Saving Seafood

New bill seeks to strengthen U.S. fisheries with MSA updates

June 5, 2025 — Once again, the U.S. House of Representatives lawmakers have introduced legislation to reauthorize and update the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA).

The MSA was last revised in 2006, and being the primary legislation governing U.S. fisheries, it is critical to ensure that federal law reflects today’s fisheries challenges across the country.

Representatives Jared Huffman (D-CA), James Moylan (R-Guam), and Ed Case (D-HI) reintroduced the Sustaining America’s Fisheries for the Future Act. The bill will implement the necessary changes to the MSA. To include as many viewpoints as possible, Huffman and Case held eight listening sessions across seven management regions during their fisheries listening tour. They heard from 80 different experts and stakeholders, in addition to public comments from dozens of individuals.

Similar efforts have been made in 2022 and 2020 to reauthorize the MSA, but they fell short.

“The Sustaining America’s Fisheries for the Future Act makes significant advancements to our U.S. fisheries management system and will contribute to the economic betterment, cultural enrichment, and health benefit of people and communities nationwide. This bipartisan bill will improve catch data and stock assessments, which are the bedrock of our successful science-based fisheries management, while also giving working waterfronts and fishing communities the infrastructure improvements and funding support they need to meet the challenges of the future,” stated Robert C. Vandermark, executive director of the Maine Fish Conservation Network. “The Marine Fish Conservation Network thanks Representatives Huffman, Moylan, and Case for their work to further the health and productivity of our oceans and fisheries that sustain our economy, nutritional wellbeing, and way of life.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

New England For-Hire Groundfish Fleet Partners with NOAA Fisheries to Improve Cod Data

June 3, 2025 — Atlantic cod is a classic New England fish, found everywhere from roadside fish-and-chip stands to the Massachusetts State House. Under the Magnuson–Stevens Act, NOAA Fisheries fosters the long-term biological and economic sustainability of marine fisheries, including rebuilding overfished stocks. Currently Atlantic cod is considered overfished and rebuilding plans are in place to promote population growth. We recently teamed up with recreational fishermen and other partners to learn more about this iconic species.

Advancements in Understanding Cod Populations

The latest model of cod stock structure based on scientific advances in genetics, tagging, and biological characterization shows there are five biologically distinct cod populations from New Jersey to Canada, and four stock units. This new model allows managers to better tailor management to the specific needs of each stock to help populations recover.

Recreational Biological Sampling Fills Data Gaps

In light of these advancements, stock assessment scientists needed more biological data from the recreational fishing fleet. NOAA Fisheries teamed up with members of New England’s recreational for-hire fleet, the New England Aquarium, Pelagic Strategies, and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to fill those data gaps. The pilot study is called the Recreational Biological Sampling Program, or RecBio.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

Commerce rejects New England council’s cod amendment

May 29, 2025 — U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik disapproved the New England Fishery Management Council’s proposed Amendment 25 to the Northeast groundfish plan, sending it back to the council for revisions – or developing a new amendment.

The council proposed dividing the present two cod stocks into four geographic units, with new, separate annual catch limits (ACLs) for each units. The plan was protested by New England fishermen after the council’s approval in December 2024.

“These restrictions are going to be the end of the trawlers and anyone else buying fish,” New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) CEO Jerry Leeman said then. “Everyone in the fisheries expects Addendum 25 to torpedo their businesses.”

The National Marine Fisheries Service announced Lutnik’s decision in a May 28 statement. The amendment is disapproved “on the basis that Amendment 25 and its supporting analyses do not adequately demonstrate how the proposed action is consistent with National Standard 1 or other required provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act,” according to the agency.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

Trump opens swath of pristine Pacific Ocean to commercial fishing

April 18, 2025 — President Donald Trump on Thursday issued a proclamation saying he is easing federal restrictions on commercial fishing in a vast protected area of the central Pacific known as the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument.

