Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Stronger federal support for AK fisheries

June 5, 2025 — Deputy executive director Jamie O’Connor of the Alaska Marine Conservation Council (AMCC) and fifth-generation Bristol Bay salmon fisherman testifies before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries.

The Subcommittee heard testimony from five people during an oversight hearing titled “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness.”

Representing AMCC and the Fishing Communities Coalition (FCC)—a national alliance of more than 1,000 small-boat fishermen coast-to-coast—O’Connor emphasized the urgent need for robust funding and staffing of NOAA, calling them the “scientific and regulatory guardrails” that enable the seafood sector to function effectively, fairly, and sustainably.

“Without a strong and functioning NOAA, we’re not just losing data—we’re losing stability, credibility, and the ability for coastal communities to thrive,” O’Connor said during her testimony. “This is not red tape—it’s our food supply, our economic health, and the future of wild seafood in America.”

FCC members across the country echoed O’Connor’s call for action, demonstrating alignment throughout America’s coastlines around core challenges and values.

“The testimony from our colleague at AMCC detailed many of the same challenges we face on the other side of the country, here on Cape Cod,” said Aubrey Church, fisheries policy director for the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance. “Commercial fishermen are the economic backbone of our coastal communities, part of a centuries-old tradition of going to sea to not only feed their families, but the nation.”

In addition to highlighting the risks of an underfunded NOAA, O’Connor’s testimony pointed to the outsized returns to be found through meaningful investment in waterfront infrastructure.

“We urgently need investments in our working waterfronts to safeguard access to the water,” Church said, “access that is not only vital to sustaining our jobs, but also fundamental to preserving coastal ways of life.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Future fishermen: Community recruiting for the next generation

November 5, 2024 —  “Our fishing fleets have long been sustained through recruitment via family traditions and within working waterfront communities,” said Maité Duquela, coordinator of the National Future Fishermen Coalition, a new workforce development initiative formed by a group of community-driven fishing organizations that are prioritizing access to and training for work in domestic fishing fleets. “The changes we’re seeing in our communities tell us we can no longer rely on our traditions alone.”

Succession planning, the graying of the fleet, and difficulties staffing domestic commercial boats with qualified (or even willing and able) crew have dogged fishing captains and boat owners for years.

Add to the growing list of confounding and compounding problems: widespread gentrification and shoreside development that threaten critical working waterfront infrastructure as well as waterfront accessibility and opportunities for potential future fishermen.

Fishing organizations around the country have been taking on this problem head-on, knowing that local access to sustainable wild seafood depends on the employment of fishermen willing to catch and land it — and viable working waterfronts are the vital corridor.

Representatives from these organizations will discuss new opportunities for workforce development and waterfront resilience at a conference panel at Pacific Marine Expo on Thursday, Nov. 21 at 10:45 a.m. Among the topics they’ll dive into are funding opportunities for programs, including the Young Fishermen’s Development Act, and the importance of industry support to keep these programs running. Several of the panelists are members of the National Future Fishermen Coalition as well as the Fishing Communities Coalition (FCC).

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Congress approves bill to train prospective fishermen

December 23, 2020 — A bill to establish the nation’s first ever federal program to train prospective commercial fishermen has passed Congress and awaits approval by the White House.

The Young Fishermen’s Development Act was passed unanimously by both the U.S. House and Senate, the Sitka Sentinel reported Monday. The law would provide grants to foster the growth of budding fishermen across the country.

The bill introduced by Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan in 2019 had bipartisan support, with co-sponsors that included Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Democratic U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, both of Massachusetts.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Congress passes Young Fishermen’s Development Act for the new generation

December 22, 2020 — The passage by Congress this month of the Young Fishermen’s Development Act creates a $2 million annual grant fund to train and foster the next generation of U.S. commercial fishermen.

Twin bills H.R 1240 and S. 496 passed with bipartisan support, five years after the concept was first proposed by the Fishing Communities Coalition, a national advocacy group with membership of more than 1,000 independent fishermen and seafood-related business owners in small-boat fishing communities from Maine to Alaska.

Authorized for the next six years, the program to be administered through Sea Grant will allow “fishing associations, universities, tribal organizations, and others to compete for grant funding to train young commercial fishermen in sustainable fishing and business practices,” according to the coalition. “It solidifies and unites current piecemeal training efforts into a cohesive, national initiative to advance this critical mission.”

The program is modeled on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s successful Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, helping entry-level agriculture. Advocates say it’s a critical response to demographic shifts in some fisheries and fishing communities. In some regions like New England the average age of fishermen has shifted upward by 10 years compared to earlier generations – a “greying of the fleet” that portends problems for the industry’s long-term prospects.

The annual $2 million budget will be fully paid for from fines paid by fishermen who violate fishery regulations. Grants will run up to three years, be capped at $200,000 annually and cannot be used to purchase fishing permits, quota, or other harvesting rights.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

BEN MARTENS: Federal COVID response a missed opportunity to help Maine fishermen

June 26, 2020 — President Trump’s recent roundtable meeting with fishermen in Bangor was a unique opportunity to bring national attention to COVID-19’s catastrophic impact on fishing communities here in Maine and around the country. Most Americans are unaware of the devastation the crisis has inflicted on fishing economies, which support 40,000 jobs in Maine and 1.5 million jobs in the United States. The president’s visit put a spotlight on Maine’s fishermen for a brief moment during this time of crisis.

