Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Alaska seafood industry ‘uniquely vulnerable’ to tariff impacts, trade groups say

June 5, 2025 — Alaska’s seafood industry could see an outsized impact from international tariffs, according to experts.

In April, President Donald Trump announced a major tariff hike on China, escalating up to 145%, and China retaliated with similar rates. Though both governments struck a deal in May delaying any increases by at least 90 days, they haven’t been canceled, and tariffs have stayed elevated since his last presidency. That makes Alaska seafood less competitive in China, one of the largest markets for it internationally.

Two trade groups representing some of Alaska’s largest seafood processors — the Pacific Seafood Processors Association and the At-Sea Processors Association — sent a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative March 11 urging caution on new tariffs worldwide.

“(Alaska is) heavily dependent on fair access to export markets, and also uniquely vulnerable to retaliatory tariffs that our trading partners may seek to impose in the event of heightened trade tensions,” they wrote. “Accordingly, care must be taken to remedy these issues in a manner that does not increase the harm to U.S. seafood producers.”

The letter points to an “existential and global threat” to Alaska’s seafood industry in recent years due to unfair trade practices by Russia, which has been overproducing and flooding world markets for years, especially for pollock. The U.S. currently has broad trade sanctions on Russia.

Read the full article at Alaska Journal of Commerce

Conservation groups sue Trump administration over opening of Pacific national monument to commercial fishing

May 27, 2025 — A trio of conservation groups have sued the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, challenging the president’s recent decision to allow commercial fishing within the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument.

“President Trump’s proclamation threatens to destroy one of the world’s last healthy and wild ocean ecosystems. Commercial fishing would remove large numbers of fish, sharks, turtles, and other marine life as both intended catch and unintended bycatch. This would completely disrupt the underwater ecosystem and wreak havoc on the food chain. Many of these creatures and areas are culturally important to the people of Oceania, for traditional and modern navigation and as a valuable food source,” Conservation Council for Hawai‘i Executive Director Jonee Peters said in a statement.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Local scientists, fisheries and weather forecasters feeling impact of NOAA cuts

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.

Read the full article at wbur

Trump reinstating commercial fishing in northeast marine monument

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.

Read the full article at The Hill

Trump administration strikes hard at offshore wind

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.”

Read the full article at Workboat

OREGON: Oregon lawmakers urge Trump administration to declare fishery disaster

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.

Read the full article at KOIN

White House budget would slash NOAA climate, ocean programs

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.

Read the full article at WorkBoat

Proposed federal cuts jeopardize Pacific salmon habitat restoration, tribal rights

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.

Read the full article at OPB

Shifting tariff policy wounding U.S. shipping industry, says expert

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.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource