Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Trump administration defends Biden-era rejection of Pebble mine by EPA

February 26, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Justice is defending a Biden-era veto of the Pebble copper and gold project, saying the Environmental Protection Agency properly exercised its authority to prevent adverse impacts to a “globally significant” fishery in Bristol Bay.

The Feb. 17 court filing by the Department of Justice continues the Trump administration’s opposition to the proposed mine, a departure from the president’s aggressive pro-development agenda that includes support of U.S. mineral production in Alaska.

The Pebble project sits on state land about 200 miles southwest of Anchorage, near the headwaters of Bristol Bay, home to the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.

Mine developer Pebble Limited Partnership brought the case in 2024, suing EPA over its decision to block the mine under a little-used provision in the Clean Water Act. The agency had said the mine would cause “unacceptable, adverse” harm to the valuable Bristol Bay salmon fishery.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

Trump reopens vast swath of waters off northeastern coast to commercial fishing

February 25, 2026 — One of the nation’s richest fishing grounds — put off-limits to commercial use by the Obama and Biden administrations — is once again open for business, courtesy of a proclamation issued by the Trump White House.

The Feb. 6 proclamation — “Unleashing American Commercial Fishing in the Atlantic” —revokes an Obama- and Biden-era policy that prohibited commercial fishing within the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. Created in 2016 by the Obama administration, the marine national monument covers nearly 5,000 square miles on the edge of the continental shelf about 150 miles east of Cape Cod. The monument designation included a ban on commercial fishing, which Trump lifted in his first term. The Biden administration reimposed the ban in 2021, a step Trump 2.0 is now reversing.

When it reimposed the prohibition on commercial fishing within the marine monument’s boundaries, the Biden White House, like the Obama administration before it, cited the need to protect sensitive marine life in the area. “Restoring the prohibition on commercial fishing,” the Biden administration said, “will ensure that the unique, fragile, and largely pristine canyons and seamounts, and the dynamic ocean systems and marine life they support … will be safeguarded and will continue to provide an important venue for scientific study and research.”

Read the full article at CFACT

VIRGINIA: Pause on Virginia offshore wind farm cost Dominion more than $200M — but turbines will power up soon

February 25, 2026 — The Trump administration’s attempt to stop Dominion Energy from building its wind farm off the Virginia Beach coast cost the utility $228 million, company executives told shareholders this week.

Shortly before Christmas, the U.S. Interior Department issued a stop-work order for the project and four others along the East Coast. Government officials claimed the wind farms would harm national security, but declined to provide more details.

Dominion sued and last month, a federal judge in Norfolk ruled in favor of the company, saying the administration did not sufficiently explain purported security threats. The case is still pending, but Dominion was allowed to restart construction.

During the nearly month-long stoppage, Dominion racked up expenses from equipment storage, contractual penalties, an idle workforce and delays in using time-sensitive vessels.

Read the full article at WMRA

ALASKA: NOAA Fisheries identifies 77 potential aquaculture opportunity areas in Gulf of Alaska

February 24, 2026 — NOAA Fisheries has identified 77 locations in the Gulf of Alaska that could be suitable for aquaculture operations, following up on an order issued by U.S. President Donald Trump in 2020.

“Alaska has more coastline than the rest of the nation combined, and we should be using that resource to its full potential,” Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy said in a release. “This atlas helps identify where aquaculture makes sense in our state waters. It will support creating new job opportunities, strengthen food security for Alaskans, and add to Alaska’s already tremendous seafood industry.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Trump vows to enact 15 percent global tariff following Supreme Court rebuke

February 23, 2026 — U.S. President Donald Trump said he plans to impose a new 15 percent tariff on all trade following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that invalidated his previous tariffs.

In a press conference following the Supreme Court decision on 20 February – and in a post on his social media site Truth Social that mirrored what he said at the conference – Trump said he plans to use Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 to impose a 10 percent tariff “over and above our normal tariffs already being charged.” Section 122 was established to allow the U.S. president to impose duties on other countries related to “large and serious” balance of payments issues.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Peter Navarro: Trump lifts Biden’s fish ban to lower your grocery bill

February 23, 2026 — Inflation isn’t an abstraction. It’s the monthly bills piling up — and whether a family can pay the mortgage, fuel the car, and put food on the table. That is why President Donald Trump is attacking Joe Biden’s legacy inflation sector by sector, product by product — and, as his latest executive action shows, fish by fish.

With this action, President Trump is reopening 5,000 square miles of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument to commercial fishing. These productive waters were first fenced off by Barack Obama in 2016 and, after Trump reopened them in 2020, Biden shut them right back down in 2021.

Obama’s 2016 commercial fishing ban came wrapped in lofty rhetoric about preservation. But for working waterfronts, it was a gut punch and a shutdown.

When President Trump lifted that ban, I was at the signing ceremony in Bangor, Maine. That Trump signature meant boats would once again sail, crews could fish and earn, processors could buy American catch, and — yes — American consumers could eat some of the freshest fish on the market.

Then came the Biden reversal in October 2021. My heart broke when I read the news — because policy whiplash is not an academic exercise. Fishermen live by the tides, not a think-tank memo. And it’s not just the fishermen that get hurt. It’s welders, dockhands, icehouses, bait dealers, truckers and an entire waterfront ecosystem.

When federal policy strangles opportunity, there is no backup plan, no second labor market to absorb the shock. The boats stop sailing, the paychecks stop coming, the damage is immediate.

Read the full article at Peter Navarro

Menhaden Research Gets Federal Boost

February 20, 2026 — President Donald Trump signed a federal spending package in January that includes two-point-five million dollars for menhaden research, ending a two-year wait for state funding. Businesses, scientists, and anglers support the study, saying solid data is needed before imposing limits. Some environmental advocates however, argue reductions should happen now, but regulators are holding off pending the research. We reached out to Omega Protein for comment, and they told us that “Ocean Harvesters, headquartered locally in Reedville, has a long track record of supporting rigorous, independent science to better understand Atlantic menhaden and the broader Bay ecosystem. The Company believes that any funding for menhaden projects at NOAA-Fisheries is in good hands.”

Read the full article at Middle Neck News

Feds appeal ruling that voided Trump’s Day One anti-wind memo

February 19, 2026 — The Trump administration has appealed a December ruling that struck down a presidential memorandum barring offshore wind leasing and permitting.

Judge Patti B. Saris had declared the wind memo, issued by President Donald Trump on his first day back in office, unlawful. But on Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a notice of appeal.

It comes one week after Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the administration would “absolutely” appeal other court rulings issued in January and February that lifted the federal suspension orders on five under-construction offshore wind projects, including Vineyard Wind.

Those suspensions were issued shortly after Saris’ ruling on the wind memo. At this time, the federal government has not appealed those project-specific lawsuits.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

Legal tug-of-war over wind energy in Mass. continues with Trump admin challenge

February 19, 2026 — Lawyers for the Trump administration are challenging — in a Massachusetts court — a federal judge’s December ruling that struck down a freeze on all permitting for wind energy projects nationwide.

Issued in January 2025, the original presidential order temporarily halted all federal permitting while agencies reviewed wind energy leasing and permitting practices, according to court documents.

The December ruling overturning the order came after a coalition of 17 states — including Massachusetts — successfully argued that the administration’s permit pause violated federal law. U.S. District Court Judge Patti Saris ruled that the policy was “arbitrary and capricious.”

Read the full article at the Cape Cod Times