Saving Seafood

NOAA Fisheries announces priorities for restoring American seafood competitiveness

September 3, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries has announced an “operational roadmap” of priorities it will pursue under U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order, Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness.

“Through these priorities, the agency is taking actionable steps to fulfill the president’s vision of making the United States the world’s dominant seafood leader,” NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs said in a release. “NOAA is proud to deliver real-world results to the American public through innovative solutions that streamline regulations.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NOAA announces priorities to promote science-based American seafood dominance

September 2, 2026 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today, NOAA announced priorities for advancing reforms within NOAA Fisheries to move towards regulations grounded in science that support American seafood dominance. These agency-level actions follow the Regional Priorities guidance that was released on July 2, 2026 to apply the same standard of accountability to NOAA’s own operations, regulatory frameworks, and scientific pipelines. This priority list serves as an operational roadmap of NOAA Fisheries’ direct support of the President’s Executive order on Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness and will lead to the broader interagency America First Seafood Strategy that will be released in the coming months.

“Through these priorities, the agency is taking actionable steps to fulfill the President’s vision of making the United States the world’s dominant seafood leader,” said Neil Jacobs, Ph.D., NOAA administrator. “NOAA is proud to deliver real-world results to the American public through innovative solutions that streamline regulations.”

“These priorities represent NOAA Fisheries’ commitment to ensuring that federal fisheries management boosts domestic harvesters,” said Eugenio Piñeiro Soler, assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries. “We are proud to empower hard-working American fishermen to produce more seafood for American plates.”

After considering input from more than 700 individuals and organizations, including from councils, the fishing industry, and the public, NOAA Fisheries is advancing a science-based approach to fisheries management that supports sustainable fishing opportunities while ensuring responsible conservation practices and improving regulatory efficiency. These efforts touch on all aspects of the agency’s mission from protected resources and science to national policies and improving fishing opportunities.

The complete list of priority actions is available on the NOAA Fisheries website.

While this announcement outlines the immediate internal priorities for the agency, it also serves as a bridge towards a broader, interagency transformation of federal seafood policy. In the coming months, the agency will unveil future actions towards this goal to strengthen national seafood markets, rebuild U.S. fisheries infrastructure and processing capacity, and tackle IUU fishing issues to ensure American seafood dominance.

Advancing Agency-Level Reforms to Restore American Seafood Competitiveness

September 2, 2026 — Over the past year, I have met with fishermen, processors, coastal community leaders, and regional fishery management council members and staff across the country. In every harbor and at every meeting, the message has been consistent: American fishermen just want to fish, and they need their government to clear the bureaucratic barriers standing in their way.

On July 2, 2026, NOAA Fisheries sent Regional Priorities guidance, providing the regional fishery management councils a clear roadmap of actions to reduce regulatory burdens and better support the health of our industry, while maintaining our public trust duty to maintain stock and ocean ecosystem health. But our democratic council process is only part of the equation. To complement that guidance, NOAA Fisheries is applying the same standard of accountability and results to its own operations, regulatory frameworks, and scientific pipelines.

Today, I am announcing NOAA Fisheries’ priorities for agency-level actions in support of the Seafood Executive Order. It will serve as our operational roadmap for regulatory, scientific, and administrative reform. Informed by the 787 public comments submitted under the 2025 “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness” Executive Order (EO 14276), these priorities focus strictly on the policy levers directly within the agency’s authority.

This announcement outlines our immediate priorities for the agency and serves as a bridge toward a broader, interagency transformation of federal seafood policy. In the coming months, the administration will release the America First Seafood Strategy, a comprehensive, multi-agency initiative developed in close coordination with our federal partners and informed by extensive feedback from stakeholders. The strategy will firmly outline how efforts under EO 14276 have begun—and will continue—to elevate domestic seafood production to a priority in matters of national food security and strategic independence.

