Saving Seafood

MAINE: $1 million for Maine working waterfront projects

October 27, 2026 — SEA Maine has awarded $1 million to five projects to strengthen working waterfront infrastructure and support Maine’s commercial fishing and seafood industries.

The funding, awarded through the Seafood Infrastructure Adaptation Fund (SIAF), will support projects in Tremont, Rockland, Freeport, Swan’s Island, and Boothbay Harbor. Grants range from $126,693 to $300,000 and will pay for improvements including cold storage, docks and floats, ice-making equipment, energy upgrades, and waterfront planning.

“I’m pleased to see these projects benefit from SIAF funding and am optimistic that this funding will result in a stronger, more vibrant future for Maine’s commercially harvested and farmed seafood resources,” said Togue Brawn, SEA Maine co-chair and owner of Downeast Dayboat.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Trump Administration releases America First Seafood Strategy

October 26, 2026 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today, President Trump announced the America First Seafood Strategy, a key directive under the President’s Executive Order Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness. NOAA plays a key role in the Strategy, which details a coordinated federal plan to expand domestic seafood production, modernize infrastructure, improve market access for American harvesters and processors, and ensure fair competition in U.S. and international markets.

“The species managed in U.S. waters are American icons – from Maine lobster to Gulf shrimp, from Alaskan salmon to Florida stone crab, American seafood is a rich part of U.S. history and our vibrant coastal economy,” said Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. “The America First Seafood Strategy ensures that the future of seafood in the United States will be built by American fishermen, American workers, and American industry—not by foreign imports.”

NOAA manages some of the world’s most productive and scientifically assessed fishery resources. American commercial fishermen operate under rigorous conservation and management standards. The Strategy builds on that foundation by aligning federal policy, science, and existing authorities to increase sustainable harvest opportunities, reduce unnecessary regulatory costs, rebuild domestic processing and shoreside capacity, and give American seafood a stronger competitive position at home and abroad.

Key elements of the Strategy include:

Expanding Domestic Production and Market Opportunities
NOAA is working with the Regional Fishery Management Councils and industry to ensure catch limits reflect the best scientific information available, restore access to productive fishing grounds where supported by data, and reduce compliance costs that do not advance conservation and management objectives. A voluntary “U.S.-Caught Seafood” designation, developed in coordination with the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), will give consumers a clear way to identify seafood caught in the United States (including the U.S. EEZ) or caught by U.S.-flagged vessels outside of the U.S. EEZ under the authority of U.S. laws. Federal agencies will also expand opportunities for American seafood in government procurement and launch a nationwide “Eat American Seafood” campaign highlighting jobs, coastal economies, food security, and nutrition benefits.

Rebuilding Infrastructure, Processing Capacity, and the Fishing Fleet
Federal agencies will streamline permitting and reduce barriers to private investment in cold storage, wet storage, working waterfronts, docks, shipyards, and processing facilities. Existing USDA, Small Business Administration, and NOAA financing tools will be leveraged to support modernization of processing plants, vessel replacement, and equipment upgrades. NOAA will review the Fisheries Finance Program and Capital Construction Fund to remove obstacles that discourage fishermen from reinvesting in safer, more efficient, American-built vessels. Success will be measured by increases in domestic production and processing, private capital deployed, American jobs supported, and reduced reliance on foreign supply chains.

Strengthening Fair Trade, Import Compliance, and Enforcement Against Illegal Fishing
NOAA will continue to implement and improve the Seafood Import Monitoring Program and related authorities, using advanced tools to target high-risk imports. The Strategy reinforces interagency efforts to combat seafood fraud, mislabeling, and illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing, while supporting reciprocal market access for U.S. exports through coordination with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and other agencies.

Regulatory Reform and Industry Partnership
Building on input already received under the Seafood Competitiveness Executive Order, NOAA is advancing targeted regulatory reforms in partnership with the Regional Fishery Management Councils. The agency will also work with permitting partners to establish clearer standards and guidance for marine aquaculture in federal waters, providing greater predictability for responsible expansion of domestic aquaculture that complements wild-capture fisheries.

Supporting Public Health Through Seafood
Federal health and nutrition agencies will align guidance and education with current science on the benefits of seafood consumption. NOAA will contribute accurate fisheries and aquaculture information to coordinated public messaging.

NOAA’s role centers on providing the scientific foundation, fisheries management expertise, and verification support necessary to implement these priorities while maintaining sustainable management of U.S. marine resources. The Strategy relies on existing statutory authorities and programs rather than new spending initiatives. It focuses federal effort on removing barriers, improving coordination, and delivering measurable results for American fishermen, processors, and coastal communities.

