August 13, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries is soliciting public recommendations on where it should establish aquaculture opportunity areas (AOA) in the country as it begins considering a wider swath of regions.
AOAs are a carry over priority from U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term, when he directed NOAA Fisheries to identify areas that would be a good fit for developing commercial aquaculture operations.
August 12, 2026 — A pair of U.S. senators have introduced legislation to enable more investment in offshore wind development, despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to buyout existing lease holders.
Trump has made opposition to offshore wind power a key policy of his second term, issuing an executive order pausing offshore wind projects his first day back in office. That order was ultimately struck down by a federal judge, and a subsequent order by the U.S. Department of the Interior pausing development over vague national security concerns has not fared much better in court.
August 5, 2026 — Democrats in the U.S. senate have introduced legislation that would restore the definition of “harm” in the Endangered Species Act (ESA), undoing the federal government’s attempt to rescind habitat protections for threatened species.
In July, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump decided to change the definition of harm, rescinding a 50-year-old policy of considering damage to the habitat of endangered species when regulating human activities and development. The U.S. Department of the Interior claimed the decades-old definition was too broad and blocked economic development.
August 5, 2026 — U.S. President Donald Trump recently sent a deregulatory wish list to the country’s regional fishery management councils, and the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) now has to grapple with how to address his proposed changes to the scallop fishery.
In early July, White House Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing Peter Navarro held a press conference touting the move by Trump and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick as a means of “unlocking the fertile fisheries of America.” Included in that list of requests, the Trump administration is asking the NEFMC to open the Northern Edge of Georges Bank to rotational scallop fishing for the first time in 30 years and to implement permit stacking on commercial scallop fishing boats.
August 5, 2026 — A coalition of 25 U.S. states have launched lawsuits against the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump over the latest round of tariffs.
The Trump administration launched sweeping Section 301 tariffs on 60 economies in July, comprising 59 countries and every country in the European Union. The United States Trade Representative (USTR) launched the tariffs following investigations into all 60 economies, and said the tariffs are related to those economies failures to “impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor.”
August 5, 2026 — Two New England fishermen have asked a federal court to allow them to intervene in an ongoing lawsuit over commercial fishing access within the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, adding another chapter to the years-long legal dispute over the protected Atlantic waters.
According to a July 31 press release from Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), fishermen Frank Green of New York and Bob Conrad of Vermont filed a motion to intervene in Conservation Law Foundation v. Trump. Represented by PLF, the fishermen are seeking to defend the Trump administration’s decision to rescind the commercial fishing ban within the monument and argue that the ban was unlawfully established under the Antiquities Act.
“Presidents have abused their power under the Antiquities Act for decades, drastically exceeding its narrow scope and disregarding Congress to restrict Americans’ right to productively use natural resources,” PLF attorney Frank Garrison said in the release. “The fishermen who work those waters shouldn’t have their livelihoods threatened by unilateral presidential decree.”
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.
August 3, 2026 — The following was released by the U.S. Department of the Interior:
The Department of the Interior today announced a proposed rule through the Marine Minerals Administration to modernize and refine federal regulations governing exploratory oil and gas drilling on the Arctic Outer Continental Shelf, advancing President Donald J. Trump’s commitment to unleash American Energy Dominance while maintaining strong safety and environmental oversight.
July 31, 2026 — Two years after a Vineyard Wind turbine blade collapsed, littering Nantucket’s shores with debris, a federal investigation into the blade failure is still ongoing, with little indication of when it will be completed or why it has taken so long.
Almost immediately after the blade failure, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, a Department of the Interior agency tasked with safety and environmental protection for the offshore energy industry, announced that it would be launching an independent investigation into the collapse. Two years later, that investigation has yet to produce any results.
At this point, the investigation has actually outlived the agency that launched it. On July 10th, President Donald Trump announced that BSEE would be folded into the Marine Minerals Administration and would cease to exist as an independent agency.
In a statement shared with the Current, the Marine Minerals Administration confirmed that it was continuing the investigation, but offered few further details.
“The Marine Minerals Administration is ensuring the investigation is thorough and comprehensive,” the agency wrote. “MMA’s investigation is currently ongoing and does not have a date for completion at this time.”
This mirrors statements BSEE has given in the past.
July 31, 2026 — The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump took funding set aside for combatting illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and spent it on other priorities, including the 2026 FIFA World Cup, according to a report from Washington D.C.-focused news outlet Punchbowl News.
The outlet reported that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) diverted most of the USD 170 million (EUR 147 million) set aside in the One Big Beautiful Bill for the U.S. Coast Guard to spend on maritime domain awareness, which would support the government’s anti-IUU fishing enforcement efforts.