Trump said he will allow U.S.-flagged vessels to fish within 50 to 200 nautical miles of the landward boundaries of the monument, which covers some 490,000 square miles of open ocean, coral reef and island habitats. Located south and west of Hawaii, the area is home to seven national wildlife refuges. It includes some of the Earth’s last pristine maritime environments, serving as a sanctuary for species such as endangered sea turtles, sharks and migratory birds, according to marine wildlife experts.

In a separate executive order Thursday, Trump also said he would reduce regulations on commercial fishing more broadly and asked his secretary of commerce to “identify the most heavily overregulated fisheries” and take action to “reduce the regulatory burden on them.”

Trump’s directives, which are likely to attract legal challenges, seek to weaken protections initially set up by his predecessors. President George W. Bush in 2009 established the monument and restricted oil exploration and commercial fishing within it. In 2014, his successor Barack Obama, expanded the protected area to more than 490,000 square miles.

Trump, in the proclamation, said existing environmental laws provide sufficient protection for marine wildlife in the area and that many of the fish species in the monument are migratory.

“I find that appropriately managed commercial fishing would not put objects of scientific and historic interest [within the monument] at risk,” he said.

Bob Vanasse, executive director of the commercial fishing trade group Saving Seafood, said in an email that the shift in policy “does not create a commercial fishing free-for-all in the monuments.”

“Commercial fishing in the monuments will be allowed only under fishery management plans that manage the fisheries sustainably under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act,” Vanasse said, referring to the law that governs fishing in federal waters.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Federal judge rules ‘pocket-veto’ provisions of MSA violate US Constitution in partial victory for NEFSA

January 6, 2025 — U.S. District Court Judge John Woodcock determined some of the authority granted to those council members was violating the U.S. Constitution, specifically a portion of the MSA which meant the NFMS was unable to repeal certain fisheries management procedures without council approval. By refusing to assent to decisions made by the NFMS, the council could effectively “pocket veto” decisions made by federal authorities.

“In severing these limited provisions, the Court addresses both the Appointments Clause and constitutional removal claims, as, without these provisions, the Council Members do not exercise any significant authority, and thus, do not constitute officers of the United States,” Woodcock wrote. “This resolves the constitutional issues presented without invalidating an entire statutory scheme that has effectively governed the United States for decades or a regulation that did not involve either of the constitutional provisions identified in the case at bar.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Court open to upholding US fishing monitor rule even without ‘Chevron’ doctrine

November 5, 2024 — A U.S. appeals court on Monday appeared open to upholding a federal rule requiring commercial fishermen to fund a program to monitor for overfishing of herring off New England’s coast even after the U.S. Supreme Court in that same case issued a landmark ruling curbing agencies’ regulatory power.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, during oral arguments, weighed the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision to scrap a 40-year-old legal doctrine that had required courts to defer to agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous laws they administer.

The 6-3 conservative majority U.S. Supreme Court nixed the doctrine, known as “Chevron deference,” after taking up an appeal by several commercial fishing companies of the D.C. Circuit panel’s 2-1 ruling in August 2022 that had relied on the doctrine to uphold the fishing rule.

The justices sent the case back to the D.C. Circuit to reassess the rule’s validity post-Chevron using their own judgment and for further arguments by the fishing companies, led by New Jersey-based Loper Bright Enterprises.

Read the full article at Reuters

New Legislation Seeks to Amend Magnuson-Stevens Act, Address Economic Causes of Fishery Disasters

October 22, 2024 — Congresswoman Nancy Mace (SC-01) introduced the Protect American Fisheries Act of 2024, a law that found the support of various fishing organizations, including the Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA), along with bipartisan support.

According to a press release from Mace’s office, the bill would amend the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, adding economic causes as allowable grounds for declaring a fishery resource disaster.

“Foreign interference in U.S. fishery markets, particularly through illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, subsidized foreign fleets, forced and child labor, and dumping of contaminated seafood products, is devastating domestic industries.”

