Saving Seafood

Trump administration aims to cut regulations on US commercial fishing

July 2, 2026 — The Trump administration moved to slash commercial fishing regulations from coast to coast on Thursday, including reopening New ‌England waters to scallop fishing that was banned after overfishing.

“We’re opening the Atlantic and the Pacific, and the American consumers are going to benefit from what we’re doing now,” White House adviser Peter Navarro said in a briefing with reporters.

The Commerce Department and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced regional ​priorities that the government said were designed to revitalize the seafood sector.

It was not clear how NOAA planned to ​implement these priorities or how long it would take, given their scope.

Read the full article at Reuters

Sustainable Scalloping Fund Celebrates National Scallops Day and the Opening of the Northern Edge and the Initiation of Scallop Permit Stacking

July 2, 2026 — The following was released by the Sustainable Scalloping Fund:

The Sustainable Scalloping Fund (SSF) today celebrated President Donald J. Trump’s declaration of a National Scallops Day, which marks the decision by NOAA Fisheries to open the Northern Edge of Georges Bank to the scallop fleet. The opening, together with NOAA’s move to advance Scallop Permit Stacking, delivers two reforms SSF has sought since its inception and fulfills the goals of Executive Order 14276, Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness. NOAA Fisheries identified both actions as New England priorities in a July 2 announcement by Assistant Administrator Eugenio Piñeiro Soler.

In announcing the day, President Trump called himself “the Fishermen’s Friend” and predicted millions more pounds of wild scallops on American tables and new jobs in fishing ports from Norfolk, Virginia, to Cape May, New Jersey, to New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Permit stacking will let scallop permit holders consolidate operations, cut costs, and fish more safely and efficiently. Opening the Northern Edge returns the fleet to a productive, well-managed resource that has stayed closed for years.

SSF President John Lees carried these issues directly to the White House, meeting with senior officials and advocating to the President himself on behalf of the nation’s scallop fishermen.

“We are grateful to President Trump and his team for listening to the men and women of the scallop fleet and acting on their behalf,” said John Lees (Johnny Scallop), President of the Sustainable Scalloping Fund. “Permit stacking and Northern Edge access will make our fishery more competitive, more sustainable, and more valuable to the American families who depend on it. This is what it looks like when Washington puts American fishermen first.”

SSF also recognized the legal and advocacy team that built the record behind these reforms: General Counsel Sam Blatchley of Eckland & Blando, and attorney Drew Minkiewicz of Black Point Maritime Law, who together developed the legal and policy case supporting the administration’s action.

SSF looks forward to working with NOAA Fisheries, the New England Fishery Management Council, and the Administration to move both actions into practice. “There is no bigger friend to the fishermen than President Donald J. Trump,” said John Lees. “SSF is deeply grateful for President Trump’s leadership and unwavering support for America’s commercial fishing industry.”

About the Sustainable Scalloping Fund
The Sustainable Scalloping Fund advocates for the long-term health, competitiveness, and sustainability of the Atlantic Sea scallop fishery and the fishermen and communities that depend on it.

Media Contact:
Drew Minkiewicz
drew@blackpointlaw.com
202-870-4013

Trump administration seeking to reopen Northern Edge scallop grounds

July 2, 2026 — President Donald Trump on Thursday declared July 2 National Scallops Day. To mark the inaugural holiday, he announced his administration’s plan to open fishing grounds that have been closed since 1994: the Northern Edge.

The area is about an 18- to 20-hour steam from the nation’s scallop capital, New Bedford, and it’s been closed so long that younger generations of fishermen have never fished its bottom.

“Are you here to wish me a ‘Happy Scalloper Day?’” Tony Alvernaz, one of the older-generation scallopers who has fished that small tip of Georges Bank, quipped when he answered the phone.

“Everybody is like amen, about time, holy Jesus,” he said of the plans to reopen the area.

In recent years, fisheries regulators raised the possibility of reopening the sliver of ocean bottom, but ultimately voted not to take it up. Regulators, informed by research scientists, weigh the sustainability of the resource and the needs of the fishing industry when determining where fishermen can go, for how many days, and how many pounds they may catch.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

Trump celebrates expanded scallop fishing with ‘National Scallops Day’ declaration

July 2, 2026 — President Donald Trump on Thursday declared a “National Scallops Day” in celebration of a federal decision to expand commercial scallop fishing on the Georges Bank, saying it will boost seafood production, create jobs, and reverse restrictions imposed under previous administrations.

Trump announced the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will open the Northern Edge of Georges Bank to scallop fishing, a move he said would result in “millions more pounds” of wild scallops for American consumers each year. He also said it will benefit fishing communities along the East Coast.

Read the full article at KMPH

Trump Administration Pays Duke Energy $129 Million to Halt Offshore Wind Farm

June 30, 2026 — The Trump administration on Monday said it would pay Duke Energy $129 million to abandon its plans to build an offshore wind farm off North Carolina.

It was the fourth such deal struck by the administration to throttle the development of offshore wind power, a source of renewable energy that President Trump has disparaged for decades.

