Saving Seafood

Trump tried to make allies of fishermen. Some are turning on him

October 5, 2026 — John Evich, a commercial fisherman in Washington and Alaska, has voted for President Donald Trump three times, viewing him as someone who would fight for his industry.

But these days, Evich is weary of the high cost of doing business at sea, with fuel prices rising and trade hostilities with Canada jeopardizing markets for the crabs that he pulls off the ocean floor.

“If somebody came along that was going to do a better job, I would vote for them in a heartbeat,” he said.

Evich’s sentiment, echoed throughout the U.S. seafood industry, is another piece of a political puzzle that is working against Trump in the midterm elections. Dissatisfaction among commercial fishermen could cause collateral damage for Republicans in competitive races in Washington, Alaska and Maine.

“Having those costs be so much higher this year has really undermined the viability of some of our fisheries,” Alaska fisherman Linda Behnken said.

Read the full article at The Associated Press

As Trump rolls back endangered species protections, US lawmakers push bill to support their recovery

October 2, 2026 — With the administration of U.S. Donald Trump moving quickly to roll back endangered species protections, some U.S. lawmakers have introduced a bill to support and improve species recovery efforts.

“Protecting the thousands of endangered species and strengthening recovery efforts must be a bipartisan cause – it is a shared responsibility that takes all of us. My new legislation with Senator [Pete] Ricketts [R-Nebraska] updates the Endangered Species Act to ensure policies that will help species on the verge of extinction survive and recover are implemented efficiently, based on science, and in partnership with private landowners and states. We must all do our part to leave the world a better place than we found it,” U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-California) said in a release.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

The Scramble for the Open Seas

September 30, 2026 — Over the last half millennium, societies around the globe competed to divide up the world’s land. Nearly every square inch of soil outside Antarctica is now owned and tucked within national borders. But the oceans have largely been spared that fate. There were times throughout history when countries tried to gate and regulate the seas, but they were too vast to be controlled for long periods. During the Cold War, as technology made it far easier to imagine partitioning the world’s waterways and seabeds, great powers avoided an unrestrained race to grab the oceans. Most governments agreed to deal with them through a patchwork of treaties and multilateral bodies that sought to guarantee freedom of navigation in international waters and assign coastal seabeds to adjacent littoral states.

That order is now collapsing. The Houthis are disrupting shipping in the Bab el Mandeb Strait, the gateway to the Red Sea. Iran and Oman are planning to charge ships fees for using the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for global energy supplies and fertilizers. In July, U.S. President Donald Trump even floated the idea that the United States could impose its own toll on Hormuz, only to later drop the plan.

Other governments, too, are jockeying to claim international waters and marine resources for themselves. Russia is trying to assert control over vast swaths of Arctic waters and seabeds, China is building artificial islands in the South China Sea, the United States has expanded its claims to seabeds beyond its exclusive economic zone, and many countries are laying the groundwork to mine the ocean floor for critical minerals.

The institutions that have kept the oceans free and open are failing, and great powers have, in key areas, stopped abiding by the rules that have held for decades. States are already making moves to control the seas. If governments rush to claim the world’s waters, as they did its land, they will make global commerce more difficult and encourage a new era of seaborne conflict. A world in which the oceans are carved up will invariably be poorer and more dangerous.

Read the full article at Foreign Affairs

Scientists, fishermen want feds to keep funding deep-ocean observation system

September 29, 2026 — New England scientists and fishermen are urging the Trump administration to continue funding the Ocean Observatories Initiative — a network of buoys and gliders that collect data from remote parts of the ocean. The National Science Foundation began quietly dismantling the deep-ocean observation system last summer, until the effort was blocked by the U.S. Senate.

The hundreds of scientific instruments remain in the water for the moment, and the federal agency is now asking for public input on the future of the system, with a deadline for comments set for September 30.

Scientists are regarding the agency’s recent request for input with cautious optimism, said Hilary Palevsky, a  marine biogeochemist at Boston College. She said the abrupt removal of instruments from the water last summer “shook the community.”

“That was really different from how NSF has operated in the past,” she said.

While the system could certainly use some tweaks, upgrades and better integration with other ocean observation technology, she said, “that should be a decision that’s made with robust community engagement and peer review, not a top-down decision.”

Read the full article at wbur

ALASKA: Trump administration order urges ‘robust’ harvest of sharks, seals and sea lions

September 28, 2026 — The White House this month issued an executive order to support the sportfishing industry by, among other things, paving the way for increased harvests of sharks and pinnipeds, including sea lions and seals.