NOAA Fisheries will pursue the actions outlined below immediately as we look forward to that broader strategy. We are moving away from regulations that treat domestic harvesters like a problem to be managed, and toward a science-based, common-sense system that recognizes the importance of those who feed our citizens and the communities they support.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

National Fisheries Institute Statement on the Announcement of NOAA Fisheries Priorities

September 2, 2026 — The following was released by the National Fisheries Institute:

Today’s announcement illustrates a commitment by NOAA Fisheries to reduce regulatory burdens on the industry and better support the whole seafood community. Whether it’s the men and women who work the water or the producers, processors and distributors who supply seafood to American families, there are more than a million jobs at stake.

Calls for modernization and a return to a true risk-based regulatory structure, rather than the inertia of persistent bureaucratic expansion, could go a long way to mitigating the operational and administrative burdens the agency has committed to reduce.

We congratulate NOAA Fisheries and the Trump Administration for these new efforts and stand as a resource as the agency begins implementation.

Lisa Wallenda Picard
President & CEO

Caribbean Fishery Management: Voices from the Islands

September 1, 2026 — The federal waters surrounding Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are known for their vibrant fishing heritage, stunning scenery, and biodiverse coral reef ecosystems. Each island community’s unique connection to the sea is shaped by distinct cultural traditions.

Sustainable fisheries management requires carefully balancing conservation goals and local needs. In recent years, the U.S. Caribbean region has made significant strides in advancing fishery sustainability by prioritizing vital local collaborations.

A Distinctive Fishery Management Region

The 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Act established the Caribbean Fishery Management Council as one of eight regional fishery management councils. It manages the federal waters that surround the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, which abut multiple international boundaries. The Caribbean Council has the distinction of managing more species than any other council in the nation.

At first, the Caribbean Council followed the strategy of other regions by developing management measures that applied uniformly throughout the region. In 1985, that process culminated in the region’s first two fishery management plans: One for Caribbean spiny lobster, and another for the 64 most commonly landed shallow-water reef fish species. In the 1990s, the Council added plans for queen conch and aquarium species, and amended the reef fish plan to include deep-water reef fish.

Both single-species stock assessments and region-wide management plans were hampered by data limitations. Fishery-dependent data—which is based on fishermen reporting landings or port agents conducting surveys—was spotty. Most of the fish and shellfish harvest in the region came from small-scale commercial, recreational, and subsistence fishermen, making detailed data difficult to obtain. Fishery-independent data—based on scientific surveys—was also sparse due to limited resources to study a daunting number of species. In addition, the data that were available were more likely to be from Puerto Rico than the U.S. Virgin Islands, obscuring key differences across communities.

These data limitations resulted in uncertainty about how fish populations were faring and created a challenging position for managers tasked with understanding and classifying the status of stocks.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Meet the Autonomous Underwater Robot Expanding Our Ability to Survey the Seafloor

August 31, 2026 — For the past 3 years, our Habitat Camera (HabCam) Survey has had self-propelled underwater helpers. From June 30 to July 6 of this year, two Tethys-class long-range autonomous underwater vehicles, or LRAUVs, surveyed more than 200 nautical miles of pre-programmed track lines in the Mid-Atlantic. Together, they captured more than 68,000 images of the seafloor, collecting critical data used in fisheries stock assessments.

LRAUVs provide an alternative way to survey areas of the ocean where traditional research vessels cannot go because of offshore development. The data they collect complements our vessel-based HabCam Survey, which collects millions of seafloor images each year to understand Atlantic sea scallop populations.

Technology Strengthens the Sea Scallop Assessment

Our scientists identified sea scallops, fish, crabs, snake eels, squid, skates, and more in the seafloor images taken by LRAUVs this year. They will present these data, along with HabCam Survey data, to the New England Fishery Management Council at the end of August. The Council’s Scallop Plan Development Team will incorporate the data into the Atlantic sea scallop assessment. Ultimately, the data help generate more accurate estimates of sea scallop abundance and distribution to inform management decisions.

