July 20, 2026 — The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) has announced the reopening of the commercial Gulf shrimp season, following its annual assessment of shrimp populations and growth in Texas coastal waters.
According to TPWD, the reopening date is determined using biological sampling conducted each June to maximize benefits for both the shrimp resource and the commercial fishing industry while ensuring sustainable harvests.
July 16, 2026 — Seafood prices continued their inflationary trend in June at U.S. retail, rising 4.1 percent in the fresh category, 7.8 percent in shelf-stable, and 12.5 percent in frozen seafood, according to Circana data analyzed by 210 Analytics.
Depending on the species, inflation was even more dramatic. For instance, frozen shrimp prices rose 18.5 percent year over year in June, while frozen crab prices increased 13.5 percent. In the fresh category, tilapia prices rose 8.3 percent, and trout rose 5.8 percent.
July 10, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) plans to add wild-caught peeled and deveined shrimp to the list of foods available under its emergency food assistance programs.
“Shell-abrate [sic] the great news for America’s fishermen!” the department said in social media posts. “USDA plans to add U.S. wild-caught Peeled and Deveined Shrimp to the FY27 emergency food assistance programs on the TEFAP Foods Available List, bringing more nutritious protein options to the communities we serve.”
July 7, 2026 — Advocates for the U.S scallop fleet hailed President Trump’s declaration of a “National Scallops Day” July 2, leading a list of NOAA Fisheries actions the administration says are aimed to “stabilize markets, improve access, enhance economic profitability, and prevent closures.”
Measures for the lucrative Northeast and Mid-Atlantic scallop fishery headed priorities announced by NOAA Assistant Administrator Eugenio Piñeiro Soler. The changes will open the Northern Edge of Georges Bank to the scallop fleet, and advance “permit stacking” on scallop vessels, two reforms the industry’s Sustainable Scallop Fund has sought for years.
“Permit stacking will let scallop permit holders consolidate operations, cut costs, and fish more safely and efficiently. Opening the Northern Edge returns the fleet to a productive, well-managed resource that has stayed closed for years,” the group says.
“We are grateful to President Trump and his team for listening to the men and women of the scallop fleet and acting on their behalf,” said SSF president John Lees. “Permit stacking and Northern Edge access will make our fishery more competitive, more sustainable, and more valuable to the American families who depend on it. This is what it looks like when Washington puts American fishermen first.”
July 6, 2026 — NOAA announced a set of regional priorities on July 2 aimed at cutting regulatory burdens on domestic fishing fleets and boosting seafood production, part of the agency’s response to a presidential executive order.
The announcement follows an August 2025 request for public comment in which NOAA Fisheries sought input from stakeholders, including the eight regional fishery management councils, on ways to stabilize markets, improve access and prevent closures. The agency said it received more than 700 comments from individuals and organizations, along with detailed action plans submitted by each council.
“These regional priorities are a critical step in our efforts to fulfill the President’s vision of making the United States the world’s dominant seafood leader,” said NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs said in a statement. “We look forward to partnering with the councils to advance seafood competitiveness and support our American fishermen.”
June 30, 2026 — U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) has introduced the Home Market Restoration Act of 2026, a bill designed to limit imports of crawfish, shrimp, and catfish by setting higher duty rates once designated quotas are reached.
“Louisiana producers can compete with anyone if trade is fair,” Cassidy said. “Whether it is crawfish, shrimp, rice, or catfish, America cannot let foreign competitors flood our markets and push our producers out of business.”
June 26, 2026 — A longstanding federal definition of “shellfish” is changing to better reflect modern biology and simplify seafood trade regulations.
According to Newsweek, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) finalized a rule on June 23 that removes the requirement that shellfish have an external shell. The updated definition takes effect on July 23, 2026
Under the revised rule, shellfish now includes aquatic invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca, bringing squid, octopus, cuttlefish and other cephalopods under the same regulatory definition as oysters and clams. Crustaceans such as lobster, shrimp and crab remain included.
