Saving Seafood

Trump administration holds up NOAA grant funding

April 14, 2026 — The Trump administration is holding up some National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) grant funding.

Earlier this month, the University of Colorado released a statement saying that a federal pause on grant funding has put scientists who collect data about the atmosphere “at risk for elimination.”

It specifically pointed to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), saying it “has not released these funds.”

Waleed Abdalati, director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), told The Hill that about 30 days before the institute was slated to run out of funds to pay the scientists in question, “we were informed that NOAA has put a pause on all grant actions.”

“We are all told to assume no funding is moving through the grants management division until a spend plan has been approved,” he said.

Read the full article at The Hill

Greens see chance to protect species in ‘God Squad’ fight

April 14, 2026 — The Trump administration’s move to exempt oil and gas activities in the Gulf of Mexico from endangered species considerations could hand environmentalists a public engagement opportunity, although one they would prefer not to have.

The use of the so-called God Squad last month to grant a more than 600,000-square-mile exemption for the oil industry puts the spotlight on the kind of charismatic species — whales and sea turtles — that not only conservationists but the general public hold dear. In particular, it highlights the plight of the Rice’s whale, which has only a few dozen of its kind left.

“This action by the Trump administration may prove to be a galvanizing moment for a whole new generation of advocates and voters who support the Endangered Species Act and the wildlife and ecosystems it protects,” said Ben Greuel, national wildlife campaign manager at the Sierra Club.

Read the full article at E&E News

Trump extends existing ban on Russian seafood

April 14, 2026 — U.S. President Donald Trump has extended a ban on several products produced by the Russian Federation, including a ban on seafood harvested or produced by Russian-flagged vessels.

In a post to the Federal Register, Donald Trump signed a continuation of the National Emergency that was initially declared under the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden in 2022. That order was then expanded under U.S. Executive Order 14068, which added any seafood harvested in Russian waters or by a Russian-flagged vessel, even if that product was transformed in a third country.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Trump budget proposal targets NOAA

April 7, 2026 — The Trump administration’s fiscal year 2027 budget request is drawing sharp concern from environmental groups and ocean advocates, with proposed cuts to key federal agencies that support fisheries science, management, and coastal communities.

According to Inside Climate News, the spending plan would continue efforts to scale back funding for climate and environmental programs, including significant reductions to NOAA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The proposal outlines a broader push to “constrain non-defense spending,” while increasing defense funding to $1.5 trillion, a 44 percent jump.

At the EPA, funding would be cut roughly in half under the proposal, with grants reduced by $1 billion. Inside Climate News also reported that the agency has already seen significant staffing losses, with more than 4,000 employees leaving during the first year of Trump’s second term. That represents a 24 reduction in workforce, bringing staffing levels to their lowest point since the 1980s.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Trump administration to rejoin offshore drilling agencies separated after 2010 Gulf oil spill

April 6, 2026 — The Trump administration said Friday it is combining two agencies that were separated in the aftermath of the 2010 Gulf oil spill. The Interior Department said the overhaul would increase efficiency and speed up permitting for offshore oil and gas drilling.

The new Marine Minerals Administration will bring together the functions of the current Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said. Doing so will enable a “streamlined approach” that will maintain existing regulatory protections and rigorous safety standards, he said.

The combined agency will “deliver clearer coordination, better service to the public and stronger, more integrated oversight of offshore energy development,” Burgum said in a statement.

The new name is reminiscent of the old Minerals Management Service, which for decades was the federal agency responsible for overseeing offshore drilling. In April 2010, a deadly explosion destroyed BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 people and discharging nearly 5 million barrels of crude oil into the sea over the next three months in the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Trump budget attacks renewables, boosts ‘energy dominance’

April 3, 2026 — The White House released its fiscal 2027 budget request Friday morning, unveiling plans to continue waging its longstanding war against renewable energy and climate initiatives while boosting support for artificial intelligence and fossil fuels.

The spending blueprint also includes a proposed reorganization for core Interior Department energy offices — the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.

President Donald Trump’s budget would take a sledgehammer to Biden-era energy and environment programs that the administration has not already decimated, proposing tens of billions of dollars in cuts to everything from electric vehicle chargers to efforts to prosecute certain environmental crimes.

Read the full article at E&E News

NOAA Rescinds Regulation Prohibiting Commercial Fishing in Atlantic Monument Area

April 3, 2026 — NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service rescinded a regulation that prohibited commercial fishing within the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument boundaries. This action was necessary to align fishing regulations with President Trump’s Executive Proclamation Unleashing American Commercial Fishing in the Atlantic to reopen the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument to commercial fishing.

NOAA is proud to support the Administration’s pledge to restore US seafood competitiveness through the America First Fishing Policy. The President’s Executive Proclamation and NOAA’s regulatory actions come as a direct result of feedback from the US fishing industry, and they will increase economic opportunities for American fishermen.

Read the full article at ECO Magazine

Trump’s Budget May Target Climate Programs. Here’s What Still Survives.

April 2, 2026 — President Trump has tried to cut funding for virtually every federal program that addresses climate change. But Congress has been pushing back, sometimes with surprising bipartisan support.

This year, lawmakers quietly saved funding for the government’s popular Energy Star program, which ranks appliances based on energy conservation and cost savings. Bipartisan majorities also salvaged weather forecasting, fisheries and climate research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and even some international environmental aid.

Mr. Trump’s new proposed budget is expected to be made public on Friday, and climate advocates said they were bracing for steep new cuts to environmental programs. The White House declined to comment on the budget but noted that Mr. Trump had already eliminated his top targets, like federal support for wind, solar and other renewable energy.

Advocates for climate action said their modest success last time had given them some hope of again retaining popular programs in next year’s budget.

Read the full article at The New York Times

The ‘God Squad’ Waives Environmental Rules for Offshore Drilling

April 1, 2026 — A powerful panel of Trump administration officials voted unanimously on Tuesday to exempt oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from measures to protect endangered whales and other imperiled species.

The panel, the Endangered Species Committee, a high-level group that is often called the God Squad because it essentially holds the power to decide whether a species lives or dies, adopted the move during a brief, closed-door meeting at the Interior Department.

Until Tuesday, the God Squad had convened only three times, and never in the past three decades.

It was the Trump administration’s latest move to weaken the Endangered Species Act, the bedrock environmental law intended to prevent plant and animal extinctions. In November, the administration proposed to relax restrictions on drilling, logging and mining in critical habitats for endangered species across the country.

To justify the sweeping decision on Tuesday, administration officials said that protections for endangered species had hindered oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, which President Trump calls the Gulf of America. They said that lifting these protections would increase domestic energy supplies and bolster national security.

“When development in the Gulf is chilled, we are prevented from producing the energy we need as a country,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at the meeting.

“Recent hostile action by the Iranian terror regime highlights yet again why robust domestic oil production is a national security imperative,” Mr. Hegseth said, although he clarified that these concerns predated the Middle East war and the resulting spike in gasoline prices.

The United States is the world’s biggest producer of oil and gas, and the Gulf accounts for about 15 percent of U.S. crude oil output.

Read the full article at The New York Times