Nathan Strout

The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a petition from the state of Alaska seeking to limit federal authority over regulating subsistence fishing on federal lands in the state. The Supreme Court’s decision to not take up the case leaves a prior ruling from the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals – which rejected Alaska’s arguments and kept the federal government’s regulatory authority intact – in place. Alaska was seeking to overturn parts… Read More

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has still not fully implemented the foodborne illness provisions of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), according to a report from U.S. government watchdog agency Government Accountability Office (GAO). Passed by Congress in 2011, FSMA shifted the FDA’s focus from reacting to foodborne illnesses to preventing them, overhauling its entire approach and introducing several major… Read More

The U.S. House has voted to pass appropriations legislation funding the Department of Commerce and the Department of the Interior for the remainder of fiscal year 2026. "Today, the House took another step forward in advancing three more FY26 appropriations bills to President Trump’s desk,” U.S. Representative Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, said after the vote. “Through bipartisan, committee-led… Read More

NOAA Fisheries has confirmed to SeafoodSource that Eugenio Piñeiro Soler will continue leading NOAA Fisheries as assistant administrator, while U.S. Senate-confirmed Tim Petty will serve as NOAA’s second in command. A geologist by trade, Petty had served as a senior staffer on the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s Subcommittee on Water and Environment, and as the assistant secretary of water and science at the U.S.… Read More

The Center for Biological Diversity has filed a lawsuit against NOAA Fisheries after the agency missed its deadline for responding to a petition to list horseshoe crabs under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The conservation group claims horseshoe populations have declined by more than 70 percent in recent decades due to overharvesting and habitat loss. The invertebrates are highly valued by the biomedical industry for their unique blood, which… Read More

Alaska’s Congressional delegation has proposed new legislation designed to reduce salmon bycatch in commercial fisheries and protect seafloor habitats from trawling operations. “In recent years, Alaskans have witnessed unprecedented declines among some fish and crab species in parts of the state while, in other parts, runs have been strong and historic,” U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) said in a release. “We need to get to the… Read More

Researchers have said that ocean indicators off the Oregon coast were a mixed bag for juvenile salmon in 2025, suggesting the U.S. Pacific Northwest will see moderate returns of adult salmon in 2026. “The start to the upwelling season in 2025 looked favorable for a highly productive year to come,” Jennifer Fisher, a research fisheries biologist at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center’s Newport Research Station, said in a release.… Read More

The government of the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island has announced two programs to support the region’s commercial oyster industry, which has struggled in the face of disease. Between the two programs, the government is providing CAD 9.2 million (USD 6.6 million, EUR 5.7 million) in funding for the sector. “Our island’s oyster industry is facing unprecedented challenges with the emergence of MSX and Dermo. These programs are… Read More

More than USD 105 million (EUR 89.9 million) of NOAA’s fiscal year 2026 budget is earmarked for roughly 100 projects hand-selected by U.S. lawmakers, with much of the spending dedicated to supporting fisheries and aquaculture. Leaders of the U.S. House and Senate appropriations committees released a bipartisan spending bill for the U.S. Department of Commerce – which houses NOAA Fisheries – and several other departments on 5 January.… Read More

U.S. Congressional appropriations leaders have included several fisheries and aquaculture provisions in a recently released bipartisan budget bill for the U.S. Department of the Interior, which is part of a package of bills that need to pass by the end of January to avoid another government shutdown. The legislature is months behind schedule in passing appropriations legislation for the fiscal year of 2026, having missed the 30 September… Read More