Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Alaska commercial fishing job numbers sink to record low, state report says

November 6, 2025 — The number of commercial fishing jobs in Alaska plunged to a new low last year as the industry struggles with disrupted fisheries, low prices, climate change and foreign competition that could get a boost from President Donald’s Trump’s trade war, a state report has found.

“Alaska lost seafood harvesting jobs for a fifth straight year in 2024, bringing the industry to its lowest job count since data collection began in 2001,” according to the November report in Alaska Economic Trends.

The drop in employment extends statewide and across multiple fisheries including salmon, herring, black cod and other species.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

Offshore wind projects feel brunt of Trump policy decisions

October 29, 2025 — On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive memorandum prohibiting new offshore wind leasing for all areas of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf and directing his Cabinet to review previously approved projects.

The president’s animosity toward wind turbines already was well-known, going back over a decade to when he couldn’t stop an offshore wind farm from being built near one of his golf courses in Scotland.

“We don’t allow windmills,” he said at an August Cabinet meeting. “We’re not allowing any windmills to go up. I mean, unless there’s a legal situation where somebody committed to it a long time ago.

“They’re ugly, they don’t work, they kill your birds, they’re bad for the environment,” he added.

That sentiment, as well as the president’s first-day memo, set the tone for a dramatic reduction in federal support for wind energy, especially projects located offshore.

Over the last nine months, the Interior, Energy and Transportation departments announced a series of approval and funding rescissions for wind projects off the coasts of the United States. The administration’s stated reasons for the changes include a preference for energy-dense sources of power, such as that generated by fossil fuels and through nuclear energy, an interest in being more selective when it comes to federal subsidies, and what some experts call unfounded concerns that offshore wind turbines harm whales and birds.

Read the full article at Roll Call

South Korea announces trade deal with US reducing tariffs to 15 percent

October 29, 2025 — The U.S. and South Korea have reached a trade deal that will reduce tariffs on the Asian nation from 25 percent to 15 percent, both countries announced on 29 October.

U.S. President Donald Trump initially threatened the 25 percent tariff in July, with a start date of 1 August. Since that time, all goods from the country – including seafood – have been subject to the duty.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Trump offshore drilling plan faces fierce opposition in Congress

October 27, 2025 — Lawmakers are girding for a fight against President Donald Trump’s apparent plans to open up the Atlantic and Pacific coastlines to offshore drilling.

In interviews Thursday, Democrats called the idea “not lawful,” a “huge mistake” and “absolutely ridiculous.” Coastal Republicans, for their part, said they would also oppose any offshore drilling, though at least one East Coast Republican was open to the idea — albeit with a caveat.

Trump faced bipartisan opposition when he attempted a similar move in 2020, during his first term. He eventually backed down following widespread outcry amid his reelection effort.

Read the full article at E&E News

Trump says trade negotiations with Canada terminated in response to television advertisement

October 24, 2025 — U.S. President Donald Trump announced he is terminating all trade negotiations with Canada, the U.S.’s largest seafood trading partner, in response to a television advertisement featuring a quote from former President Ronald Reagan.

Trump, in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, said he was terminating the trade negotiations and that the Ronald Reagan Foundation “announced that Canada fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about tariffs.” The foundation had posted an update online saying it was “reviewing its legal options” on the advertisement, which directly quotes a real address by Reagan publicly available online.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MAINE: US Senator Susan Collins says steel tariffs are hurting Maine lobstermen

October 23, 2025 — U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) claims Maine’s lobster industry has been hit hard by U.S. President Donald Trump’s higher tariffs on imported steel and is asking his administration to insulate the sector from those costs.

“Lobstering has become a more expensive profession in recent years as lobstermen’s earnings per pound in 2024 decreased to some of the lowest levels in the past 75 years, and I continue to hear from lobstermen about the ways that tariffs have exacerbated this problem,” Collins wrote in an 20 October letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Fishing council recommends rolling back fishing prohibitions in Pacific Ocean

September 18, 2025 — The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council wants to undo fishing protections in the Pacific Ocean, which opponents say will hurt ocean ecosystems.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in April to review regulations in U.S. marine monuments in an effort to promote domestic fishing.