What resulted from this meeting was the opening of a national marine monument south of Cape Cod to additional commercial fishing, and the creation of a yet-to-be-defined fisheries task force. While significant, this action does not address the underlying economic challenge facing Maine fishermen because of the pandemic – the collapse of domestic and international demand for seafood.

Roughly three-quarters of the seafood consumed in the U.S. is eaten at restaurants. With restaurants closed or severely constrained, prices and demand have dropped dramatically – close to 70 percent for many New England species. As families struggled to find healthy, affordable food, fishermen were being told not to go fishing. Seafood is one of the healthiest food choices you can make for your mind, body and the environment. More access to heathy food should be our shared priority. Unfortunately, the pandemic has illuminated the cracks in our national food system, meaning that now is the time to invest in comprehensive solutions to protect local, sustainable seafood for our nation.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Fishing groups have “Day of Action” to help fishermen access COVID-19 aid

April 24, 2020 — On Friday, 24 April, as U.S. President Donald Trump signed an extension of small business COVID-19 relief programs into law, a national group of independent fishermen set aside the day to make sure they and their colleagues had access to the programs designed to keep small businesses afloat during the pandemic.

It comes a day after the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association and others held a webinar for fishermen and crew members on the packages available to them.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Another group opposed to Young’s MSA bill starts working on new Congress

November 28, 2018 — The Fishing Communities Coalition (FCC), a group of seven harvester associations that previously opposed efforts to modify the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), is already working to win over the next US Congress.

A statement issued this week by the group makes no mention of Alaska representative Don Young’s bill, HR 200, to reauthorize MSA while giving regional fishery management councils more flexibility when making decisions about harvest limits, but the group expressed strong opposition to the measure early last year. It also opposed S. 1520, a bill sponsored by Mississippi senator Roger Wicker that was championed by the recreational fishing industry.

Young’s bill is seen as being in trouble as it expires in just a few days as the 115th Congress comes to an end and the House is reconstituted in January with Democrats, who have largely rejected HR 200, in control.

“Fisheries policy must protect America’s marine resources and strengthen fishing communities, not advance corporate agendas,” said Dwayne Oberhoff, executive director of the Morro Bay (California) Community Quota Fund, one of the seven groups, in a statement released Tuesday by the FCC.

“We look forward to meeting and working with members of the 116th Congress to ensure a sustainable fishing future for American consumers and the men and women working hard every day to provide them with locally harvested, sustainable seafood.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

JESSICA HATHAWAY: Bend rather than break

August 3, 2018 –The range of responses to the passage of the Magnuson-Stevens Act reauthorization in the House of Representatives on July 11 shows the diversity and breadth of this industry.

The biggest hold-up on coast-to-coast support for H.R. 200 was the inclusion of a recreational grab at snapper-grouper management in the Gulf of Mexico, which gets a leg up in the House version of the bill (a Senate version is TBD). In the end, most major South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico associations offered their support of the bill with an exception for this portion as well as the attempt to eliminate annual catch limits in recreational fisheries (see Mail Buoy on page 6).

The controversial flexibility clause has perhaps been the most talked about component of this reauthorization. The Fishing Communities Coalition — a group of small-boat fishery associations connected also by their relationships with NGO funding and catch share management — came out strongly opposed to the reauthorization largely because of the flexibility component and the hurdles the bill puts in the way of new catch share programs. These changes, they say, will erode the nation’s deep roots in science-based sustainable fishery management.

However, several provisions in the act aim to include more data points in fishery management, including cooperative data, stock assessment plans for all federally managed stocks and transparency in the council management process.

Read the full opinion piece at National Fisherman

Magnuson-Stevens reauthorization bill advances in US House

December 14, 2017 — By a 22-16 vote on Wednesday, the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Natural Resources advanced HR 200, the Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act, legislation introduced by representative Donald Young, an Alaska Republican.

The bill was one of 15 scheduled for markup Tuesday and Wednesday by the panel.

With just days to go before Congress breaks for the holidays, the bill to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Act so far has not received much attention in the Senate. Chances are strong that the debate over the measure will continue well into 2018.

However, that didn’t stop the ocean conservation group Oceana from responding, issuing a statement that warned HR 200 “would weaken science-based conservation of U.S. fish populations and increase the risk of overfishing by removing annual catch limits for many species”.

Oceana campaign director Lora Snyder called the vote “a slap in the face to anyone who cares about ensuring the health of our nation’s fisheries, instead jeopardizing decades of progress in ocean conservation. … [It]  would roll back decades of progress, leading us back down the path to oceans empty of fish and fishermen losing their livelihoods.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Fishery education plan in Congress

April 18, 2017 — The federal budget may be shrinking, and bipartisanship moribund, but congressmen from two coastal states a continent apart are undeterred.

Last week, Reps. Seth Moulton (D-Massachusetts) and Don Young (R-Alabama) introduced legislation that would establish the first national program to support young men and women entering the commercial fishing industry.

The bipartisan, bicoastal bill, which would provide grants of up to $200,000 (a total of $2 million annually), is part of the Fishing Communities Coalition’s efforts to launch the first coordinated, nationwide effort to train, educate and assist the next generation of commercial fishermen. The grant program would be administered through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Sea Grant Program.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American