Saving Seafood

ALASKA: As inflation continues to rise, some fisheries turn to artificial intelligence to lower costs

August 18, 2025 — New technology is coming to Alaskan fisheries thanks to a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

The grant was to the Alaska’s Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) and the $485,000 will be used to develop technology to incorporate artificial intelligence into the existing electronic monitoring (EM) program.

ALFA is partnering with the Canadian company Archipelago Marine Research to enhance its FishVue AI tool, training it for Alaskan sablefish and halibut fixed gear fisheries. This move is expected to help increase efficiency and lower costs for the fishermen.

“If you participate in federal fisheries, your vessel is over 40 feet, you’re required to have either an onboard observer or an electronic monitoring, an EM camera system, on your vessel for a percentage of your trips that get monitored and that’s federal regulation,” ALFA policy coordinator Lauren Howard explained.

Read the full article at Alaska News Source

Bolder efforts needed to save Northwest’s endangered orcas, report finds

July 14, 2025 — Efforts to save the Northwest’s endangered orcas are not working on either side of the U.S.-Canada border, according to an international panel of scientists.

In a new report, the panel of 31 researchers call for bolder measures to bring the endangered whales back from the brink of extinction.

The whale experts say these orcas urgently need comprehensive action for quiet, clean, salmon-rich waters.

“It’s a declining population, and it’s a population that we predict will be declining for a generation or two, and then that decline will accelerate rapidly towards extinction if we don’t turn this around quickly,” said Rob Williams, chief scientist with the nonprofit Oceans Initiative in Seattle and one of the report’s coauthors.

The salmon-eating orcas, known as southern resident killer whales, were declared an endangered species in Canada in 2001 and in the United States in 2005.

Read the full article at KUOW

Trump threatens Canada with 35 percent tariffs, but exceptions could benefit seafood

July 11, 2025 — U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened Canada – the U.S.’s largest seafood trading partner – with 35 percent tariffs, but an official later confirmed the higher rate may not apply to most seafood.

In a letter sent to Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney, Trump once again claimed the “Nation’s Fentanyl crisis” is motivation for the tariffs and blamed Canada’s “failure to stop the drugs from pouring into our Country” for the new threats.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Canada to take steps to protect vanishing North Atlantic right whales from ships

July 7, 2025 — The Canadian government says it is taking steps this summer to protect a vanishing species of whale from lethal collisions with ships in its waters.

The whale is the North Atlantic right whale, which numbers only about 370. The whales give birth off the southeastern U.S. in the winter and spring and migrate north to New England and Canada to feed.

Along the way, the whales face dangers including ship strikes and entanglement in commercial fishing gear. Environmental groups have long faulted the U.S. and Canadian governments for not doing enough to protect the critically endangered animals.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick vows to support Maine lobster, suggests industry will be exempt from tariffs on Canada

June 9, 2025 — U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick vowed to protect and support Maine lobster during a hearing on his department’s budget plans, while suggesting that Maine lobster processed in Canada would likely be unaffected by new tariffs.

“This administration views the Maine lobster industry as an American treasure, and we need to protect it,” Lutnick told lawmakers during a 4 June budget hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Canada’s new fisheries minister re-elected, Liberal Party wins national election

April 29, 2025 — Canadian Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard Joanne Thompson has won her re-election and will likely continue in the role as Canada’s Liberal Party won control of the government on 28 April.

Thompson was chosen for the role in March 2025, replacing former minister Diane Lebouthillier who served in the role since July 2023 when she replaced Joyce Murray. The shift in leadership came as former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stepped down from the role, with Liberal leadership passing to Mark Carney. Carney then called for an election, which ran on 28 April.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

As Trump administration upends international trade, seafood companies point out areas for improvement

March 28, 2025 — With U.S. President Donald Trump set on reordering international trade to align with his “America First” priorities, seafood companies have been quick to list areas where they would like to see improvements.

Trump has moved swiftly in the first months of his second term to change the nation’s trade policies, threatening and implementing tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Trump administration escalates trade war; seafood largely unaffected for now

March 12, 2025 — The seafood industry has so far mostly avoided tariffs on imports amid the global trade war started by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum from all countries with no exemption starting 12 March, and the European Union and Canada immediately retaliated with new tariffs of their own. Trump claimed the tariffs are being imposed as imports of steel and aluminum pose a “national security threat.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource