Advocacy required: Trump to “restore American seafood competitiveness” by dismantling fisheries and other protections and supports

NOAA has naturally leaned into climate change as a constant challenge to be addressed across their portfolio of policy topics. In the report Status of Stocks 2022: Annual Report to Congress on the Status of U.S. Fisheries (2023) (PDF), NOAA wrote “rebuilding stocks to historical levels has become more challenging due to climate change and other factors.”

In the same report, NOAA celebrated the rebuilding of 49 fishery stocks in the last two decades facilitated by the fishery management system―created in 1976 with the passage of Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) and amended several times.

In Status of Stocks 2023: Annual Report to Congress on the Status of U.S. Fisheries (2024) (PDF), NOAA maintained that overfishing was a problem and climate change a challenge:

We continue to implement management measures that end overfishing, rebuild overfished stocks, and sustain our fisheries for future generations. We accomplish our mission despite challenges, including a changing ocean climate and impacts to our working waterfronts and fishing businesses. Sound science, an increasing focus on climate-informed management, effective enforcement, meaningful partnerships, and public engagement drive our success in managing the most sustainable fisheries in the world.

And yet President Trump, citing the vastness of federal waters and flexing his need to dominate, has chosen to reduce regulation that protects fisheries with the April 17 EO Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness. This executive order, like many others, leans into the trade imbalance as the reason to remove restrictions and regulations. The EO begins,

Section 1. Background. The United States controls one of the largest and most abundant ocean resources in the world, with over 4 million square miles of prime fishing grounds. With this vast resource and centuries of hard work from American fishermen, our Nation has the greatest seafood in the world.

Most American fish stocks are healthy and have viable markets. Despite these opportunities, seafood is one of the most heavily regulated sectors in the United States. Federal overregulation has restricted fishermen from productively harvesting American seafood including through restrictive catch limits, selling our fishing grounds to foreign offshore wind companies, inaccurate and outdated fisheries data, and delayed adoption of modern technology.

The order continues,

Sec. 4. A New Era of Seafood Policy. (a) The Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services and with input from the United States fishing industry, shall immediately consider suspending, revising, or rescinding regulations that overly burden America’s commercial fishing, aquaculture, and fish processing industries at the fishery-specific level. Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Commerce shall identify the most heavily overregulated fisheries requiring action and take appropriate action to reduce the regulatory burden on them, in cooperation with the Regional Fishery Management Councils, interagency partners, and through public-private partnerships, as appropriate.

In response to the EO, Southern Maryland Recreational Fishing Organization (Facebook) has written to Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce, encouraging the Department of Commerce to end overharvesting of menhaden in US waters. Speaking out about menhaden is essential since the order calls for the department to work with industry versus the public at large. And many on the east coast take issue with the latitude given Omega Protein, the Canadian company fishing Atlantic menhaden in US waters.

Phil Zalesak, President of Southern Maryland Recreational Fishing Organization, wrote to Secretary Lutnick:

Mr. Secretary,

You can re-establish a $10 billion dollar recreational fishing industry in the United States.

We respectfully request that you facilitate a Presidential Executive Order ending the overharvesting of a critically important forage fish, Atlantic menhaden, by a Canadian company, in US waters. Striped Bass, as well as Bluefish, Weakfish and other economically important predators of Atlantic menhaden, are dependent on menhaden for their survival. The last remaining industrial harvester of Atlantic menhaden is Omega Protein, a Canadian owned company that processes Atlantic menhaden for its foreign aquaculture operations and pet food operations.

Unfortunately, the US Government has been ignoring the law which is resulting in a devastating decline in the recreational harvest of Striped Bass and other sportfish. The GDP associated with the recreational harvest of striped bass along the Atlantic Coast alone was $7.7 billion dollars in 2016 ($10.2 billion in 2025 dollars). There were also over 100,000 jobs associated with this industry. Since 2016, the striped bass and other recreational harvest has declined by 50%, resulting in billions of dollars of lost revenue and thousands of jobs. This has represented a "Canada-First" policy.

The solution to this problem is to end all industrial reduction purse seine harvesting of Atlantic menhaden in US waters.

I respectfully request that you facilitate a Presidential Executive Order ending all industrial reduction purse seine harvesting of Atlantic menhaden in US waters.

Fishery management

Responsibility for fishery management is regional. Virginia is part of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC) and the organization manages more than 65 species. Managed species include summer flounder, atlantic bluefish, clams, oysters, and blue crabs.

And yet, as NOAA describes, sustainable fishery management is about more than the fish: “Sustainable fisheries support thriving fishing communities, healthy marine ecosystems, and a strong economy. Commercial, recreational, subsistence, and ceremonial fishing provide a valuable food source, important outdoor activities, and cultural significance for the nation.”

In fact, Virginia Tech’s seafood center, one of Virginia Agricultural Research and Extension Centers, found that the total economic output effect of the Virginia seafood industry in 2019 was estimated to be $1.1 billion. In terms of employment, the Virginia seafood industry was estimated to benefit 7,187, including 6,050 direct jobs, 523 indirect effect jobs, and induced effect of 614 jobs.

Learn more in the announcement of the analysis, the analysis (fact sheet) (PDF), the infographic (PDF), and the infographic summary.

Advocacy for fishery management

To weigh in on the important topic of fishery management generally and the EO Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness in particular, direct communications to:

Mr. Howard Lutnick

Secretary of Commerce

US Department of Commerce

1401 Constitution Ave NW

Washington, DC 20230

You can take the lead from Southern Maryland Recreational Fishing Organization and discuss menhaden and purse seine harvesting or comment on other elements of the fishery management.

I will be writing to the sec in support of SMRFO's position and am encouraging others to do the same. The topic is way more complicated and complex than the Trump admin portrays in the EO and pushing back on their ill-informed decision can effect change.

If you want to share your letter to Mr. Lutnick on this blog, email it to me and I'll post it.