May 19, 2025 — As the Trump administration continues to reshape federal policy, a recent executive order targeting the U.S. fishing industry is making waves along Maine’s coast.
The order, which seeks to ease regulations and promote domestic seafood production, is drawing both support and concern from those closely tied to the industry.
May 13, 2025 — Staff and budget cuts are fraying local offices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, according to several scientists inside the agency. The cuts are already leading to degraded weather forecasts and adding chaos to commercial fisheries.
And they said additional cuts proposed by the Trump administration could throw New England commercial fisheries, scientific research and weather forecasting into further disarray, threatening lives and livelihoods throughout the region.
Current NOAA employees describe a “grim” and “chaotic” atmosphere: contracts cancelled without warning; colleagues fired, rehired and fired again; and a brief lapse in a janitorial contract that led to an email request that staffers clean the restrooms.
May 12, 2025 — President Trump is reinstating commercial fishing in a national marine monument after the practice was blocked by his Democratic predecessors.
Trump is expected to issue a proclamation Friday reinstating commercial fishing access in all 4,913 square miles of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, which is located off the coast of Massachusetts.
The proclamation was first reported by the NH Journal.
The national monument was established by former President Obama to protect deep-sea canyons with unique ecosystems. The administration said at the time that these ecosystems are significantly impacted by climate change.
May 12, 2025 — The U.S. offshore wind industry was rocked less than 100 days into the new Trump administration, with aggressive moves by the White House to shut down Equinor’s Empire Wind project off New York and ongoing political pressure on Trump officials to do even more.
“Approval for the project was rushed through by the prior administration without sufficient analysis or consultation among the relevant agencies as relates to the potential effects from the project,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum wrote in an April 16 memo directing the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to halt construction activity.
Citing President Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order calling for a broad review of all offshore wind power projects in federal waters, Burgum wrote that the construction halt will remain pending review to “address these serious deficiencies.”
April 16, 2025 — A group of Oregon Democratic lawmakers are urging the Trump administration to declare a fishery disaster in the state after a drop in the salmon population.
In an April 11 letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the lawmakers asked the administration to approve Governor Tina Kotek’s disaster declaration request after Oregon’s troll salmon fishery struggled from the worsening effects of climate change in 2024 — from increased drought to shifting ocean conditions and to other impacts leading to poor salmon returns.
Struggling fisheries pose an economic and cultural threat to Oregon, the lawmakers said, noting the state’s commercial fishing industry garners more than $640 million in economic activity every year.
April 15, 2025 — The Trump administration’s proposed 2026 federal budget would slash Department of Commerce funding by more than 25%, eliminating the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research program and targeting other climate, ocean and fisheries programs within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The Oceanic and Atmospheric program funding would be reduced by $485 million to $171 million, according to news media reports on the Office of Management and Budget document that began circulating among NOAA staffers and leaked to news organizations April 11 in Washington.
April 14, 2025 — The Trump administration wants to eliminate several programs that benefit Pacific salmon, the iconic but widely threatened species of the Pacific Northwest.
Much of the effort to keep Pacific salmon from disappearing is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
An internal document from the Office of Management and Budget, reviewed by KUOW, calls for eliminating NOAA’s Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund, as well as national grant programs for species recovery, interjurisdictional fisheries, and habitat conservation and restoration.
Overall, NOAA would see a 27% cut in its $6 billion budget under the White House proposal, which has not been finalized and is subject to Congressional approval.
In 2023, the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund distributed $107 million to states and tribes, with Washington state receiving $26 million, more than any other recipient. Coastwide, the fund restored 3,624 acres of salmon habitat in 2023 and removed obstacles enabling salmon to reach an additional 202 miles of spawning streams, according to NOAA.
“It’s very troublesome because we just want to get the work done and get our salmon back,” Lummi Nation Councilmember Lisa Wilson said.
April 10, 2025 — Shifting tariff policy in the U.S. is harming the nation’s shipping and logistics industry, supply chain and logistics expert Sunderesh Heragu told SeafoodSource.
Though the Trump administration paused its planned tariffs on most U.S. trading partners on 9 April, Heragu said that the “chaos and uncertainty caused by the imposition and partial rescinding of tariffs has already made a dent in the shipping industry.”
April 10, 2025 — United States Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer told the Senate Finance Committee on 8 April that the Trump administration was planning to reverse course on the port fees it had previously proposed for Chinese-owned and Chinese-built ships in U.S. ports.
“[The port fees are] not all going to be implemented. They’re not all going to be stacked,” Greer told U.S. lawmakers, according to Reuters, adding that he wanted to “make sure that we have the right amount of time, the right incentives, to bring shipbuilding here without impacting our economy.”
March 26, 2025 — The start of this year’s commercial fishing season could be a bust for fishermen who catch groundfish species like cod, haddock and flounder.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has yet to approve new catch limits for the season slated to open May 1. People in the fishing industry said the annual process has been delayed by changes to the science used to measure cod populations, and the Trump administration’s cuts to the agency.
Scallop fishery regulations also won’t be finalized by the season’s start on April 1. But since there aren’t new regulatory strategies under consideration like with cod, there are default catch limits in place for scallops. Scallopers are facing just 10 fewer fishing days at the start of the season.
Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney representing the Sustainable Scalloping Fund, said this “doesn’t have much of an impact” on the fishery. He’s expecting new limits to be approved within a week of the start of the season.
Scalloper Eric Hansen of New Bedford said he’s cautiously optimistic about an approval coming soon. He remembers a similar slowdown when the Biden administration took over four years ago.
“ If history repeats itself, it won’t be catastrophic,” he said. “And that’s a big if.”