Nathan Strout

A U.S. court of appeals has ruled the Court of Federal Claims was correct in dismissing a lawsuit brought by Louisiana oystermen who were seeking damages for the destruction of their oysters by the Bonnet Carre Spillway openings in 2019. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened the spillway twice for a total of 123 days in 2019 to help alleviate flooding; however, the sudden torrent of nearly 10 trillion gallons of freshwater lowered salinity… Read More

Isola, Mississippi, U.S.A.-based Consolidated Catfish Producers was the sole winner of a USD 848,160 (EUR 734,955) contract awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Under the 21 May award, Consolidated Catfish will supply a total of 192,000 pounds of breaded and unbreaded catfish products. The government agreed to purchase 152,000 pounds of unbreaded, raw catfish fillets at a price of USD 4.08 (EUR 3.53) per pound for a total buy of… Read More

The U.S. House of Representatives voted to reauthorize the Northwest Straits Commission, which supports county-based marine resources committees (MRC) in restoring marine habitats in the Northwest Straits region of Puget Sound.  “The Commission’s bottom-up approach has ensured that local communities have the resources and expertise they need to keep marine habitats healthy and recover endangered and threatened species, including southern… Read More

A pair of U.S. senators have introduced legislation to crack down on flags of convenience, aiming to ensure that nations enabling the practice are considered to be engaging in illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. “Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing puts the United States seafood industry at a competitive disadvantage. Our maritime laws are built to protect fishermen and improve environmental and labor standards, but… Read More

A Mississippi state official testified in favor of expanding state fisheries control from three to nine nautical miles off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, a change proposed in the recently introduced Offshore Parity Act. Advocates of the legislation claim it’s unfair that Texas and Florida are able to control fishing up to nine nautical miles off their coast, while the three other Gulf states only control three nautical… Read More

A bill being considered in U.S. Congress would prohibit presidents from prohibiting commercial fishing in marine national monuments, codifying that fishing activities in those areas must be regulated under the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA). Successive presidents’ administrations have used the Antiquities Act to unilaterally establish national marine monuments or to change the protections granted within them, and commercial fishing groups have… Read More

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will allow retailers to market scup as “golden sea bream,” according to U.S. Representative Seth Magaziner (D-Rhode Island). “The new brand name for unknowing consumers of Golden Sea Bream will be appealing at retail and especially on menus instead of Scup! Thank you to the FDA and our Rhode Island Congressional delegation for making a change,” Commercial Fisheries Center of Rhode Island… Read More

U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) took credit for the recently extended ban on Russian seafood during a Congressional committee hearing 2 June, stating that “Americans are buying American freedom fish, not communist fish from Russia.” The hearing, titled “The Blue Economy: Advancing American Fisheries, Maritime Strength, and Coastal Economies,” took place more than a month after U.S. President Donald Trump opted to extend the ban on… Read More

A group of Oregon state lawmakers representing coastal communities have asked environmental regulators to pause any financial penalties on Clackamas, Oregon, U.S.A.-based seafood processor Pacific Seafood as the company appeals USD 3.2 million (EUR 2.7 million) in fines for wastewater violations. Pacific Seafood was alerted to the fines in April, which were issued in response to wastewater violations at three of the company’s facilities. The… Read More

NOAA Fisheries is accepting public comments on a proposal to switch over more commercial fishers in the Gulf of Mexico – currently referred to as the Gulf of America by the administration of President Donald Trump – and South Atlantic Ocean from traditional, paper logbooks to electronic logbooks. If approved, the change would apply to all federally permitted commercial fishers harvesting Gulf reef fish, Gulf or Atlantic coastal migratory… Read More