As part of that review, WESPAC was asked to make recommendations to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce on what to do within Pacific monuments.

On Tuesday the council voted to endorse a July letter it drafted recommending the allowance of commercial fishing in three Pacific monuments — the Mariana Trench, Rose Atoll and Pāpahānaumokuākea marine national monuments.

The council also voted separately to repeal fishing prohibitions in the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, formerly known as the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.

Read the full article at Hawaii Public Radio

Federal judge skeptical of Massachusetts’ offshore wind lawsuit against Trump

September 8, 2025 — Massachusetts, and the wind projects that have invested millions to build off its coast, will have to wait a bit longer to see if a federal judge will provide any relief from President Donald Trump’s wind memorandum that has frozen offshore wind permitting for the last eight months.

Judge William G. Young, during a hearing on Thursday, again expressed some skepticism about the multistate lawsuit. In opening remarks, and during questioning to both parties, Young said that Trump has made his position against offshore wind very clear. So, if he were to rule in favor of the states (and against the memo), he asked what change it would make for the projects that have been stuck in permitting limbo.

“[Trump’s] view of the presidency is, those people who are subordinate to me are going to follow my instructions. That’s the presidency as we know it today,” Young said. “Given the president’s view, where does that get you? … He’ll tell [agencies] to deny [permits] and they will, because they have to follow orders.”

Massachusetts Deputy Attorney General Turner Smith in response said that although that may be true, the states will address it case by case and permit by permit, if necessary.

“They may decide to issue or deny a permit,” Smith said. “Our hope is that the agencies would take to heart that they are required to follow applicable law in processing and issuing these permits.”

U.S. Department of Justice attorney Michael Robertson, on behalf of the federal government, argued the states have not sufficiently proven violations of cited laws, and that if the judge were to rule in their favor, it should be on a permit by permit and project by project level.

Revolution Wind featured briefly in the hearing arguments. Late last month, the federal government issued a stop-work order on the under-construction project, citing Trump’s wind memo.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

US Wind asks federal court to deny Trump’s pending permit approval reversal

September 5, 2025 — Offshore wind developer US Wind has filed a cross claim against the Trump Administration in an ongoing legal battle over US Wind’s proposed project off the shores of Delmarva, according to court documents obtained by WBOC.

Filed on Sept. 3, US Wind’s cross claim against the federal government alleges the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the National Marine Fisheries Service are illegally seeking to vacate the Biden Administration’s previously approved permits that greenlit the US Wind offshore project.

As WBOC first reported, the Trump administration notified the US District Court in Delaware of its intention to withdraw federal approval of the permits on Aug. 22. Both the federal government and US Wind are listed as defendants in an ongoing lawsuit brought against them by Ocean City leaders, residents, businesses, and numerous other parties in an attempt to stop the offshore project. Because of their intent to reverse approval, the Trump Administration argues the lawsuit is about to be rendered moot.

Read the full article at WBOC

Trump Strikes Blow To New England Wind Project With Cancellation Of Federal Funding For Salem Port

September 3, 2025 — President Donald Trump’s administration cancelled almost $34 million intended to develop a vacant industrial facility in Salem into an offshore wind terminal, striking another blow against the already beleaguered New England Wind project slated for installation southwest of Nantucket and the struggling U.S. offshore wind industry at large.

Avangrid, the offshore wind developer behind both New England Wind and Vineyard Wind, planned to use Salem to stage the former project. It’s unclear how the loss of federal funding for the port project will impact New England Wind, or if the developers can complete the project under Trump’s regulatory regime.

New England Wind has already been substantially delayed as a result of previous federal efforts to curtail offshore wind development, which have held up power purchase agreements with Massachusetts’ utilities.

The lease areas for New England 1 and New England 2, located west of Vineyard Wind, would include 129 wind turbines that the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management estimates could power more than 900,000 homes each year.

Read the full article at the Nantucket Current