The previous definition described shellfish as “any species of mollusk having a shell,” language that regulators said no longer matched current biological classifications. Because many cephalopods have internal, reduced or no external shells, the old definition created uncertainty in how these species were handled at U.S. ports of entry.
April 24, 2026 — The world’s waterways are becoming increasingly contaminated with pharmaceuticals and illegal drugs—and the pollutants are seeping into marine animals. Cocaine, specifically, has been found in sharks, shrimp, mussels and eels, but exactly how these human-derived contaminants might be affecting wildlife has remained mysterious.
Now, new research offers a first look at how cocaine can alter the behavior of fish in the wild. Young Atlantic salmon exposed to cocaine’s primary metabolite—the compound created when human bodies break down the drug, which gets excreted into wastewater—swam farther than their sober peers in a Swedish lake, researchers report in a study published April 20 in the journal Current Biology.
The findings affirm the need to “carefully understand and manage all of the diverse chemicals society uses that can end up in our waterways,” Mark Servos, an ecotoxicologist at the University of Waterloo in Canada who was not involved with the research, tells Science’s Erik Stokstad.
The scientists behind the new study visited an Atlantic salmon hatchery in southern Sweden, where they outfitted 105 two-year-old, captive-raised fish with tracking tags and slow-release capsule implants. In one-third of the group, the implants gradually released cocaine into the creatures’ bodies. In another third, the devices released cocaine’s main metabolite, benzoylecgonine. In the final third—the control group—the implants provided no chemical related to the drug.
December 11, 2025 — Regulators voted Thursday to extend a shutdown preventing New England fishermen from catching shrimp, a historic industry that has recently fallen victim to warming oceans.
New England fishermen, especially those from Maine, used to catch millions of pounds of small pink shrimp in the winter, but the business has been under a fishing moratorium since 2014. Rising temperatures have created an inhospitable environment for the shrimp, and their population is too low to fish sustainably, scientists have said.
An arm of the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted Thursday to shut down the fishery for at least another three years. Abundance of the shrimp remained “poor” this year despite slightly improved environmental conditions, the Atlantic States said in documents.
Read the full article at the Associated Press
May 11, 2025 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission approved Amendment 4 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Northern Shrimp. In response to the continued poor condition of the northern shrimp stock, Amendment 4 modifies the first objective of the FMP to recognize the influence of environmental conditions on stock productivity and lengthens the amount of time the Northern Shrimp Section can set a moratorium from one year to up to five years. The Section can call a meeting at any time to review information relative to the fishery and the resource and initiate management action if necessary.
Amendment 4 also adds management triggers to the FMP as part of the annual stock monitoring process. Management triggers include recruitment and temperature triggers that signal potential improvement in stock conditions. The recruitment trigger will be achieved when the stock experiences non-failed recruitment for three consecutive years. If achieved, a stock assessment update will be conducted. If the recruitment trigger is not achieved, but non-failed recruitment occurs in two out of three years, the Section will consider conducting a winter sampling program without the use of size-sorting grates. This program will allow the Northern Shrimp Technical Committee to evaluate stage and length frequencies, and year class persistence before initiating a full assessment update. The temperature trigger will be considered reached when two out of three consecutive years of winter surface temperature and spring bottom temperature in the Gulf of Maine fall below the 80th percentile of the reference period. If achieved, the Section will consider a winter sampling program. These triggers are intended to help the Section identify if the stock is viable enough to support a fishery.
Finally, Amendment 4 adds the specifications setting timeline and management triggers to measures subject to change through adaptive management, allowing these management measures to be changed in the future via an addendum rather than an amendment.
All provisions of Amendment 4 are considered effective immediately. Amendment 4 will be available on the Commission’s website, https://asmfc.org/species/northern-shrimp/, by the end of May. For more information, please contact Chelsea Tuohy, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at ctuohy@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.