The order specifically aims to help saltwater anglers, offshore boaters and charter operators — an industry in Alaska that, with its copious fish populations, generates thousands of jobs and more than $1 billion in economic impact, according to the state Department of Fish and Game.

If all of its provisions are enacted, fishing groups say, the directive could improve fish abundance in Alaska by reducing predation by marine mammals. It could also lead to potential conflicts with federal laws that currently protect the animals.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News 

WPRFMC to develop experimental fishing permit to collect information on commercial fishing in Papahānaumokuākea

September 28, 2026 — The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC) is developing an experimental fishing permit (EFP) for bottom fishing in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument to gather information supporting sustainable fishing efforts in the region.

The move is the latest of the council’s efforts to enable commercial fishing in several Pacific national marine monuments and sanctuaries, as directed by U.S. President Donald Trump. Since taking office for a second term in January 2025, Trump has pushed to reopen several large swaths of ocean that were closed to commercial fishing activity; in April 2025, he issued a proclamation to allow commercial fishing within Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

21 states challenge ESA changes that could affect US fisheries

September 24, 2026 — A coalition of 21 state attorneys general is challenging the Trump administration’s changes to the Endangered Species Act (ESA), setting up a legal fight over rules that could affect commercial fisheries, species protection, and marine habitat.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta co-led two lawsuits filed against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries. The states are challenging revisions involving the definition of “harm,” critical habitat designations, and protections for species listed as threatened.

The lawsuits ask the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to vacate the rules, arguing they violate the Endangered Species Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act.

The changes could be particularly relevant to commercial fishermen because NOAA Fisheries administers the ESA for many marine and anadromous species. ESA protections can influence fishing regulations, federal permitting, habitat protections, and measures intended to reduce interactions with protected species.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

New York, California sue to block Trump administration deals canceling offshore wind projects

September 23, 2026 — Democratic attorneys general from California and New York sued the Trump administration Tuesday over its plans to buy back offshore wind leases as President Donald Trump seeks to discourage the expansion of wind energy in favor of fossil fuels.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said he is suing over removal of a project off his state’s coast planned by Chicago-based Invenergy. The Trump administration said in June that it’s buying back the company’s U.S. offshore wind leases for four wind projects on the East and West coasts.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, meanwhile, led seven states in suits seeking to block the Invenergy deal and another proposal with Bluepoint Wind, which agreed in April to end a wind farm under development off the New York and New Jersey coast.

The deals would hand energy companies $1.4 billion in taxpayer dollars in exchange for the cancellation of multiple projects. ln all, the Trump administration has pledged nearly $4 billion to companies to walk away from projects across the country.

Read the full article at The Associated Press

Trump administration authorizes South Atlantic states to run extended recreational red snapper fishing seasons, again

September 22, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Commerce has given three South Atlantic states permission to manage extended recreational red snapper fishing seasons in federal waters this fall after an early effort to run an extended state-managed summer season was blocked by a lawsuit filed by commercial fishers.

“NOAA is dedicated to working with our state partners, fishermen, and fishery managers to advance sustainable fisheries and strengthen the science that supports them,” NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs said in a release. “These efforts enable us to test new, innovative approaches and improve recreational data collection to support the long-term sustainability of South Atlantic red snapper.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Offshore wind job training built for a boom is facing down a bust

September 22, 2026 — This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. ​

A former Navy sailor and union laborer from Local 1298 on Long Island, William “Billy” Bishop jumped at the chance to work on the water again when he learned two years ago about job opportunities on offshore wind construction projects.

After earning a safety certification from the National Offshore Wind Training Center — a collaboration between Long Island’s Suffolk County Community College, the Long Island Federation of Labor, and multinational wind farm developer Orsted — Bishop worked on a wind farm near Rhode Island. Now he’s doing structural inspections and maintenance on Sunrise Wind, which is under construction off the coast of Long Island in New York.

But the Trump administration’s efforts to crush offshore wind projects, part of its broader assault on clean energy, have created deep uncertainty for training programs like NOWTC and workers like Bishop.

“I would definitely do this forever, and I’ve looked into it since getting the job. But I see contracts are falling through nonstop now in America,” said Bishop. “This might be the last one for a while.”

In 2021, the Biden administration set a target to generate 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by the end of the decade, starting from almost zero, which jump-started a massive effort to train people for jobs in the industry. That rapid ramp-up would have required an estimated 77,000 workers — to build the wind farms, connect the turbines to the grid, operate and maintain the facilities, manufacture the rugged steel components, and more.

Read the full article at Grist