Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford Fishing Industry Could Benefit From Trump Order

April 24, 2025 — Before the environmentalists and fearmongers in the press get their oil skins, jumpers and mesh undies in a bind over President Donald Trump’s executive order concerning the fishing industry, they need to catch their collective breath and slowly exhale.

First of all, read the damn thing!

The Associated Press says, “The order represents a dramatic shift in federal policy on fishing in U.S. waters by prioritizing commercial fishing interests over efforts to allow the fish supply to increase.”

That is fake news.

The executive order calls for the Secretary of Commerce to immediately consider suspending, revising, or rescinding regulations that overburden America’s commercial fishing, aquaculture, and fish processing industries.

Read the full story at WBSM

Trump unveils executive order to boost U.S. seafood industry

April 23, 2025 — The Trump administration has released an executive order to restore American seafood competitiveness.

The order, released on April 17, states that the U.S imports nearly 90 percent of seafood and has a seafood trade deficit that stands at over $20 billion. So the country must establish an America-First Seafood Strategy to boost its seafood production, sales, and exports.

The executive order directs the Secretary of Commerce to consider taking actions on regulations that overly burden America’s commercial fishing, aquaculture, and fish processing industries.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) was directed to:

  • Incorporate better, cheaper, more reliable technologies and cooperative research programs into fishery assessments.
  • Expand exempted fishing permit programs to promote fishing opportunities nationwide.
  • Modernize data collection and analytical practices to improve the responsiveness of fisheries management to real-time ocean conditions.

Read the full story at Aquaculture North America

Trump Signs Executive Order to Boost U.S. Seafood Industry, Orders Review of Marine Monuments

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — April 17, 2025 — President Donald J. Trump today signed an executive order titled Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness, aimed at strengthening the domestic seafood industry by reducing regulatory burdens, addressing foreign trade imbalances, and improving fisheries management.

One of the most significant provisions of the order instructs the Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the Secretary of the Interior, to review all existing marine national monuments within 180 days. The Secretary must provide recommendations to the President on any monuments that should be opened to commercial fishing. The review must consider whether such actions would be consistent with the preservation of the historic landmarks and scientific features originally identified when the monuments were established.

The order states that the United States possesses over 4 million square miles of prime fishing grounds and that most domestic fish stocks are healthy. However, it describes the seafood sector as heavily regulated and contends that “federal overregulation” has hindered harvesting through restrictive catch limits, outdated fisheries data, and delayed adoption of modern technology.

It further highlights that approximately 90% of seafood consumed in the United States is imported, contributing to a trade deficit exceeding $20 billion. The order criticizes what it describes as unfair foreign trade practices and calls for a policy shift to support ethical sourcing and protect U.S. markets.

Key directives in the order include:

  • Regulatory Review: The Secretary of Commerce must identify the most heavily overregulated fisheries within 30 days and take action to reduce regulatory burdens, in coordination with Regional Fishery Management Councils and other partners.
  • Public Input: The Department of Commerce will solicit ideas from the public, industry members, scientists, and technology experts to improve fisheries science and management under existing federal law.
  • Technology and Data Modernization: The National Marine Fisheries Service is instructed to adopt less expensive, more reliable technologies and modernize data collection methods to better respond to real-time ocean conditions.
  • Trade Policy: A comprehensive seafood trade strategy must be developed within 60 days by the Department of Commerce and the U.S. Trade Representative to improve access to foreign markets and address unfair practices, including illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
  • Import Oversight: The Secretary of Commerce, in coordination with other federal agencies, is directed to revise recent expansions of the Seafood Import Monitoring Program and improve enforcement against high-risk foreign seafood shipments.

The order also calls for the development of an “America First Seafood Strategy” to promote the production, sale, and export of U.S. seafood and to enhance public awareness of seafood’s health benefits through nutrition programs.

Read the full executive order here

President Trump Rescinds Obama National Ocean Policy; Issues New Executive Order

June 19, 2018 (Saving Seafood) — President Trump has rescinded the 2010 National Ocean Policy, in an Executive Order on oceans and environment issued today.