By prioritizing domestic production, infrastructure, fair competition, and science-based management, the America First Seafood Strategy positions the United States to strengthen its seafood industrial base, support coastal prosperity, and enhance national food security.

Trump’s America First Seafood Strategy puts US fishermen in focus

October 26, 2026 — The Trump administration has rolled out a new federal seafood strategy aimed at increasing domestic production, rebuilding shoreside infrastructure, and strengthening the position of U.S. fishermen and processors against foreign competition.

President Donald Trump announced the America First Seafood Strategy as part of his administration’s implementation of the 2025 executive order, “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness.” NOAA Fisheries will play a central role in carrying out the plan alongside the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Drug Administration (USDA), and other federal agencies.

The strategy calls for expanding harvest opportunities where supported by science, reducing regulatory costs, investing in processing and waterfront infrastructure, strengthening seafood import enforcement and creating new ways to distinguish domestically harvested seafood in the marketplace.

“The species managed in U.S. waters are American icons, from Maine lobster to Gulf shrimp, from Alaskan salmon to Florida stone crab,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in NOAA’s announcement. “The America First Seafood Strategy ensures that the future of seafood in the United States will be built by American fishermen, American workers, and American industry, not by foreign imports.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

SeaMaine awards USD 1 million in grant funding to five Maine towns for infrastructure repair

October 23, 2026 — Augusta, Maine, U.S.A.-based industry-led initiative Seafood Economic Accelerator for Maine (SeaMaine) recently awarded a total of USD 1 million (EUR 891,050) in grant funding to five community infrastructure projects statewide.

Projects were identified through the initiative’s Seafood Infrastructure Adaptation Fund (SIAF) and will target improvement projects in marine facilities in Tremont, Rockland, Freeport, Swan’s Island, and Boothbay Harbor, according to a release by the organization.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MAINE: Lobsters remain plentiful in Maine, but outside forces cast uncertainty on industry

September 1, 2026 — There was a time when lobsters were so abundant along the Maine coast that they could be plucked by hand from shallow water. Those days are long gone, but for most people — whose interactions with lobsters happen on plates and rolls — it might be hard to say how lobsters and the lobster industry are doing. Lobster rolls might cost more, like everything else, but they’re still available.

Lobstermen are at the mercy of a range of outside forces: economic, ecological, regulatory. Trends in the lobster harvest and its value suggest lobstering is in a healthy position right now. But zooming out to include factors such as global trade and climate change show there is much uncertainty.

In the long view, the number of lobsters coming across wharfs is way up. From 1950 until the end of the 1980s, Maine lobstermen were landing around 20 million pounds of lobster each year. Some years the amount deviated, as low as 16 million and as high as 24 million, but the catch looks pretty consistent through those four decades.

Read the full article at Harpswell Anchour

MAINE: What’s the biggest threat to the lobster industry?

September 1, 2026 — Lobstermen are under threat. They all agree on that much. The threats they describe vary from one to the next. But they are worried about their future, and the future of a livelihood that many learned from their fathers and grandfathers and want to pass to their children and grandchildren.

The risks are larger than any one lobsterman — or even the industry as a whole. Lobstering “is not only an economic driver of coastal and island communities, it is an identity of our communities,” said Kristin Garabedian, a community development officer with the Island Institute’s Center for the Marine Economy. In other words, losing lobstering would make a town like Harpswell less like Harpswell.

Most lobstermen see the biggest threats coming from outsiders pursuing their own aims without regard for the lobstermen who live and work here. Those might be wind-power proponents, whale protectors, big businesses or homebuyers.

Few, if any, see climate change as an immediate or catastrophic threat, although they are deeply in tune with the changes happening in the Gulf of Maine and are worried about human impacts on the environment they depend on.

Read the full article at Harpswell Anchor 

NEW HAMPSHIRE: New fish pier in Portsmouth officially opens, with space to scale up

August 25, 2026 — Gov. Kelly Ayotte and other dignitaries gathered in Portsmouth on Tuesday to formally cut the ribbon on a recently renovated commercial fishing pier. The structure, which was financed with pandemic-era stimulus money, replaces a dilapidated building from the late 1970s.

“New Hampshire’s whole fishing industry, it’s iconic,” said Ayotte. “It’s something that’s passed down through generations. It’s something that really defines New Hampshire and our Seacoast.”

The state set aside $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act money for the project, and spent another $240,000 in operation funds from the New Hampshire Division of Ports and Harbors. In recent years, the state has also reconstructed a nearby seawall and installed a new pier, overhauling the entire space on Peirce Island.

