Saving Seafood

Northeastern researchers want to help keep New England seafood from going to China and back

July 14, 2026 — The longfin squid that ends up on your plate as calamari may have been caught in Rhode Island, but it’s likely traveled to China and back again for processing before being served.

That example is illustrative of what’s known as the “seafood deficit,” a roughly $20 billion trade deficit due to the U.S. importing 80% to 90% of the seafood it consumes. For instance, more than 80% of squid caught in Rhode Island is frozen and shipped to China for processing, then refrozen and imported back to the United States, according to the Westerly Sun.

“It’s not because we don’t have seafood, it’s because we don’t have the capacity to process it,” said Taskin Padir, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Northeastern.

Read the full article at Northeastern Global News

Trump administration touts National Scallops Day designation, Georges Bank territory opening

July 13, 2026 – – The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is touting its designation of National Scallops Day, the opening of the Northern Edge of Georges Bank to scallop fishing, and permit stacking as a means of boosting the fishery.

The administration recently sent a deregulatory wish list to regional fishery management councils, which included a range of different recommendations like modernizing fleet capacity in the area managed by the Mid Atlantic Fishery Management Council and shifting the management of red snapper away from the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NOAA again cites Mexico for illegal fishing as Southern Shrimp Alliance calls for seafood import ban

July 13, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries has once again issued a negative certification to Mexico over illegal fishing in U.S. Gulf waters, marking the third consecutive report to do so.

Last week, NOAA Fisheries issued its most recent “biennial” report to Congress on Improving International Fisheries Management. The agency explained that despite the recent release, the report “was prepared in 2025.”

Six countries were identified for illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing: Costa Rica, Grenada, Mexico, Morocco, the People’s Republic of China, and the Russian Federation.

Two countries were identified for the production of seafood-related goods through forced labor: Burma and the People’s Republic of China.

The agency also updated “certification” determinations, providing this explanation:

“NOAA Fisheries issues a positive certification if the nation or entity has provided evidence of actions that address the activities for which it was identified. If sufficient action has not been taken, NOAA Fisheries issues a negative certification which results in U.S. port restrictions for fishing vessels of that nation or entity, and could result in import restrictions on certain fish or fish products.”

Read the full article at

White House Video on the Atlantic Scallop Fishery

July 10, 2026 — This afternoon, White House Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing Peter Navarro posted a video on X noting that “.@POTUS is protecting our scallop industry by opening up the Northern Edge of Georges Bank off the coast of New England.”

In the video, Mr. Navarro says:

President Trump is making American fishing great again. The latest example is scallops. America has the largest wild scallop fishery in the world. Atlantic scallops are a premium American protein, yet imports now supply roughly 85% of what Americans consume by weight. While the scallop trade deficit approaches 59 million pounds, $390 million. Only Washington could call that conservation. The insanity is clearest on Georges Bank. Canada lawfully harvests scallops on its side of the line, while American boats remain locked out of the adjacent U.S. northern edge by regulators.

In 2024, Canada landed more than 7 million pounds of scallops from Georges Bank, roughly the same amount America imported from Canada. That’s not a supply problem. That is a policy failure. President Trump and NOAA are moving to fix it by restoring lawful science-based access to the Northern Edge of Georges Bank. And they’re tackling another bad piece of scallop math: the one permit, one boat rule. Today, scallop boats can sit in ports for about 11 months a year. Permit stacking would let the same lawful harvest be taken with fewer idle boats, lower costs, and a stronger American fleet. No higher catch limit, no overfishing, just common sense.

More American scallops, more American jobs, less dependence on foreign seafood. How do you like them scallops?

Watch the video here

Sullivan reintroduces sweeping bill targeting bycatch, seafloor impacts

July 8, 2026 — U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) has reintroduced the Bycatch Reduction Act, legislation that would expand federal efforts to reduce bycatch, limit seafloor impacts from trawl gear, improve fisheries monitoring and increase transparency in fishery management.

According to Sullivan’s office, the bill builds on recommendations from the Alaska Salmon Task Force, which was created through legislation he authored and signed into law in 2022.

The proposal would establish new standards and monitoring requirements designed to keep both midwater and bottom trawl nets off the seafloor, require proven salmon excluder devices on pollock vessels, invest in salmon tagging and genetic sampling, expand ecosystem research, and create a new flume tank testing facility to evaluate fishing gear under simulated ocean conditions. The bill also would reauthorize NOAA’s Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program and encourage fishermen to test new gear and technologies aimed at reducing bycatch and habitat impacts.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Moody’s predicts decline of US port sector in 2026

November 24, 2025 — Financial services firm Moody’s Ratings has predicted declines for the U.S. port sector in its recently released 2026 outlook. 