The Order formally revokes Executive Order 13547, signed by President Obama. Among other initiatives, it established the National Ocean Policy and created Regional Planning Bodies (RPBs) to coordinate ocean planning and development off the nation’s coasts. The RPBs will be abolished as a result of the new Order.

In their place, the Order calls for the establishment of the Ocean Policy Committee, which will be primarily comprised of the heads of relevant federal agencies and will serve as the main venue for interagency cooperation on ocean planning issues. The Committee will also focus on improving the collection and dissemination of scientific data within and outside the government, as well as facilitate communication between the government and members of the private sector.

The text of the full Executive Order can be read here

The following statement on the Order was released by the National Ocean Policy Coalition:

In response to today’s Executive Order on ocean policy, National Ocean Policy Coalition Managing Director Jack Belcher has issued the following statement:

“Today’s action is a welcome development that embraces principles we all agree on, such as encouraging data and information sharing, interagency and inter-jurisdictional collaboration, and partnerships within and among the public and private sectors.  At the same time, it removes a significant cloud of uncertainty that has been hovering over a wide range of commercial and recreational interests that represent a broad cross-section of the American economy, threatening domestic jobs, economic activity, and recreational opportunities through new and unauthorized bureaucracies, mandates to federal agencies, and actions that could needlessly prohibit, limit, or delay access to public lands.”

“This announcement will help ensure a future in which the American people can continue to receive the diverse array of economic, recreational, and societal benefits that the oceans provide for generations to come.”

Established in 2010, the National Ocean Policy Coalition is an organization of diverse interests representing sectors and entities that support tens of millions of jobs, contribute trillions of dollars to the U.S. economy, and seek to ensure ocean policies that best benefit the National interest, including protection of the commercial and recreational value of the oceans, marine-related natural resources, and terrestrial lands of the United States.

 

Trump takes aim at federal bureaucracy with new executive orders altering civil service protections

May 25, 2018 — President Trump issued three executive orders Friday aimed at overhauling the federal bureaucracy by making it easier to fire poor performers, sharply curtailing the amount of time federal employees can be paid for union work and directing agencies to negotiate tougher union contracts.

The orders could result in the biggest changes in a generation to civil service protections long enjoyed by federal workers.

White House officials said the goal of the executive orders is to make the workforce of two million federal employees more efficient and responsive to the public and to improve morale.

Read the full story at the Washington Post

Executive order storm may be tempest in fisheries management teapot

February 28, 2017 — President Trump’s executive order directing that federal agencies choose two regulations for repeal whenever they propose a new one raised the angst of legislators and industry members concerned with the management of the nation’s fisheries.

Trump’s executive order, Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs, directs agencies to repeal two existing regulations for every new regulation, and to do it in a way that does not increase the total cost of compliance.

In a Feb. 2 letter to the President, House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl Grijalva and Water, Power and Oceans Subcommittee Ranking Member Jared Huffman warned the President that his executive order would prevent the National Marine Fisheries Service from:

  • Setting and adjusting commercial and recreational fishing seasons.
  • Adjusting landings quotas or other conservation or management related measures.
  • Adopting new or amended fishery management plans without getting advance authority from the administration.

“All fisheries that take place in federal waters require regulatory action to open and close season, set catch limits, modify conservation and management measures, or adjust participation eligibility requirements,” the congressmen wrote. “We urge you to rescind the executive orders immediately and eliminate political interference with the processes that help commercial and charter fishermen earn their livelihoods, and allow recreational anglers access to well-managed stocks.”

Last Friday, Drew Minkiewicz, a Washington, D.C., attorney who represents commercial fishing interests and provides counsel on regulatory issues, said Trump’s executive order “is not going to impact or delay the operation of fisheries management at all.” Minkiewicz spoke before the White House announced the President’s latest executive order.

According to Minkiewicz, the administration’s Office of Management and Budget has determined that the executive order applies only to “significant actions” as defined in another executive order issued during the Clinton administration.

“More than 99 percent of NMFS regulations are not deemed significant,” he said. “There could be maybe one rule in the next four years this (the recent executive order) applies to.”