“Our domestic fisheries are under assault not only from illegal and subsidized foreign competition but also from bureaucratic red tape failing to protect American industries. The Protect American Fisheries Act takes a stand against these harmful practices and the inefficiencies in our system allowing them to persist. This legislation ensures we can cut through the red tape, defend the livelihoods of hardworking American fishermen, and strengthen our coastal economies by targeting illegal fishing, predatory pricing, and foreign market distortions,” said Mace.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

Good news: Overfishing is at an all-time low. Bad news: Fish species face new threats.

August 5, 2024 — Most fisheries in South Carolina are doing well. Their populations are mostly healthy, thanks to effective government oversight and the caution of fishermen. But some species still are struggling, and officials suspect warming waters have something to do with it.

In the South Atlantic Fishery, which extends from North Carolina to Florida, red porgy and red grouper are overfished. Red snapper, snowy grouper and gag are overfished and subject to overfishing, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries’ latest assessment of federally managed fish species.

When a stock is subject to overfishing, it means too many fish are being taken. When a stock is overfished, it means the fish population is too low and needs to be rebuilt, said Kelly Denit, director of NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Sustainable Fisheries.

The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, first passed in 1976 and reauthorized in 2007, requires the regional fishery management council to take immediate action once an assessment reveals overfishing, said Kerry Marhefka, co-owner of Abundant Seafood and member of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council.

“We can’t manage the fish,” Marhefka said. “What we’re managing are the fishermen.”

This means changing the annual catch limits for recreational and commercial fishermen, or implementing area closures to give those stocks a chance to rebuild, she said.

Read the full article at The Post and Courier 

Magnuson-Stevens Act reauthorization back on the docket

June 28, 2024 — A bipartisan group of U.S. Representatives has re-introduced a bill in the latest bid to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA).

U.S. representatives Jared Huffman (D-California), who is the ranking member of the U.S. Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries, along with Ed Case (D-Hawaii), Mary Peltola (D-Alaska), and U.S. Delegate James Moylan (R-Guam), reintroduced the “Sustaining America’s Fisheries for the Future Act” in a bid to renew the MSA – the law governing fisheries management at a federal level. The law was enacted in 1976 and was last reauthorized in 2006.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

 

Snohomish coho salmon stock rebuilt; 50th success under Magnuson law

October 25, 2023 — Snohomish coho salmon was declared overfished in 2018 and has now been rebuilt to a sustainable level. It’s the 50th achievement in rebuilding a U.S. fish stock under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

NOAA Fisheries and our fishery management partners reached a major milestone this summer. We rebuilt our 50th fish stock. The Snohomish coho salmon stock was declared overfished in 2018 and has now rebuilt to its sustainable level. A combination of responsive fishery management and habitat restoration helped to rebuild this iconic fish population.

U.S. commercial and recreational fishing provided 1.7 million jobs and $253 billion in sales in 2020. When we rebuild overfished stocks to sustainable levels, fishermen are able to catch more fish. Sustainable fisheries support thriving fishing communities, healthy marine ecosystems, and a strong economy.

There are more than 20 different stocks of coho salmon on the West Coast and Alaska. In 2022, commercial landings of coho salmon totaled 13 million pounds and were valued at $16 million.

Salmon is an important source of spiritual and physical sustenance for Western Native American tribes and Alaska natives. For decades, the tribes living near the Snohomish River have restored degraded habitat in the watershed to improve the chance of survival for returning salmon.

Under the 2018 rebuilding plan for Snohomish coho salmon, fishery managers began adjusting catch limits based on how many fish were expected to return each year. They set catch limits lower in years when fish numbers were expected to be down. Together, these rebuilding measures – and habitat restoration efforts –rebuilt Snohomish coho salmon to a sustainable level that will support increased catches for fishermen.

The following was released by the National Fisherman