Saving Seafood

NEFMC given Trump priorities on scallop fishery, but rollout process remains murky

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.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Trump administration seeking to reopen Northern Edge scallop grounds

July 2, 2026 — President Donald Trump on Thursday declared July 2 National Scallops Day. To mark the inaugural holiday, he announced his administration’s plan to open fishing grounds that have been closed since 1994: the Northern Edge.

The area is about an 18- to 20-hour steam from the nation’s scallop capital, New Bedford, and it’s been closed so long that younger generations of fishermen have never fished its bottom.

“Are you here to wish me a ‘Happy Scalloper Day?’” Tony Alvernaz, one of the older-generation scallopers who has fished that small tip of Georges Bank, quipped when he answered the phone.

“Everybody is like amen, about time, holy Jesus,” he said of the plans to reopen the area.

In recent years, fisheries regulators raised the possibility of reopening the sliver of ocean bottom, but ultimately voted not to take it up. Regulators, informed by research scientists, weigh the sustainability of the resource and the needs of the fishing industry when determining where fishermen can go, for how many days, and how many pounds they may catch.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

Trump celebrates expanded scallop fishing with ‘National Scallops Day’ declaration

July 2, 2026 — President Donald Trump on Thursday declared a “National Scallops Day” in celebration of a federal decision to expand commercial scallop fishing on the Georges Bank, saying it will boost seafood production, create jobs, and reverse restrictions imposed under previous administrations.

Trump announced the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will open the Northern Edge of Georges Bank to scallop fishing, a move he said would result in “millions more pounds” of wild scallops for American consumers each year. He also said it will benefit fishing communities along the East Coast.

Read the full article at KMPH