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Fishermen at odds over impact of Trump executive order

February 23, 2017 — An executive order by President Donald Trump designed to radically cut back on federal regulations has spurred disagreement among fishermen about how it will affect them — and lawmakers and regulators aren’t sure what the answer is.

Groups that represent both commercial and recreational fishermen are divided over whether Trump’s “one in, two out” approach to federal regulations will benefit their industry, harm it or not affect it at all.

Meanwhile, the arm of the federal government that regulates fishing, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is still trying to figure out exactly what the executive order means for fisheries management.

Other industry interests, including the Fisheries Survival Fund, said the order will likely leave fisheries unaffected. The order would apply only to financially significant regulations, and that would not include things like opening fishing seasons and enforcing catch limits, said Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney for the fund.

“All this talk about how you’re not going to be able to manage fisheries — not true, doesn’t apply, not going to happen,” he said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Boston Herald

Unintended Consequences of the “One In, Two Out” Executive Order: Will America’s Fishermen be the Victims?

January 31, 2017 — Yesterday, President Trump signed an Executive Order that intends to reduce government regulations and associated costs to businesses and the federal government. The President claims this will help small businesses, but for the men and women making their living off the ocean, the order could pose some serious problems.

Known as “one in two out,” the order states that “for every one new regulation issued, at least two prior regulations be identified for elimination.”

How does this relate to fisheries? America’s fishermen are constantly adapting—to new science, to changing conditions on the water and to fishing seasons. They rely on fishery managers to make decisions that weigh environmental conditions, the best available science and fishermen input. Armed with this information, managers develop solutions that not only protect our environment, but support commercial and recreational fishing and coastal communities across America. And the method for implementing these day-to-day management decisions? Regulations.

Fishery regulations open seasons, establish catch quotas and test new management concepts. When a disaster happens, like an oil spill, a toxic algal bloom or a sudden decline in fish populations, regulations are the way the government protects fishermen and consumers.

Read the full story at the Ocean Conservancy

RON SMOLOWITZ: Marine Monument Plan Subverts Public Input

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — October 8, 2015 — The following letter from Ron Smolowitz, of the Coonamessett Farm Foundation, was published today in the Cape Cod Times.

Your recent editorial endorsing a new Atlantic marine national monument (“A fitting tribute,” Sept. 27) misses the main reason a large and growing number of fishermen, coastal residents and public officials are so opposed to the proposal: It undermines the democratic process and threatens the future of public input in the management of public resources.

For many fishermen, this is not primarily an economic issue. Parts of the areas under consideration, particularly Cashes Ledge in the Gulf of Maine, have been closed to most forms of fishing for over a decade, and will remain closed under Omnibus Habitat Amendment 2, recently approved by the New England Fishery Management Council. Fishermen recognize the value of reasonable protections for these areas.

Rather, there is broad opposition to a marine monument because this proposal – and the precedent it sets – threatens the open and public process that has so far successfully preserved these areas. A national monument designation would mean that unilateral, one-time executive action will replace public input from a diverse variety of interests – including scientists, fishermen, regulators, and environmentalists – that has played an essential role in promoting conservation and successful management. This process works and needs to be respected.

Read the letter from Ron Smolowitz to the Cape Cod Times here 

Deseret News: Antiquities Act and underwater monuments

October 6, 2015 — The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was created by President Bill Clinton well over 20 years ago, but for many southern Utah residents whose livelihoods were affected by this arbitrary and unilateral exercise of executive authority, the wounds are still fresh. That monument also placed billions of dollars of clean-burning coal off limits forever. Since those resources were located on school trust lands that provide funding for public schools, Utah students paid, and continue to pay, a steep price for this massive executive overreach.

The lesson that should have been drawn from that episode is that the 1906 Antiquities Act, the legal justification that allows presidents to create national monuments for “the protection of objects of historic and scientific interest,” is outdated, overused and too easily abused. While the designation of these monuments is supposed to be confined to areas of historical significance and limited to “the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected,” this language has done nothing to prevent presidents from making designations of whatever size and location they choose with no congressional input or oversight.

Read the full editorial at Deseret News