Under the agreement, Duke Energy would surrender its lease in federal waters for a wind farm that was planned in the Carolina Long Bay area, roughly 15 to 22 miles off southeastern North Carolina. The project was in the early stages of development and construction had not yet begun.

The government plans to reimburse Duke Energy $129 million, slightly less than the amount that the utility paid for the lease under the Biden administration. Duke Energy would then reinvest that money in other sources of energy favored by the Trump administration, which could include new nuclear and natural gas projects, according to the utility.

Scientists and environmentalists say that offshore wind farms could play a crucial role in the fight against climate change. Unlike burning fossil fuels, wind turbines do not generate any of the greenhouse gases that are dangerously warming the planet. And unlike large-scale solar farms, they do not take up vast amounts of valuable land.

The Trump administration, however, has criticized offshore wind projects as ugly and inefficient.

“President Trump’s vision of unleashing affordable, reliable American energy for our country’s communities and using common sense to put the American people first is being implemented,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement on Monday.

Mr. Burgum also repeated his earlier claims that offshore wind farms threaten national security. Last year, the Interior Department cited those concerns when ordering a halt to the construction of five other wind farms off the East Coast, saying their spinning turbines could interfere with military radar. But several federal judges struck down the stop-work orders, saying they were unpersuaded by the administration’s arguments.

Read the full article at The New York Times

US Fish and Wildlife Service reclassifies squid and other cephalopods as shellfish

June 30, 2026 —  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has finalized a rule reclassifying cephalopods as shellfish, a move advocates claim will reduce red tape and unnecessary fees around squid harvesting.

“On behalf of Lund’s Fisheries, we would like to thank the Trump administration for a solution to a burdensome requirement that will save us time, money and administrative difficulties,” Wayne Reichle, president of Cape May, New Jersey, U.S.A.-based squid harvester Lund’s Fisheries, said in a release. “This is a perfect example of numerous federal agencies working in cooperation with the U.S. commercial fishing industry to make our seafood competitive on a global scale and creating thriving business here at home.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

On eve of USMCA deadline, reports indicate Trump administration plans to deny extension

June 30, 2026 — Multiple media reports indicate that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump will decline to extend the United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) agreement, triggering a process that could see it leave the trade deal in a decade barring a new decision.

The USMCA was set in motion in 2018 as the previous trade agreement for the three countries – the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) – was replaced under the prior Trump administration after two decades of use. The revised version of the agreement initially included just Mexico but later confirmed the participation of Canada and formed the USMCA, which came into force on 1 July 2020.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Trump defends Biden’s Alaska mine veto in court

June 29, 2026 — The Trump administration defended a Biden-era decision to block a massive mine in Alaska before a federal judge Thursday, arguing the move was justified even in light of recent blockbuster rulings that have weakened the Clean Water Act and agency authority.

In a notable departure for an administration that has vowed to unleash “energy dominance” in Alaska, EPA attorney Laura Brown argued that the proposed Pebble mine would devastate the world’s largest salmon fishery and destroy thousands of acres of fish streams and wetlands.

Brown rejected claims made by developer Pebble Partnership that the mine should be reevaluated in light of a 2023 Supreme Court ruling shrinking federal jurisdiction over wetlands and streams. And she invoked another major recent case that ended a longstanding practice of courts deferring to agencies to interpret regulations, saying that courts still “must respect” agencies’ authority to make expert determinations.

Read the full article at E&E News

Environmental group sues federal government to boost protections for Pacific coast sunflower sea stars

June 29, 2026 — The Center for Biological Diversity has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, pushing to finalize long‑delayed protections for the imperiled sunflower sea star.

Sunflower sea stars (Pycnopodia helianthoides) are enormous compared to their counterparts, about 3 feet wide with up to 24 arms. They display a wide range of colors, often in combinations including bright orange, yellow-red, brown, purple, pink and occasionally blue. They occur throughout intertidal and subtidal coastal waters of the Northeast Pacific Ocean from the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, to at least northern Baja California, Mexico.

The animals used to be abundant along Oregon’s coast — but nearly 90% of the entire population has been lost due to a gruesome disease known as Sea Star Wasting Syndrome. It causes their arms to twist, melt away and fall off, ultimately resulting in death.

Read the full article at KLCC

Court dismisses lawsuit over Gulf oil and gas analysis after ‘God Squad’ ruling

June 26, 2026 — A federal judge has ruled a lawsuit seeking more analysis of the effect of oil and gas activities on endangered species in the Gulf of Mexico is moot after the “God Squad” handed down an exemption from federal protections in the region earlier this year.

In a decision issued from the bench Wednesday, Judge Deborah Boardman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland dismissed a challenge to NOAA Fisheries’ 2025 biological opinion. Environmental groups claimed the analysis was arbitrary and capricious and repeated errors of an earlier biological opinion.

Boardman, a Biden appointee, has yet to issue an order publicly explaining her rationale for the decision.

Read the full article at E&E News