NOAA Fisheries has announced an “operational roadmap” of priorities it will pursue under U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order, Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness.
“Through these priorities, the agency is taking actionable steps to fulfill the president's vision of making the United States the world's dominant seafood leader,” NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs said in a release. “NOAA is proud to deliver real-world results to the American public through innovative solutions that streamline regulations.”
Trump issued the executive order in April 2025, directing NOAA Fisheries to take deregulatory actions in support of the nation’s commercial fishing industry, which he claimed suffers from heavy overregulation.
“It is the policy of the United States to promote the productive harvest of our seafood resources; unburden our commercial fishermen from costly and inefficient regulation; combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing; and protect our seafood markets from the unfair trade practices of foreign nations,” Trump said in the order. “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through restrictive catch limits, selling our fishing grounds to foreign offshore wind companies, inaccurate and outdated fisheries data, and delayed adoption of modern technology.”
Since then, the government has solicited feedback from the regional fishery management councils and stakeholders to determine which actions it should prioritize in carrying out the president’s order. According to NOAA Fisheries, the agency received 787 public comments in response to the order. In July, the Trump administration released a list of priorities it would like the eight regional councils to enact, although its not clear if the councils will be able to follow through.
Now, NOAA Fisheries has issued a priority list of agency-level actions it plans to undertake in enacting the executive order.
“These priorities represent NOAA Fisheries’ commitment to ensuring that federal fisheries management boosts domestic harvesters,” NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Eugenio Piñeiro Soler said in a release. “We are proud to empower hard-working American fishermen to produce more seafood for American plates.”
The agency’s list is extensive and covers some areas the administration has previously indicated it would pursue, such as deregulating vessel speed limits around North Atlantic right whale areas and blocking any mandate for ropeless gear in New England’s lobster fishery. Other priorities listed by NOAA Fisheries include:
- Reducing pinniped predation on salmon stocks;
- Reviewing how protections for ice seals under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) are determined;
- Reviewing entanglement risks in the Dungeness crab fishery;
- Gathering data for a new biological opinion on the impact of shrimping on smalltooth sawfish and giant manta rays;
- Revising turtle excluder device regulations in the Gulf of Mexico;
- Providing greater flexibility for killing sea lions;
- Increasing fishing opportunities for salmon in the Pacific Northwest by applying the administration’s new, weakened interpretation of “harm” under the ESA;
- Developing cooperative research frameworks;
- Establishing an electronic technologies roadmap for monitoring;
- Handing over management of the South Atlantic red snapper fishery to state governments;
- Deploying more uncrewed systems and eDNA technologies;
- Reviewing the fisheries disaster determination and funding process;
- Improving data pipelines;
- Integrating cloud and AI technologies;
- Removing bans on commercial fishing in multiple Pacific marine monuments; and
- Reforming the Seafood Import Monitoring Program.
“While this announcement outlines the immediate internal priorities for the agency, it also serves as a bridge towards a broader, interagency transformation of federal seafood policy,” NOAA Fisheries said in a release. “In the coming months, the agency will unveil future actions towards this goal to strengthen national seafood markets, rebuild U.S. fisheries infrastructure and processing capacity, and tackle IUU fishing issues to ensure American seafood dominance.”
The agency also plans to update its national standards to optimize fishery yields, integrate industry data into stock assessments, reducing regulations on small boat operations, and prioritize real-time avoidance networks over static closures of fisheries to reduce bycatch. In addition to finalizing rules on the definition of “harm” under the ESA, NOAA Fisheries said it will balance habitat concerns with economic interests. A full list of priorities can be viewed on the agency’s website.
Environmental NGO Ocean Conservancy warned that the government’s priorities could weaken the nation’s fundamental sustainable fishing principles.
“Conservation and competitiveness go hand in hand because fishing communities need abundant fish stocks, and fish stocks need a healthy ocean. The guideposts of sustainable fisheries management, the ‘National Standards’ laid out in the Magnuson-Stevens Act, America’s premier fishing law, helped bring American seafood back from the brink because they encourage management with an eye to the future,” Ocean Conservancy Senior Director of Fish Conservation Meredith Moore said in a release. “The agency’s proposals to change how they implement these standards means that everything from the way we prevent overfishing, what stocks we manage, how we avoid damaging ecosystems, and what science we use could be weakened. The agency also says it will weaken protections for ecologically important habitats, even though we know fisheries will suffer when habitats are degraded by damaging fishing gear, mining, or other extractive activities.”
