Saving Seafood

How EPA challenged Maryland offshore wind project

February 18, 2026 — EPA officials paid close attention to offshore wind opponents before the Trump administration questioned a state-issued permit for a planned Maryland offshore wind farm last summer, federal documents show.

The records, released by EPA following a public records request from POLITICO’s E&E News, outline how employees in the agency’s mid-Atlantic region met with national officials and rushed to respond to concerns from Maryland Republican Rep. Andy Harris, a prominent opponent of offshore wind.

The Maryland Offshore Wind Project has been in the spotlight since it slipped through the Trump administration’s blockade of offshore wind permits. State regulators issued the developer a final permit in June, leading the Interior Department to say in August that it planned to revoke the project’s federal permit.

Read the full article at E&E News

US lawmakers ask government to provide financial aid for shellfish sector

February 19, 2026 — A group of U.S. lawmakers has asked the federal government to provide financial support to the nation’s struggling shellfish sector, which they claimed has been hit hard by increased tariffs.

“Tariffs and retaliatory tariffs have led to higher consumer prices, altered supply chains, reduced availability, higher equipment costs, and market instability for farmers of all kinds, including shellfish growers,” the lawmakers said in the joint letter dated 6 February. “In the last year, our strongest trade partners have launched retaliatory tariffs against the United States, causing uncertainty and hurting geoduck, oyster, and other shellfish industries many of our communities rely on as lifelines.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NOAA claims steady progress was made on US aquaculture in 2025

February 18, 2026 — Following directives from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, NOAA’s Aquaculture Program said it made steady progress in 2025 on exploring new aquaculture projects in the U.S., inching closer to helping the country close its farmed seafood import gap.

“Currently, the U.S. imports USD 15 billion [EUR 12.7 billion] worth of farmed seafood. That’s billion with a ‘b.’ It is by far more than we produce here at home, which is less than USD 2 billion [EUR 1.7 billion], and that has the eyes of a lot of people across the government, not just people who focus on aquaculture,” NOAA Office of Aquaculture Director Danielle Blacklock said on 17 February during the 2026 Aquaculture America conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.A.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

States could net control of red snapper season

February 17, 2026 — The Trump administration is taking steps toward shifting regulatory authority over red snapper in Atlantic Ocean federal waters to states, a move that some state leaders have argued is necessary to sustain their sportfishing economies.

NOAA Fisheries announced Wednesday it would open a 25-day comment period on “exempted fishing permits” for Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

The permits would allow the states to “test new data collection methods and strategies for state-led management of the recreational red snapper fishery,” the agency said.

Read the full article at E&E News

US House votes to end Trump tariffs on Canada

February 12, 2026 — The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to block President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada, setting the bill up for a vote in the Senate.

Trump has continuously threatened Canada with tariffs since taking office in January 2025, and recently threatened a 100 percent tariff on the country’s goods over its trade deal with China. The country currently faces a 35 percent “fentanyl” tariff on all goods from the country, with the caveat that any goods entered under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) – which is virtually all seafood goods – are not required to pay the tariff.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

More Republicans buck Trump on offshore wind

February 12, 2026 —  A growing number of House Republicans are openly questioning the Trump administration’s assertion that offshore wind projects pose a risk to national security.

Nine Republicans, led by House Homeland Security Chair Andrew Garbarino of New York, last month called on top Trump officials to brief lawmakers about their decision in December to halt construction of five nearly complete projects off the Atlantic coast.

Judges have ruled against the administration’s pause in all five cases, but many lawmakers see the stop-work orders as part of a concerted and ongoing attack on offshore wind and other renewable energy ventures.

Read the full article at E&E News

US pushes AI funding, fisheries tech at APEC amid China rivalry

February 12, 2026 — The Trump administration is promoting artificial intelligence exports and maritime surveillance technology at Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in southern China this week, as Washington seeks to counter Beijing’s technological and maritime influence.

The United States is also using APEC to promote American private-sector technologies designed to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, which Washington says threatens food security and maritime sovereignty in parts of the Pacific.

Ruth Perry, Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, said on Tuesday China’s 18-million-strong distant-water fleet posed enforcement challenges for smaller coastal states.

“Many countries are negatively impacted and China is a perpetrator … the size of the fleet can’t be ignored across the Pacific,” Perry told Reuters, noting reports that suggest an unusual level of state coordination among its actions.

Illegal fishing is frequently linked to other transnational crimes including forced labour, trafficking and smuggling, Perry said.

Perry noted that China’s revised Fisheries Law is due to take effect from May. “They’re saying all the right things and we want to see if they’re going to follow through with those actions.”

Read the full article at Reuters

ALASKA: Indigenous concerns surface as U.S. agency considers seabed mining in Alaskan waters

February 12, 2026 — A U.S. federal agency is considering allowing companies to lease more than 45.7 million hectares (113 million acres) of waters off Alaska for seabed mining. Alaska is the latest of several places President Donald Trump has sought to open to the fledging industry over the past year, including waters around American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Like those Pacific islands, Alaska is home to Indigenous peoples with ancestral ties to the ocean, and the proposal is raising cultural and environmental concerns.

Deep-sea mining, the practice of scraping minerals off the ocean floor for commercial products like electric vehicle batteries and military technology, is not yet a commercial industry. It’s been slowed by the lack of regulations governing permits in international waters and by concerns about the environmental impact of extracting minerals that formed over millions of years. Scientists have warned the practice could damage fisheries and fragile ecosystems that could take millennia to recover. Indigenous peoples have also pushed back, citing violations of their rights to consent to projects in their territories.

Trump, however, has voiced strong support for the industry as part of his effort to make the United States a leader in critical mineral production. He has also pushed for U.S. companies to mine in international waters, bypassing ongoing global negotiations over international mining regulations.

Kate Finn, a citizen of the Osage Nation and executive director of the Tallgrass Institute Center for Indigenous Economic Stewardship in Colorado, said she worries the seabed mining industry will repeat the mistakes of land-based mining.

“The terrestrial mining industry has not gotten it right with regards to Indigenous peoples,” Finn said. “Indigenous peoples have the right to give and to withdraw consent. Mining companies themselves need to design their operations around that right.”

Read the full article at Mongabay

MASSACHUSETTS: State AG pushing back on effort to halt development of offshore wind

February 11, 2026 — Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell has filed an amicus brief opposing the Trump Administration’s effort to halt development of the New England Wind 1 offshore wind project, which is expected to power more than 300,000 homes.

Supporting developer Avangrid Power, Campbell argued that completing the project is essential to meeting growing energy demand, especially during winter with rising heating bills.

Read the full article at CapeCod.com

Trump opens massive Atlantic marine monument to commercial fishing

February 10, 2026 — President Donald Trump revoked a ban Friday on commercial fishing inside a 3.1-million-acre marine national monument, opening up a previously protected swath of the Atlantic Ocean to industry.

The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument — the only one of five marine monuments located in the Atlantic Ocean — was created to conserve four underwater extinct volcanoes, called seamounts, and three canyons, some reaching depths of more than a mile. The monument located about 130 miles southeast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is also home to unique deep-sea corals, endangered whales and scores of other marine species.

Since returning to office last year, Trump has pushed to open up marine monuments to commercial fishing, saying overregulation has disadvantaged the American fishing industry compared to foreign competitors. In April, Trump overturned a fishing ban in a sprawling Pacific Ocean monument, a move fought by environmentalists who have argued that increasing access to protected areas will harm fishing stocks.

Read the full article at E&E News