October 7, 2026 — October is National Seafood Month, a time to celebrate the essential role American seafood plays in feeding our nation, powering coastal economies, and preserving a heritage built around our working waterfronts. I’ve been part of the seafood sector my whole life, so to me, my family, and my colleagues at NOAA Fisheries, every month is Seafood Month! But October gives us the welcome opportunity to swell the tide of national gratitude for the hardworking fishermen and seafood farmers who feed us. Thanks to them and our science-based management system, American seafood represents the gold standard for sustainability. And while 50 years of management under the Magnuson-Stevens Act has made the United States the model for sustainable fisheries, there is still work to be done.
In my time at NOAA Fisheries, I hope I’ve made my focus clear: I want to ensure our domestic seafood sector thrives in an increasingly competitive global marketplace. By increasing opportunities in our wild-caught domestic fisheries and expanding seafood farming operations, we can get more American seafood on American plates. And NOAA has been empowered by the President’s Executive Order on Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness to do just that.
In recent months, we have committed to tangible agency actions to directly support the industry. We are confronting the economic headwinds facing our seafood sector by driving reforms designed to help our seafood producers. I believe we can go a long way toward meeting these goals by modernizing our regulatory framework, tackling market imbalances, and highlighting the unmatched quality and sustainability of American seafood.