaging facilities, and feed production operations.”

Read the full article at Avramar

US House votes to end Trump tariffs on Canada

February 12, 2026 — The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to block President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada, setting the bill up for a vote in the Senate.

Trump has continuously threatened Canada with tariffs since taking office in January 2025, and recently threatened a 100 percent tariff on the country’s goods over its trade deal with China. The country currently faces a 35 percent “fentanyl” tariff on all goods from the country, with the caveat that any goods entered under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) – which is virtually all seafood goods – are not required to pay the tariff.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Commission again sets Pacific halibut harvest at rock-bottom levels amid U.S.-Canada tensions

February 6, 2026 — The International Pacific Halibut Commission set the 2026 harvest at a historic low during an annual meeting that drew a Trump Administration political appointee to lead tense U.S. negotiations with Canada over shares of a shrunken fishery.

The four-day late-January gathering in Bellevue, Washington came during a time of tumultuous relations between the two nations.

President Donald Trump’s tariff policy and blustering talk of making Canada part of the United States have spurred widespread anger among Canadians. January has been particularly volatile, as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, at an economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, attacked “coercion” by great powers, while Trump, in a subsequent speech, asserted that “Canada lives because of the United States.”

At the Bellevue halibut meeting, Drew Lawler, a political appointee to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, served as the non-voting head of the U.S.delegation.

In private talks sandwiched between public parts of the meeting, the U.S. delegation threatened economic sanctions, and successfully pressured Canadians to trim the British Columbia share of the halibut harvest, according to sources with knowledge of these discussions.

The commission is charged by a more than century-old treaty with conserving Pacific halibut. There are three voting representatives from the United States, and three from Canada.

Read the full article at the Petersburg Pilot

Sanctions threats loom as IPHC sets historic low 2026 halibut harvest

January 30, 2026 — The International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) set the 2026 Pacific halibut harvest at a historic low last week, following tense U.S.-Canada negotiations that included threats of economic sanctions against Canadian halibut exports.

The Northern Journal reported that the four-day annual IPHC meeting in Bellevue, Washington, came amid strained relations between the two countries under the Trump administration, whose tariff policies and rhetoric toward Canada have fueled political friction.

Serving as the non-voting head of the U.S. delegation was Drew Lawler, a political appointee to NOAA. During private negotiations, U.S. representatives threatened tariffs or other trade restrictions unless Canada agreed to reduce British Columbia’s share of the halibut catch.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Commission again sets Pacific halibut harvest at rock-bottom levels amid U.S.-Canada tensions

January 29, 2026 — The International Pacific Halibut Commission set the 2026 harvest at a historic low during an annual meeting that drew a Trump administration political appointee to lead tense U.S. negotiations with Canada over shares of a shrunken fishery.

The four-day gathering last week in Bellevue, Washington, came during a time of tumultuous relations between the two nations.

President Donald Trump’s tariff policy and blustering talk of making Canada part of the United States have spurred widespread anger among Canadians. January has been particularly volatile, as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, at an economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, attacked “coercion” by great powers, while Trump, in a subsequent speech, asserted that “Canada lives because of the United States.”

At the Bellevue halibut meeting, Drew Lawler, a political appointee to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, served as the non-voting head of the U.S. delegation.

In private talks sandwiched between public parts of the meeting, the U.S. delegation threatened economic sanctions, and successfully pressured Canadians to trim the British Columbia share of the halibut harvest, according to sources with knowledge of these discussions.

The commission is charged by a more than century-old treaty with conserving Pacific halibut. There are three voting representatives from the United States and three from Canada.

The halibut fishery has been in a deep prolonged downturn that has buffeted sport, commercial and subsistence fishermen in Alaska, British Columbia, Oregon, Washington and Northern California. Since the early 2000s, both the average size and overall population of halibut have fallen precipitously, according to scientists.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

Trump threatens 100 percent tariffs on Canada over trade deal with China

January 26, 2026 — U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on Canada if it follows through in finalizing a trade deal with China.

“The last thing the World needs is to have China take over Canada. It’s NOT going to happen, or even come close to happening! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump said in a 24 January social media post.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Canada announces trade deal with China cutting tariffs on lobster, crab

January 16, 2026 — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the country has reached an agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping that will cut Chinese tariffs on key seafood items like lobster and crab.

Canada has faced an additional 25 percent tariff in China on a range of seafood products including halibut, crabs, lobster, clams, and shrimp since 20 March 2025. The tariffs were made in response to a 100 percent Canadian tariff on Chinese electric vehicles and a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum products from China.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Op-ed: A momentous US Supreme Court decision

January 7, 2026 — When I was an economics major in the late 1960s, I was taught that tariffs, as well as non-tariff barriers, should be avoided as a burden on trade and a tax on the populace. However, because the world has not accepted that teaching and tariffs have become a major defensive tool for advancing the Trump administration’s policy objectives, the conventional wisdom should be reconsidered.

Today, there are over 180 nation-states trying to be competitive on the world markets for goods and services, 35 percent of which are represented by the United States. Consequently, access to our markets is extremely important. U.S. tariffs provide critical, indispensable leverage against unfair foreign trade practices, including tariffs and nontariff barriers to our exports, and unfair penetration of our markets to the detriment of domestic production and jobs. Lessons can be drawn from trade experiences with two of America’s closest allies: Japan and Canada.

Japan, over the last 40 months, has devalued its currency against the U.S. dollar by 50%, from 105 to 155 yen to the dollar. This means that Japan has effectively established the equivalent of a 50% tariff on all international imports.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Canadian and US regulations are at odds in the Salish Sea, and whales are caught in the middle

December 30, 2025 — The Salish Sea is one ecosystem but Canada and the US are playing by different rules when it comes to protecting threatened whales, experts warn.

Endangered southern resident killer whales and at-risk humpbacks are blind to borders when transiting the transboundary waters in southern BC and northwestern Washington State that encompass the Strait of Georgia, Juan de Fuca Strait and Puget Sound, said Chloe Robinson, director of whales for Ocean Wise.

But an inconsistent patchwork of protection measures on either side of the border means the two whale species are increasingly vulnerable to ship strike, vessel disturbance, pollution, underwater noise and diminishing food sources, she said.

“The threats don’t change just because whales have crossed an invisible line,” Robinson said.

Problematic discrepancies exist between regulations around whale distance rules for boats, fisheries management, habitat protections and pollution standards, said Robinson, who led a comparative study of key conservation measures on each side of the border.

Both countries, along with provincial and state governments, need to align regulations, close protection gaps and reduce confusion for mariners, whale watching operations and vessels transiting the region to reduce cumulative stresses of whales, Robinson said.

There’s a dizzying mix of vessel approach distances and speed regulations for whale watching operators and recreational boaters on either side of the border depending on the type of whale and, in some cases, what they are doing, she added.

Read the full article at the National Observer