Saving Seafood

Trump Admin Halts New York Offshore Wind Project, Orders Review of All Existing Biden-Era Wind Permits

April 16, 2025 — The Trump administration is halting construction of a massive offshore wind project being built in federal waters off the coast of New York and ordering a sprawling review of existing offshore wind permits, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Wednesday to order foreign energy developer Equinor to cease all construction activities on its Empire Wind project, according to a memorandum obtained by the Free Beacon. Burgum said the Biden administration green-lit permits for the project and ultimately approved it without conducting proper analysis.

“Approval for the project was rushed through by the prior administration without sufficient analysis or consultation among the relevant agencies as relates to the potential effects from the project,” Burgum wrote. He said the halt on Empire Wind will be in effect indefinitely until further review is completed to “address these serious deficiencies.”

Burgum additionally ordered Interior Department staff to continue a review of federal wind permitting practices related to both existing and pending permits and approvals.

Read the full article at The Washington Free Beacon  

Experts warn US could leave WTO

April 16, 2025 —  Considering the U.S.’s launch of a global trade war and U.S. President Donald Trump’s disdain for international collaboration, experts are warning that the U.S. may soon leave the World Trade Organization (WTO), a move that could render trade rules unenforceable among developing economies and throw global trade further into chaos.

“We should not preclude a prospect where the U.S. will leave the WTO in the coming 18 months,” said Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, the director of the European Center for International Political Economy (ECIPE) and a former Swedish trade expert in WTO affairs. “On one hand, the U.S. outside of the system is a much better option than China being expelled and unhinged outside the system. On the other hand, the U.S. trade deficit is financing a lot of export-led growth around the world. Without that market access underwriting WTO rules, there would be no incentives for compliance among emerging markets.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Trump admin names new NOAA Fisheries head amid plans to slash agency

April 15, 2025 — U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has named a new head of NOAA Fisheries, the agency charged with managing the nation’s commercial fisheries, even as the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump plans on slashing the regulator’s budget and moving its functions to the U.S. Department of Interior.

On 14 April, the government announced that former commercial fisherman and officeholder Eugenio Piñeiro Soler will serve as assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Trump plan would eliminate NOAA climate research, slash agency budget

April 14, 2025 — A new Trump proposal would eliminate nearly all National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration labs focused on studying the world’s weather, climate and oceans and would slash much of the agency’s budget — part of what the White House document describes as an effort to sever all “climate-related programs” from the agency.

Documents detailing the administration’s proposal, reviewed by The Washington Post, would cut NOAA’s $6.1 billion budget by 27 percent overall, while effectively eliminating a research branch of the agency whose mission is to improve weather and climate forecasts, natural disaster warnings, and understanding of the natural world.

The programs are “misaligned with the President’s agenda and the expressed will of the American people,” the document says.

With the plan, the Trump administration has significantly accelerated its attacks on climate science, while opening itself to further criticism that it is handicapping the country’s ability to protect itself from natural disasters by cutting crucial and popular weather forecasting programs.

Read the full article at the Washington Post

Trump’s tariffs and subsequent trade war trigger further unease among aquaculture investors

April 14, 2025 — Elevated economic and political upheaval and the looming threat of tariffs have started hindering investments in the blue food economy, with backers of start-ups finding later-stage funders are edging away from the aquaculture innovation space.

Speaking at the Blue Food Innovation Summit, held in London from 8 to 9 April 2025, Aqua-Spark Chief Portfolio Officer Maria Velkova said there’s a tremendous amount of uncertainty in the aquaculture industry at present – particularly among investors. Such a backdrop tends to make things more difficult, with people becoming increasingly risk-averse and more prone to freezing up.

 Read the full article at SeafoodSource

After latest escalation, tariffs between US and China stand at 125 percent – for now

April 11, 2025 — Both the United States and China have set tariffs of 125 percent on goods from the other nation after just over a week of back-and-forth increases.

China’s Ministry of Finance announced on 11 April it is imposing tariffs on imported goods from the U.S. of 125 percent, up from the 84 percent it announced just days before. That amount is in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s escalation of tariffs, which at first were increased to 54 percent, then bumped up again to 104 percent, before finally being increased to 125 percent as Trump announced a 90-day pause on tariffs for most other countries.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Massive turbine power being built off NY coast despite Trump ban on offshore wind projects

April 11, 2025 — A massive wind power project off the coast of New York blew past President Trump’s executive order to block or pause all new wind energy leasing in federal waterways — which opponents claim will destroy aquatic life and the commercial fishing industry.

