Saving Seafood

National Fisheries Institute Applauds President Trump on Tariff Modifications and Swiss Trade Agreement

November 17, 2025 — The following was released by the National Fisheries Institute:

The National Fisheries Institute (NFI) applauds the Administration for moving to ease tariffs on some foods. While seafood is the healthiest animal protein on the planet, rising costs have put it out of reach for many families.  We urge the President to include all seafood in tariff adjustments. This is critical to lowering consumer prices, maintaining American jobs in the seafood sector and keeping Americans healthy and fed.

Additionally, NFI appreciates the Administration’s success in continuing to expand markets for American seafood globally.

The plan to improve access for high quality U.S. seafood products through the application of zero duties in both Switzerland and Liechtenstein will have a positive impact on American companies and is in lockstep with the roadmap laid out in the President’s executive order regarding seafood competitiveness and economic growth.

NFI supports efforts to strengthen cooperation in global seafood trade and make America’s seafood community stronger.

Lisa Wallenda Picard
President & CEO

 

Feds wade closer to mineral lease in US waters

November 11, 2025 — The Trump administration is inching closer to opening U.S. waters to the first mineral lease sale in decades amid booming industry interest and growing anxiety among environmental groups.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, on Monday said it has identified areas off the coast of American Samoa for a mineral lease, and is seeking information about holding a lease sale off the shores of the Northern Mariana Islands.

The step signals agencies are moving forward with reviewing activity tied to deep-sea mining in U.S. waters, right as companies line up for permission to plumb the ocean depths for minerals both in domestic and international waters.

Read the full article at E&E News

Foreign food inspections plummet following Trump administration layoffs

November 10, 2025 — Foreign food inspections conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have plummeted under U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term, according to an investigation by news outlet ProPublica.

“Basic regulatory oversight functions have been decimated,” Consumer Reports Food Policy Director Brian Ronholm told ProPublica. “There’s an enhanced risk of more outbreaks.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Judge rules Trump administration can review finalized permit for offshore wind project near Mass.

November 6, 2025 — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration can reconsider a major environmental permit for SouthCoast Wind, a proposed project near Massachusetts.

The decision marks yet another blow to the offshore wind industry, and reinforces a sense of uncertainty for all energy developers, who in the past, have been able to rely on a final federal permit being, in fact, final.

In a five page order, Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, an Obama appointee to the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., said the Trump administration could take a second look at the project’s Construction and Operations Plan. The COP, as it’s typically called, is the last big permit an offshore wind projects needs before it can begin construction. SouthCoast Wind’s permit was issued in January, just days before Trump resumed office.

Read the full article at wbur

ALASKA: Alaska commercial fishing job numbers sink to record low, state report says

November 6, 2025 — The number of commercial fishing jobs in Alaska plunged to a new low last year as the industry struggles with disrupted fisheries, low prices, climate change and foreign competition that could get a boost from President Donald’s Trump’s trade war, a state report has found.

“Alaska lost seafood harvesting jobs for a fifth straight year in 2024, bringing the industry to its lowest job count since data collection began in 2001,” according to the November report in Alaska Economic Trends.

The drop in employment extends statewide and across multiple fisheries including salmon, herring, black cod and other species.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

Delaware AG enters Delmarva offshore wind farm fight

November 6, 2025 — Delaware’s Attorney General Kathy Jennings filed a motion in federal court in support of a company seeking to build a controversial wind farm off the Delmarva coast as it fends off a lawsuit preventing the project from moving forward.

US Wind, a Maryland-based company, hopes to build 121 turbines off the coast of Ocean City, Md., but has been targeted in the courts by both city leaders and the Trump administration. The project has been the subject of years of scrutiny in both southern Delaware and on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Now, Jennings has stepped in, supporting US Wind’s efforts to stop the federal government from pulling its construction permits. If the Trump administration succeeds, it would effectively kill the project and bankrupt US Wind.

Last week, Jennings’ office filed a brief in the ongoing lawsuit challenging the legality of the proposed wind farm. She expressed support for the project and outlined the benefits it would have in Delaware.

Read the full article at News From The States

Judge allows Interior to rethink New England wind permit

November 6, 2025 — A federal judge has dealt a further blow to the beleaguered U.S. offshore wind industry, allowing the Trump administration to reconsider approval of a massive wind energy development planned off the Massachusetts coast.

Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday sided with the White House, allowing the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to reopen a Biden-era decision approving construction and operations plans for the industrial-scale SouthCoast Wind project.

The decision comes as the administration has sought to dismantle wind energy, and it came over the vociferous objections of the project developer.

Read the full article E&E News

Trump administration can reconsider SouthCoast Wind approval, judge rules

November 5, 2025 — A U.S. District Court judge ruled on Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump’s Interior Department may reconsider the Biden administration’s approval of the SouthCoast Wind project planned off the coast of Massachusetts.

The order is a victory for the Trump administration, which argued that it had identified issues with the project’s environmental analysis and that a review could result in a withdrawal of the SouthCoast permit.

Read the full article at Reuters

Judge grants BOEM request to reconsider key permit for SouthCoast Wind

November 5, 2025 –A judge on Tuesday granted a federal agency’s request to remand a key permit that it had given in January to SouthCoast Wind, an offshore wind project planned off the Massachusetts coast.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Interior Department agency that manages offshore wind development, in September asked a judge for a remand so that it can reconsider its approval, which greenlit project construction for up to 147 turbines south of Nantucket and Vineyard Wind.

BOEM is effectively re-opening the review, which started in 2021 and lasted years, citing President Donald Trump’s day-one wind memo directing the Interior Department to carry out a “comprehensive review of the ecological, economic, and environmental necessity of terminating or amending any existing wind energy leases.”

The agency could ultimately decide to revoke the SouthCoast Wind permit, or require new conditions for the developer to meet to receive approval.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

RHODE ISLAND: R.I. energy regulators approve SouthCoast Wind transmission line plan

November 5, 2025 — The financing and federal permitting for SouthCoast Wind remains murky.

But the path is clear for the Massachusetts offshore wind project to run power lines up the Sakonnet River and across Portsmouth to Mount Hope Bay, with approval from the Rhode Island Energy Facility Siting Board on Tuesday.

Power purchase agreements between the project developer and Massachusetts and Rhode Island utility suppliers are not yet signed — despite a Nov. 1 deadline — amid continued uncertainty over the staying power of offshore wind under the Trump administration.

Meanwhile, a federal judge in D.C. granted the administration’s request Tuesday to reconsider a key federal permit which was already approved in the waning days of the Biden administration. The court decision marks a major setback to the already struggling project, allowing the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to start anew on a comprehensive review of potential environmental and economic consequences of the project.

A spokesperson for SouthCoast Wind did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the court order Tuesday afternoon.

Read the full article at Rhode Island Current