Saving Seafood

Senate pushes forward FISH Act to combat illegal global fishing

October 20, 2025 — U.S. senators voted to attach legislation designed to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing to the Senate’s annual military spending legislation just before it passed.

If passed, the Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvest (FISH) Act would require the U.S. government to establish a blacklist of vessels involved in IUU activities. Vessels on the list would be banned from U.S. waters. The legislation would also require the U.S. Coast Guard to increase at-sea inspections to combat IUU fishing. The bill also requires reports to be submitted on how new technologies can help combat IUU fishing and on how Russian and Chinese fishing affects the U.S. market.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Trump reignites tariff threats, proposes 100 percent duties against Chinese goods

October 14, 2025 — U.S. President Donald Trump has reignited trade uncertainty with a new threat that the U.S. was considering a 100 percent tariff on Chinese goods as of 1 November.

Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social that China took an “extraordinarily aggressive position on Trade” and that the U.S. would respond with 100 percent tariffs on China, over and above any current tariff, as of 1 November. Trump said the move was in response to a letter sent by China saying that it would impose export controls on its products.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US Senate passes military funding bill with FISH Act attached

October 13, 2025 — U.S. senators voted to attach legislation designed to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing to the Senate’s annual military spending legislation just before it passed.

If passed, the Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvest (FISH) Act would require the U.S. government to establish a blacklist of vessels involved in IUU activities. Vessels on the list would be banned from U.S. waters. The legislation would also require the U.S. Coast Guard to increase at-sea inspections to combat IUU fishing. The bill also requires reports to be submitted on how new technologies can help combat IUU fishing and on how Russian and Chinese fishing affects the U.S. market.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US ports are preparing for shutdown-related delays as China’s Golden Week disrupts supply chains worldwide

October 1, 2025 — Shipping and logistics industry stakeholders in the U.S. are preparing for shutdown-related delays after congressional deadlock left the federal government without a funding package as of 1 October.

The shutdown comes amid an already chaotic week in global shipping as Golden Week in China, which runs from 1 – 8 October and closes Chinese factories and ports, slows down supply chains worldwide.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US senators demand ban on Chinese seafood over IUU fishing, forced labor

August 27, 2025 — A pair of senators from the United States have sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, demanding the federal government issue “the toughest possible sanctions on seafood from China” over human rights violations in its commercial fishing industry.

In the 21 August letter, U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Alabama) and U.S. Senator Rick Scott (R-Florida) claimed illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in China’s seafood industry was harmful to U.S. workers and a threat to national security.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Trump delays tariffs on China for another 90 days

August 13, 2025 — U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order further delaying a proposed tariff increase for another 90 days.

The latest order, “Further Modifying Reciprocal Tariff Rates to Reflect Ongoing Discussions with the People’s Republic of China,” cites ongoing trade talks between U.S. and Chinese officials as a reason for the delay. With the new order, the existing suspension on tariffs will now last until 12:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on 10 November.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US tariffs on Southeast Asia give China breathing room to weather current volatility, Chinese exporter says

August 5, 2025 — U.S. tariffs on Southeast Asian nations like Vietnam have helped to cushion the impact of trade disruptions on Chinese processors and exporters, according to Landy Chow, the general manager of seafood exporter Siam Canadian’s Chinese office.

The U.S. recently instituted 20 percent tariffs on Vietnamese goods, down from the 42 percent it was initially threatened with. Chinese seafood, meanwhile, faces 30 percent tariffs, as well as 25 percent Section 301 tariffs, resulting in a 55 percent overall tariff rate.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US lawmakers want to root out any Chinese seafood from the military over Uyghur labor

August 4, 2025 — U.S. lawmakers are looking to eliminate any China-sourced seafood from its military as part of a renewed legislative effort aiming to address the Chinese government’s repression and abuse of the Uyghur minority group.

Human rights groups have long accused the Chinese government of persecuting its largely Muslim Uyghur populations, including via forced sterilization and forced labor. In October 2023, nonprofit journalism organization The Outlaw Ocean Project released a report documenting the use of Uyghur forced labor at several Chinese seafood processors, claiming that at least 47,000 metric tons of seafood were sent to the U.S. from facilities that used Uyghur workers.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

A record catch of krill near Antarctica could trigger an unprecedented end to fishing season

July 29, 2025 — Trawling near Antarctica for krill — a crustacean central to the diet of whales and a critical buffer to global warming — has surged to a record and is fast approaching a never before reached seasonal catch limit that would trigger the unprecedented early closure of the remote fishery, The Associated Press has learned.

The fishing boom follows the failure last year of the U.S., Russia, China and two dozen other governments to approve a new management plan that would have mandated spreading out the area in which krill can be caught and creating a California-sized reserve along the environmentally sensitive Antarctic Peninsula.

In the first seven months of the 2024-25 season, krill fishing in Antarctica reached 518,568 tons, about 84% of the 620,000-ton limit that, once reached, will force the fishery to automatically close. In one hot spot, the catch through June 30 was nearly 60% higher than all of last year’s haul, according to a report from the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, or CCAMLR, the international organization that manages the world’s southernmost fishery.

Read the full article at Associated Press