“The 2026 outlook for the U.S. ports sector remains negative given the adverse effect of tariffs and policy uncertainty and as U.S. real GDP growth slows and consumer spending moderates,” Moody’s Ratings Assistant Vice President David Kamran said in the update.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Imports to the US expected to decline for the rest of 2025

October 14, 2025 — U.S. imports declined again in August and are likely, experts say, to continue to decline for the rest of the year. 

The National Retail Federation (NRF), which produces the Global Port Tracker with Hackett Associates, attributed the declines, both actual and projected, to the effect of tariff pauses, which caused shippers to move merchandise for the holiday season early, producing mid-summer shipping rushes.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

California’s Seafood Imports commits to IPNLF and responsible tuna sourcing

September 30, 2019 — San Diego, California, U.S.A.-based importer and distributor Seafood Imports has been inducted into the International Pole and Line Foundation (IPNLF) as its latest member, the non-profit association announced on 30 September.

Seafood Imports, which was founded in 1997, is a provider of specialty seafood products to the international foodservice industry, with direct sourcing from South Africa and Asia. Among the company’s offerings are private label sashimi-grade JAVA and JAVA Kosher tuna products, which contain wild, one-by-one caught tuna sourced from the Indian Ocean courtesy of Indonesia. Exclusively packaged for Seafood Imports, the JAVA and JAVA Kosher tuna products are sold to U.S. customers.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NMFS Moves to Add Marine Mammal Rules Similar to Turtle Excluder Laws; May Ban Some Seafood Imports

SEAFOODNEWS.COM by John Sackton — August 11, 2015 — NOAA Fisheries has published a notice in the Federal Register today about rules for foreign seafood exporters regarding marine mammals.

Although there is a five year window for implementation, the new rules would require certification for any export fishery that interacts with marine mammals. Unless the foreign country had a program certified as effective by NMFS for reducing marine mammal bycatch mortality, exports from that fishery would be prohibited into the US.

The operation of the program appears similar to the Turtle Excluder Laws, which require tropical shrimp producing countries to certify the use of turtle excluders for wild shrimp, if they intend to export such shrimp to the US.

Over the years, exports have been suspended from some countries for failure to comply, with the most recent being Mexico whose wild shrimp exports were suspended for a year.

Fisheries that interact with marine mammals include yellowfin tuna in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, where dolphins are at risk, many longline fisheries that have marine mammal bycatch; large scale driftnet fisheries, and even potentially pot fisheries like lobster.

In the US, lobster gear has been modified to reduce whale interactions, and entanglement is recognized as the leading cause for marine mammal bycatch globally.

In order to export to the US, once the rule is fully in effect, a foreign country would have to meet the following qualifying conditions before a fishery that interacts with marine mammals could export to the US:

1. Marine mammal stock assessments that estimate population abundance for marine mammal stocks in waters under its jurisdiction that are incidentally killed or seriously injured in the export fishery;

2. An export fishery register containing a list of all vessels participating in an export fishery under the jurisdiction of the harvesting nation, including the number of vessels participating, information on gear type, target species, fishing season, and fishing area for each export fishery;

3. Regulatory requirements (e. g., including copies of relevant laws, decrees, and implementing regulations or measures) that include:

(a) A requirement for the owner or operator of vessels participating in the fishery to report all intentional and incidental mortality and injury of marine mammals in the course of commercial fishing operations; and

(b) A requirement to implement measures in export fisheries designed to reduce the total incidental mortality and serious injury of a marine mammal stock below the bycatch limit. Such measures may include: Bycatch reduction devices; incidental mortality and serious injury limits; careful release and safe-handling of marine mammals and gear removal; gear marking; bycatch avoidance gear (e. g., pingers) ; gear modifications or restrictions; or time- area closures.

4. Implementation of monitoring procedures in export fisheries designed to estimate incidental mortality and serious injury of marine mammals in each export fishery under its jurisdiction, as well as estimates of cumulative incidental mortality and serious injury for marine mammal stocks in waters under its jurisdiction that are incidentally killed or seriously injured in the export fishery and other export fisheries with the same marine mammal stock, including an indication of the statistical reliability of those estimates;

5. Calculation of bycatch limits for marine mammal stocks in waters under its jurisdiction that are incidentally killed or seriously injured in an export fishery;

6. Comparison of the incidental mortality and serious injury of each marine mammal stock or stocks that interact with the export fishery in relation to the bycatch limit for each stock; and comparison of the cumulative incidental mortality and serious injury of each marine mammal stock or stocks that interact with the export fishery and any other export fisheries of the harvesting nation showing that these export fisheries: (a) Does not exceed the bycatch limit for that stock or stocks; or

(b) Exceeds the bycatch limit for that stock or stocks, but the portion of incidental marine mammal mortality or serious injury for which the exporting fishery is responsible is at a level that, if the other export fisheries interacting with the same marine mammal stock or stocks were at the same level, would not result in cumulative incidental mortality and serious injury in excess of the bycatch limit for that stock or stocks.

The next step will be a formal comment period, after which NOAA will issue the final rule.

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.