Read the full article at NHPR

Mel Allen: Telling the stories of New England

August 25, 2026 — For more than 50 years, Mel Allen has made a career out of telling stories about those in New England.

He has written about fishermen and island communities, sardine packers and chefs, scientists counting fish aboard NOAA research vessels, and people whose livelihoods disappeared as fisheries and working waterfronts changed around them.

So when the former longtime editor of Yankee Magazine stood before a room filled with ocean scientists, researchers, and industry partners at the 2026 Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems (NERACOOS) Annual Meeting, he came with a message that was surprisingly simple.

Tell people a story.

“If you want people to care about something big, whether conflicts between nations, the dilemma of immigration, or our changing oceans, do not show the topic,” Allen said. “Show how people have been touched by the topic. That’s how we relate to each other.”

For NERACOOS, that message comes at an important moment.

NERACOOS helps coordinate sensors, models, data systems, and other technology used to track conditions across New England’s waters. Now, its work is expanding through the new National Science Foundation (NSF) Seafood Engine in New England, an initiative focused on supporting New England’s seafood industry.

The potentially 10-year initiative is designed to build an innovation network across the seafood supply chain, connecting work on the water with processing, distribution, and the consumer. Its focus includes environmental sensing and modeling, technology development, workforce training, and investment.

For commercial fishermen, that puts an industry accustomed to being on the receiving end of scientific data and management decisions closer to the center of a much broader effort to determine how New England seafood adapts to a changing ocean and economy.

But Allen’s keynote reminded everyone what all that technology and investment is ultimately intended to serve.

People.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

$15 million federal grant will fund fishing tech projects

August 19, 2026 — A“third eye” camera for groundfishermen and autonomous robots for lobstermen. That’s, in part, what a group of New England commercial fishing advocates, oceanographic researchers and tech companies hope to build with a $15 million federal grant.

The goal of the U.S. National Science Foundation funding, awarded in late July, is to help commercial fishermen catch better, healthier fish and bolster the region’s seafood industry from harvest to processing.

Researchers will use some of the money to further develop a camera system that allows captains and crews to see what’s swimming into their nets, before it is hauled onto the deck. The innovation could mean the difference between a net full of bycatch — fish that crews don’t want, because they’re heavily regulated, or can’t keep — and a harvest that makes money.

Other parts of the federal grant will be spent to develop autonomous robots to detect environmental conditions underwater that could lead to bringing up traps filled with dead lobsters.

The awardees also plan to use the money to figure out how to strengthen the processing side of the seafood industry, said Jake Kritzer, executive director for the Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems — the organization leading the group awarded the grant — in an interview with The Light.

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light

MASSACHUSETTS: Massachusetts Launches “Flat Is Back” Campaign to Promote Local Flounder

August 19, 2026 — The following was released by Mass.gov

The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) today announced the launch of the Massachusetts Flounder Chef Council, a statewide campaign celebrating locally harvested flounders. Ten participating chefs will feature the versatile New England fish on restaurant menus across the state. The council brings together ten leading Massachusetts chefs, each of whom will feature a signature dish showcasing Massachusetts flounder. The dishes will be served at participating restaurant locations across Massachusetts through September 30.

“Massachusetts fishermen harvest world-class seafood from some of the most nutrient-rich fishing grounds in the world,” said DMF Director Dan McKiernan. “The Flounder Chef Council connects that fishing heritage with today’s diners while demonstrating how choosing local flounder supports fishing families, working waterfronts and coastal communities throughout the Commonwealth.”

Massachusetts flounder is wild-caught by local fishermen in the cool waters off the New England coast. With its mild, slightly sweet flavor and delicate white flesh, flounder is quick to cook and remarkably versatile. Flounder is low in saturated fat and packs a protein punch providing essential vitamins and minerals and over 20 grams of protein for 100 calories per serving.

Although local flounder is available year-round, Massachusetts fishermen caught only a portion of the amount allowed in 2025. Unpredictable prices, competition from imported seafood and limited consumer demand can make it difficult to sell more of the available catch.Through the Flat Is Back campaign, DMF and the participating chefs hope to introduce more restaurant diners and home cooks to this versatile New England fish while creating greater demand for the local catch.

“Massachusetts flounder is a beautiful fish to cook with – it’s fresh, delicate and incredibly versatile,” said Jeremy Sewall, Chef & Owner of Row 34 and Massachusetts Flounder Chef Council member. “By putting it on our menus, we can create something memorable for diners while supporting the local fishermen and coastal communities that make Massachusetts seafood so special.”