Norway-based Equinor, which already had all the necessary lease and permit approvals from the feds before Trump’s January 20 executive order went into effect, confirmed that it has started construction at the site — laying rock as the foundation for the giant 54 wind turbines — 15 miles off the coast of Long Beach.

Equinor will deliver the power by connecting to Con Edison’s electric grid via a cable link from the ocean floor to the substation at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Sunset Park.

The “Empire Wind 1″ project — which will power 500,000 homes — has the strong backing from both Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul, in part to help meet the goals of the ambitious state climate change law mandating 100% zero-emission electricity by 2040 and the phasing out of fossil fuels by 2050.

Read the full article at the New York Post

Reports indicate Trump planning to gut NOAA, transfer fisheries functions to US Fish and Wildlife Service

April 11, 2025 — The Trump administration is planning to make severe cuts to NOAA Fisheries, transferring most fisheries services to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS), according to internal documents obtained by CNN.

“This is ludicrous! Whether you live on a coast or in the heartland, these proposed cuts to NOAA will impact you,” Oceana Vice President for the United States Beth Lowell said in a statement. “Eliminating funding and staffing won’t just cause chaos and confusion within NOAA – it would undermine people and businesses across the country.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Lawmakers, officials debate pros and cons of tariffs on the seafood sector

April 10, 2025 — Lawmakers in Congress are debating the impact of the Trump administration’s ever-fluctuating tariffs on the seafood sector, with a handful of Republicans crossing the aisle in favor of curtailing the president’s authority to implement tariffs without review.

U.S. President Donald Trump has moved swiftly in the first few months of his second administration to improve the nation’s trade deficit by implementing wide-ranging tariffs on foreign goods – though he’s walked many of the tariffs back just as quickly.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

The White House: Executive Order to restore American maritime dominance

April 9, 2025 — WASHINGTON — The following was released by the White House today:

REVITALIZING U.S. MARITIME POWER: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed a historic Executive Order to restore American maritime dominance

  • The Order directs the creation of a Maritime Action Plan (MAP) to revitalize U.S. maritime industries.
    • The MAP will provide a strategy with specific actions to restore and create sustained resiliency for the American maritime industry.
  • Up until now, government procurement processes and over-regulation have hindered private industry’s ability to build vessels on time and on budget—this Order reverses that trend.
  • It instructs the Secretary of Defense to assess options, including the Defense Production Act Title III authorities, to invest in and expand the Maritime Industrial Base.
    • Such an action will help better utilize and leverage existing authorities to spur public and private investment in the Maritime Industrial Base.
  • The Order directs the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to make recommendations regarding China’s anticompetitive actions within the shipbuilding industry.
  • It also directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to enforce collection of the Harbor Maintenance Fee and other charges on foreign cargo entering the United States to prevent circumvention via Canada or Mexico.
    • This will put an end to a longstanding unfair practice, ensuring all cargoes entering the United States are assessed the proper applicable fees and generating additional revenue for investment into the maritime industry.
  • The U.S. government will work with our allies and partners to align trade policies to disrupt China’s non-market practices in the international supply chain and logistics sectors.
  • The Order establishes a Maritime Security Trust Fund to provide consistent funding for maritime programs in addition to a shipbuilding financial incentives program to boost private investment in U.S. shipbuilding.
  • It develops Maritime Prosperity Zones to incentivize investment in waterfront communities and is to be modeled on President Trump’s highly successful Opportunity Zone concept.
  • It expands Mariner training and education through an investment in the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and a plan for expanding training opportunities.
  • To ensure national economic security, the U.S. government will increase the fleet of commercial vessels trading internationally under U.S. flag as well as domestically between our ports.
  • The MAP will develop a strategy to ensure security and leadership of arctic waterways to address the growing presence of foreign nations in the region and the need for the United States to reestablish itself in the area.
  • The Administration will review ways to improve competition within the private sector for government projects and reduce costs to ensure taxpayer funds are being utilized most efficiently.
  • The Order directs the Secretary of Defense to conduct a review and issue guidance on the funding, retention, support, and mobilization of a robust inactive reserve fleet, to ensure we have adequate assured access to sealift capacity whenever needed for military operations.

Read the full text of the executive order here