Saving Seafood

Trump’s latest tariff threats would hit more seafood suppliers

January 20, 2026 — U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened a new set of tariffs on eight European countries, potentially impacting the seafood industry and a prior trade deal with the European Union.

In a post on his social media site Truth Social, Trump threatened 10 percent tariffs on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands, and Finland starting 1 February over those countries’ decision to station personnel in Greenland. He added those tariffs will be increased to 25 percent on 1 June 2026 unless he receives a deal for the “Complete and Total purchase of Greenland.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Trump’s offshore wind project freeze draws lawsuits from states and developers

January 8, 2026 — Offshore wind developers affected by the Trump administration’s freeze of five big projects on the East Coast are fighting back in court, with one developer saying its project will likely be terminated if they can’t resume by the end of next week.

Norwegian company Equinor and the Danish energy company Orsted are the latest to sue, with the limited liability companies for their projects filing civil suits late Tuesday. Connecticut and Rhode Island filed their own request on Monday seeking a preliminary injunction for a third project.

The administration announced Dec. 22 it was suspending leases for at least 90 days on the five offshore wind projects because of national security concerns. Its announcement did not reveal specifics about those concerns.

President Donald Trump has been hostile to renewable energy technologies that produce electricity cleanly, particularly offshore wind, and has instead prioritized oil, coal and natural gas that emit carbon pollution when burned.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Trump signs Save Our Seas Act 2.0 Amendments Act into law

January 6, 2026 — U.S. President Donald Trump has signed the Save Our Seas Act 2.0 Amendments Act into law, strengthening and reauthorizing a federal marine debris cleanup program for another five years.

“This bill ensures critical work continues to combat plastic pollution before it reaches our ocean and supports the Marine Debris Foundation, strengthening efforts to reduce marine debris and protect coastal communities and wildlife,” NGO Ocean Conservancy said in a social media post. “This is a major step forward to advance NOAA’s mission and a clear example of what’s possible when leaders come together to defend science-based solutions for our ocean. Ocean Conservancy is proud to have long championed the Marine Debris Program as part of our broader NOAA defense work.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Canada, US planning formal trade talks, placing potential tariffs back on horizon

December 22, 2025 — Canada and the U.S. are poised to enter formal trade talks in 2026 as the U.S., Mexico, and Canada Agreement (USMCA) reaches its first review period.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump established the USMCA in 2018, replacing the longstanding North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). When it was established, the USMCA included a clause to potentially renegotiate the deal in 2026, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has now told Canadian provincial leaders that Minister of Internal Trade Dominic LeBlanc will meet with officials in the U.S. in mid-January to launch those discussions, the Associated Press reported.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Wespac Looks To Expand Commercial Access To Hawaiʻi’s Papahānaumokuākea

December 16, 2025 –Local fishery managers, moving in step with the Trump administration, want to eventually reopen large protected swaths of the Pacific to potentially all sorts of U.S. commercial fishing — not just the deep-sea tuna and swordfish sought by longline boats but nearshore lobsters and corals as well.

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, commonly known as Wespac, will consider on Tuesday options drafted by its staff to lift the commercial bans in several marine national monuments, including Hawaiʻi’s Papahānaumokuākea.

Some of the options that the influential group will consider endorsing would allow commercial fishing to resume in Northwestern Hawaiian waters as close as 3 miles from shore.

The move comes in the wake of President Donald Trump’s order last April asking fishery officials to explore reopening the monuments to commercial fishing.

Wespac has for years opposed commercial fishing bans in the Pacific. A brewing legal battle leaves it unclear whether Wespac, backed by the Honolulu-based longline industry and other seafood interests, will ultimately prevail.

Kitty Simonds, Wespac’s longtime executive director, told Civil Beat on Monday that the group considers it a priority to resume bottomfishing and trolling in Papahānaumokuākea’s waters that extend 50 miles out from shore, and to restart longline fishing in the waters 50 to 200 miles out from shore.

“We haven’t changed what we’d like to see from the time of (establishing) the monument, right?” Simonds said. “We made our arguments.”

Read the full article at Civil Beats

MARYLAND: Maryland Calls for Offshore Wind Proposals Days After Court Victory

December 15, 2025 — The State of Maryland celebrated the victory in the courts against the Trump administration’s order halting licensing for wind energy projects by launching a new call for Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) from the licensed developers. The state reiterated its commitment to wind energy despite the ongoing struggles with federal regulators.

Maryland published the details of the call open to leaseholders. The state will be conducting an information conference this upcoming week. Proposals are due by January 16.

At the beginning of the week, the 17 states and the District of Columbia, which had filed a complaint in May, won a court order that vacated Donald Trump’s Executive Order halting sales and licensing for the wind power industry. The January order had directed federal agencies to pause their effort and to begin an open-ended review of the process. The administration argues that wind power was unfairly advantaged by the Biden administration and that licensing was rushed without full consideration of the impact of the projects.

A U.S. District Court Judge, however, found that the order was “arbitrary and capricious.” U.S. District Court Judge Patti Saris in Massachusetts found that the Executive Order violated the Administrative Procedures Act that governs how agencies administer programs.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

Awaiting Supreme Court decision, more US seafood suppliers file tariff lawsuits

December 12, 2025 — U.S. seafood import firms Mark Foods and Bristol Seafood have filed lawsuits over U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff program, following the lead of fellow seafood companies Netuno USA and Bumble Bee.

New York City, New York, U.S.A.-based Mark Foods and Portland, Maine, U.S.A.-based Bristol Seafood filed separate lawsuits against the U.S. government, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott in the U.S. Court of International Trade.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US House committee approves Stop Illegal Fishing Act

December 5, 2025 — The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee has approved the Stop Illegal Fishing Act, legislation that authorizes U.S. President Donald Trump to impose sanctions on foreign individuals and vessels that engage in illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU) fishing.

The authors of the bill say the measure is necessary to crack down on large foreign fishing fleets that have dodgy records on the environment and human rights – particularly China’s distant-water fleet.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

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