Saving Seafood

Alaskan fishing management on the hook in Ninth Circuit

August 11, 2026 — An ocean conservation group asked a Ninth Circuit panel on Monday to make the National Fisheries Management Service take another look at the impact of fishing on essential fish habitat offshore of Alaska.

“All the court needs to decide is a straightforward legal question: Can the Fisheries Service meet its obligation to minimize all adverse effects on all designated essential fish habitat by using only two tests to identify those adverse effects?” posited Katherine Glover, Earthjustice attorney representing Oceana.

Oceana, an advocacy organization focused on ocean conservation, sued the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2024. It accused the service of using the wrong criteria when looking at the effects of fishing on essential fish habitat offshore of Alaska.

Under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the service is required to identify and protect “essential fish habitat” necessary to sustain healthy fish populations.  As part of that, the service is obligated to minimize adverse impacts on essential fish habitats caused by fishing.

The service approved five amendments to management plans for federally managed groundfish, crab and salmon fisheries in the waters near Alaska, and Oceana accused the service of relying on only two flawed tests to make its decision. One is the core essential fish habitat test and the other is the minimum stock size threshold test.

Read the full article at Courthouse News Service

New England fishermen ask to weigh in on Seamounts marine monument lawsuit

August 4, 2026 — A pair of fishermen have asked a federal judge for permission to defend U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to reopen the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument to commercial fishing in court.

The status of commercial fishing in the 5,000-square-mile area off the coast of New England has flipped multiple times over the last decade, with U.S. President Barack Obama initially banning all commercial fishing except for lobster and crab harvesting when he designated it a marine monument in 2016. A lawsuit brought by commercial fishers failed to succeed in overturning the ban, but Trump reopened the area to commercial fishing in 2020 via a proclamation. U.S. President Joe Biden reinstated the ban in 2021, but Trump again reopened the area to commercial fishing via a proclamation in February 2026.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

June shelf-stable sales defy inflationary pressure at US retail; fresh, frozen sales affected

July 16, 2026 — Seafood prices continued their inflationary trend in June at U.S. retail, rising 4.1 percent in the fresh category, 7.8 percent in shelf-stable, and 12.5 percent in frozen seafood, according to Circana data analyzed by 210 Analytics.

Depending on the species, inflation was even more dramatic. For instance, frozen shrimp prices rose 18.5 percent year over year in June, while frozen crab prices increased 13.5 percent. In the fresh category, tilapia prices rose 8.3 percent, and trout rose 5.8 percent.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Sullivan reintroduces sweeping bill targeting bycatch, seafloor impacts

July 8, 2026 — U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) has reintroduced the Bycatch Reduction Act, legislation that would expand federal efforts to reduce bycatch, limit seafloor impacts from trawl gear, improve fisheries monitoring and increase transparency in fishery management.

According to Sullivan’s office, the bill builds on recommendations from the Alaska Salmon Task Force, which was created through legislation he authored and signed into law in 2022.

The proposal would establish new standards and monitoring requirements designed to keep both midwater and bottom trawl nets off the seafloor, require proven salmon excluder devices on pollock vessels, invest in salmon tagging and genetic sampling, expand ecosystem research, and create a new flume tank testing facility to evaluate fishing gear under simulated ocean conditions. The bill also would reauthorize NOAA’s Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program and encourage fishermen to test new gear and technologies aimed at reducing bycatch and habitat impacts.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Federal rule expands ‘shellfish’ definition to include squid, octopus

June 26, 2026 — A longstanding federal definition of “shellfish” is changing to better reflect modern biology and simplify seafood trade regulations.

According to Newsweek, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) finalized a rule on June 23 that removes the requirement that shellfish have an external shell. The updated definition takes effect on July 23, 2026

Under the revised rule, shellfish now includes aquatic invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca, bringing squid, octopus, cuttlefish and other cephalopods under the same regulatory definition as oysters and clams. Crustaceans such as lobster, shrimp and crab remain included.

The previous definition described shellfish as “any species of mollusk having a shell,” language that regulators said no longer matched current biological classifications. Because many cephalopods have internal, reduced or no external shells, the old definition created uncertainty in how these species were handled at U.S. ports of entry.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

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

Merry seafood outlook expected for US retailers this holiday season

December 21, 2023 — Consultants and grocers are anticipating higher sales of seafood in U.S. retail stores over the holidays, as research points to many Americans wanting to cook at home more during the year-end break.

“We expect seafood sales to continue their positive trends throughout November and December,” Fresh Thyme Meat and Seafood Sales, Merchandising, Marketing, and Procurement Lead Jason Resner told SeafoodSource. “It might not be [the increase] of 35 percent or more we saw last year, but we still expect double-digit sales comps in fresh seafood such as salmon, as well as crab and shrimp.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource 

Crabbing industry loses fight to prevent fishing in critical Alaskan ecosystem

January 27, 2023 — Fishing in designated areas off the Alaskan coast will continue despite pleas from harvesters and conservation groups to close the crucial habitat known for its red king crabs and allow for minimal disruption during the offseason.

The emergency action would have potentially shut down designated zones in Bristol Bay until at least early summer, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the petition failed to reach criteria to determine that an emergency closure would benefit the sea life population.

Several species of crabs, including the red king, have seen stunning declines over the last decade that has prompted NOAA and other stakeholders to take the extraordinary steps of limiting season fishing in an effort to try to protect crucial populations.

“We are concerned about the diminished sophistication and understanding of marine habitats, which inevitably results in collapses and that are generally only made visible with the disappearance of commercially valuable species,” Marissa Wilson, executive director of the Alaska Marine Conservation Council, stated in prepared comments to NOAA.

Read the full story at Fox 7 Austin

ALASKA: Northwest, Alaska crabbers strike for better prices

January 19, 2023 — The new year started off with a fizzle for West Coast and Alaska crab fisheries, with fleets in Oregon and Alaska striking for higher ex-vessel prices. 

In Oregon, the Dungeness Dec. 1 opening was delayed in hopes that meat fill in the crabs would increase, and that levels of domoic acid would decrease in some of the test areas. Equally driving delays was the fleet’s effort of nudging processors’ offers closer to $4.75 per pound, like they started with in 2022, rather than the $2.25 per pound they offered in the advent of the 2023 season. 

The official date of the opening had been moved to Jan. 15, with areas in Washington opening on Feb. 1, but many opted to stay tied to the docks in hopes that prices among processors would start closer to $4.

Read the full article at National Fisherman