Advanced Technology Specialist Cameron Fairclough notes that this technology expands where and when we can collect data. “This autonomous underwater vehicle can image the seafloor and you can control it from your phone while it’s out in the middle of the ocean,” he explained.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

NOAA to rebuild historic science lab in Beaufort, North Carolina

August 28, 2026 — Today, NOAA announced plans to fund the reconstruction of a new laboratory in Beaufort, North Carolina. This new lab will replace the former building that was permanently closed in 2024 due to significant hurricane-related structural damage. The project will be funded using $64 million from the 2025 Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act. Design and preconstruction work is expected to begin in early 2027.

Established in 1899, the NOAA Beaufort Laboratory is the nation’s second-oldest federal marine science laboratory, predating NOAA by more than 70 years. Following a routine inspection, NOAA determined the laboratory sustained foundational damage that made building occupancy unsafe. The new facility will be built above the floodplain and designed to withstand storm and flooding events.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Environmental groups take steps to sue to compel new protections for gray whales

August 28, 2026 — Amid a decade of die-offs and a sharp decline in the population of gray whales that swim along the Pacific coast of North America, three environmental groups are preparing to sue the Trump administration over its failure to bring back Endangered Species Act protections for the animals.

The Center for Biological Diversity, the International Marine Mammal Project and Oasis Earth on Tuesday submitted a notice of intent to sue the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration over gray whale protections.

Oasis Earth submitted a petition a year ago to NOAA Fisheries for a threatened or endangered listing to be granted to the Eastern North Pacific gray whale population. But the agency neither issued a 90-day finding on the petition’s validity nor a 12-month finding on the population’s status, as required under the law, the groups’ notice said.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

A River Reborn: Restoring a Stronghold for Hood Canal Summer-Run Chum Salmon

August 28, 2026 — Threatened Hood Canal summer-run chum salmon represent a bright spot in Pacific salmon recovery. According to preliminary data from the Hood Canal Coordinating Council, average annual returns have nearly tripled since 2022. They’ve climbed from about 11,600 fish per year between 2018 and 2021 to roughly 32,600 between 2022 and 2025. That’s up from a low of less than 1,000 spawners in the early 1990s.

Scientists say several years of favorable ocean conditions have contributed to the recent rebound. Cooler ocean temperatures increase the food available to salmon and improve their survival at sea. But those conditions won’t last forever. Experts believe restoring river habitat will help summer chum remain resilient when the Pacific Ocean inevitably shifts back to a warmer phase in its natural cycle.

One of the healthiest summer chum populations is returning to one of the region’s most degraded rivers. The number of chum spawning in the Big and Little Quilcene rivers has quadrupled in the last 4 years. This despite 2 miles of the Big Quilcene being straightened, scoured of spawning gravel, and cut off from its floodplain.

NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Habitat Conservation, the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group, and the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe are restoring salmon habitat at two locations on the Big Quilcene River–Moon Valley and the Lower One Mile. The projects will:

  • Create spawning and rearing habitat for Hood Canal Summer chum and threatened Puget Sound Chinook salmon and steelhead
  • Improve the Quilcene Bay estuary, where juvenile salmon make their first transition to salt water
  • Stop the flooding that has plagued the town of Quilcene for generations

The restoration should finish by September, just as the summer chum return to spawn.

“Restoring the Big Quilcene River has taken tribes, nonprofit organizations, local communities, state and federal agencies, and NOAA all working toward the same goal,” said NOAA Marine Habitat Resource Specialist Chemine Jackels. “Together, we’re giving one of Hood Canal’s most important summer chum populations a healthier river and a better chance to thrive for generations to come.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

NOAA opens $4.6M for bycatch reduction projects

August 28, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries is making approximately $4.6 million available for projects aimed at reducing bycatch through improved fishing practices and innovative gear technology.

The agency announced its 2026 funding opportunity through the Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program, inviting non-federal researchers to submit proposals for collaborative projects that address bycatch challenges facing U.S. fisheries.

A major emphasis of this year’s funding opportunity is industry involvement. NOAA Fisheries said it is looking for proposals that include proactive and meaningful engagement with the fishing industry in identifying, designing, or implementing projects.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman