Saving Seafood

China could lose $1.5 billion seafood market as US petition targets shark finning

May 27, 2026 — A petition drawing attention to a crisis involving both shark deaths and the treatment of migrant workers on distant-water fishing vessels could put billions of dollars in seafood trade on the line.

If U.S. officials determine that China is not meeting American shark conservation standards, the dispute may lead to restrictions on about $1.5 billion in Chinese seafood imports.

What happened?

The Center for Biological Diversity has petitioned the U.S. government to review possible sanctions against China under the Moratorium Protection Act, saying the country’s shark finning rules do not match U.S. protections, according to Inside Climate News.

In the United States, along with over 90 other jurisdictions, fishers are generally required to land sharks with fins still attached to their bodies. Conservationists say that standard is the most effective way to prevent shark finning. China permits fin removal in many fisheries under ratio-based rules, which critics say are hard to enforce and easy to game.

Shark populations are down by over 70% since 1970, and over a third of shark and ray species face extinction. Per Chinese figures, in 2023, crews discarded more than 10,000 blue sharks and nearly 1,700 shortfin makos in one Pacific region.

WASHINGTON: Washington state reclassifying golden mussels as a banned invasive species

April 27, 2026 — The U.S. state of Washington is taking emergency action to reclassify golden mussels as a Prohibited Level 1 invasive species following the discovery of the species in Oregon earlier in the month.

Originally from China and Southeast Asia, golden mussels are an invasive species in the U.S. that are known to cause damage to infrastructure and reduce water quality, harming local fishing operations. The species was first detected in California in 2024, but a second instance was detected in Oregon in April 2026. According to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), a watercraft was intercepted at the Ashland Boat Inspection Station carrying golden mussels.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Alaska lawmakers push for continued ban on Russian seafood imports

April 1, 2026 — A legislative resolution urging a continued and better-enforced ban on Russian seafood in the United States is headed to Gov. Mike Dunleavy.

Part of a series of actions by Alaska lawmakers to try to shore up the state’s ailing seafood industry, House Joint Resolution 29 won final passage last week and was transferred to the governor on Monday.

The resolution calls for continuation of the ban on Russian seafood imports imposed in 2022, after that country’s invasion of Ukraine. The ban was expanded in 2023 to cover imports of Russian seafood to the U.S. through a third-party country, usually China, where fish are processed.

The import ban is set to expire later this year. That makes the resolution timely, supporters aid.

Among the supporters is Jeremy Woodrow, executive director of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.

Woodrow, in testimony to the Senate Resources Committee on Feb. 27, said a stockpile of Russian fish that was in the U.S. before the ban went into full effect is just now being depleted.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

Some tariffs may be gone, but wholesale seafood industry is still reeling

March 19, 2026 — Walking into the Thomas M. Menino Convention & Exhibition Center in Boston, you can smell the seafood. Which makes sense given that it’s hosting the country’s largest wholesale seafood expo. Suppliers from around the world dole out samples of fresh sashimi, crispy fish sticks, and seaweed salad.

“It’s sweet, and it’s a little bit spicy, and it’s a compliment to meat or heavier stuff,” said Camille Zhu, who runs a seaweed company on the coast of Shandong province in Northern China.

She began selling to the U.S. just last year and said it’s been hard with all the trade tensions and tariffs. But she’s confident in her product.

“People are starting to accept seaweed as a source of nutrition, and they’re looking for a healthy diet,” she said. “And with the popularity of Japanese cuisine, yeah, it’s getting pretty big for us.”

About 80% of seafood consumed in the U.S. is imported. Some of the biggest suppliers —including China and India — have seen some of the highest tariffs from the Trump administration in the past year. All that has thrown the global seafood trade into chaos.

Read the full article at Marketplace

The hidden cost of fisheries subsidies

March 17, 2026 — In public finance, some costs are politely kept off the books. The ocean has long been one of them. Governments often speak of “blue growth” and “sustainable use,” yet many policies still treat marine ecosystems as a kind of free input: available, resilient, and cheap to replace. The result is ecological decline. It is also a fiscal problem. States end up assuming risks they would not tolerate on land.

Fishing provides a clear example. For decades, a large share of industrial effort has been propped up by public money. One influential analysis of high-seas fishing found that governments subsidized high-seas fleets by about $4.2 billion in 2014—more than the estimated net economic benefit of that fishing—and that without subsidies, as much as 54% of the high-seas fishing grounds currently exploited would have been unprofitable at the prices and costs prevailing at the time.

Read the full article at Mongabay

US pushes AI funding, fisheries tech at APEC amid China rivalry

February 12, 2026 — The Trump administration is promoting artificial intelligence exports and maritime surveillance technology at Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in southern China this week, as Washington seeks to counter Beijing’s technological and maritime influence.

The United States is also using APEC to promote American private-sector technologies designed to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, which Washington says threatens food security and maritime sovereignty in parts of the Pacific.

Ruth Perry, Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, said on Tuesday China’s 18-million-strong distant-water fleet posed enforcement challenges for smaller coastal states.

“Many countries are negatively impacted and China is a perpetrator … the size of the fleet can’t be ignored across the Pacific,” Perry told Reuters, noting reports that suggest an unusual level of state coordination among its actions.

Illegal fishing is frequently linked to other transnational crimes including forced labour, trafficking and smuggling, Perry said.

Perry noted that China’s revised Fisheries Law is due to take effect from May. “They’re saying all the right things and we want to see if they’re going to follow through with those actions.”

Read the full article at Reuters

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

US Congressional committee accuses China’s distant-water fishing fleet of intimidation, ecological destruction

January 20, 2026 — The U.S. House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party has released an investigation accusing China of being “the world’s largest perpetrator of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.”

The committee made several strong claims about China’s distant-water fishing fleet, accusing the Chinese government of using the fleet of roughly 16,000 vessels for intimidation and control.

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

US commission on China calls on Congress to do more to curtail forced labor in seafood supply chain

December 10, 2025 — The U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China’s (CECC) latest annual report – released to coincide with International Human Rights Day – features seafood prominently as it calls on Congress and the U.S. government as a whole to do more to combat forced labor.

Seafood from China has been under scrutiny by the U.S. government, in part thanks to a report released by The Outlaw Ocean Project which released findings of a multi-month investigation into the global seafood supply chain. That investigation found extensive evidence of forced labor in processing facilities operated by multiple Chinese companies connected to the U.S. supply chain and U.S. companies.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource