Saving Seafood

US Senate committee recommends passage of IUU fishing bill

May 1, 2025 — U.S. Senate committee has approved legislation that would increase restrictions on vessels engaged in harmful fishing practices, recommending that the full Senate pass the bill.

“This is another measure in a long line of bipartisan comprehensive bills that [U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island)] and I have been introducing and passing over the last several years,” U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) said after the committee voted in favor of his bill, pointing to the 2020 Save Our Seas Act. “President Trump has been a big supporter of these clean ocean legislation initiatives, and now we have the FISH Act, which is focused on illegal, unreported, and unregulated [IUU] fishing, which is both a challenge globally, it’s a challenge for our country, and it’s certainly a challenge in Alaska.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US lawmakers reintroduce MAPOceans Act to digitize federal fishing restrictions

March 3, 2025 — Lawmakers in the U.S. Senate have reintroduced the Modernizing Access to Our Public Oceans (MAPOceans) Act, legislation that would create a digital map of fishing restrictions in federal waters.

First introduced in 2024, the legislation mirrors the 2022 Modernizing Access to our Public Lands (MAPLand) Act, which enhanced access to public lands by digitizing maps and records and allowing users to easily discover hunting and fishing boundaries. The MAPOceans would apply that approach to mapping fishing restrictions in federal waters.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US Senate Republicans demand more clarity on NOAA fishery disaster determinations

January 7, 2024 — Several U.S. senators want to be able to track fishery disaster determinations the same way consumers track packages throughout their shipping process.

The Republican lawmakers are demanding more transparency from NOAA Fisheries on how the agency makes determinations of fishery disasters – a designation that makes communities and industries eligible for federal financial relief.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NOAA Fisheries Faces 2024 Budget Reductions

August 4, 2023 — The U.S. Senate is considering reducing the National Marine Fisheries Service’s budget request by about $42 million.

The potential reduction comes as part of an effort to limit discretionary spending tied to the passage of the debt-ceiling bill earlier this year. The House is looking to reduce NOAA Fisheries’ funding even more dramatically, but it has not yet released a detailed report.

The Senate Appropriations Committee released its Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Fiscal Year 2024 Appropriations Bill on July 13. That bill includes funding for the National Marine Fisheries Service, more commonly known as NOAA Fisheries.

Proposals to cut NOAA Fisheries’ budget have drawn concerns from Alaska lawmakers.

“I understand that negotiations on the debt limit have forced reductions in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s budget, but I have very real concerns about the impacts these cuts will have on Alaska’s fisheries,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski told KDM via email.

“We have the well-deserved reputation across the world as the gold standard of fisheries, and keeping that reputation requires strategic investments in things like stock assessment surveys, data collection and other resources essential to sustainable resource management. I’m committed to making sure Alaska’s fisheries have the resources to remain a world-leader.”

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

U.S. Senate passes bill making it easier to kill sea lions on Columbia River

December 10, 2018 — A bill that would make it easier to kill sea lions that feast on imperiled salmon in the Columbia River has cleared the U.S. Senate.

State wildlife managers say rebounding numbers of sea lions are eating more salmon than ever and their appetites are undermining billions of dollars of investments to restore endangered fish runs.

Senate Bill 3119, which passed Thursday by unanimous consent, would streamline the process for Washington, Idaho, Oregon and several Pacific Northwest Native American tribes to capture and euthanize potentially hundreds of sea lions found in the river east of Portland, Oregon.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at KATU

U.S. Fishing Vessels May Soon Be Exempt from Ballast Water Rules

November 23, 2018 — The U.S. Senate has passed the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2018, and the final text includes several amendments of note for commercial operators – like a permanent Vessel General Permit exemption for fishing vessels.

The Act includes a repeal of the EPA’s Small Vessel General Permit (sVGP) program for boats under 79 feet. In addition, it exempts any and all fishing vessels, fish processing vessels and fish tenders from the regulation of discharges incidental to normal operation. This discharge category includes gray water, bilge water, cooling water, weather deck runoff, stern tube lubricant leakage, OWS effluent and – notably – ballast water.

The new legislation will provide regulatory relief for American factory trawlers and fish processing ships, the largest of which measures 680 feet in length and 19,000 deadweight tonnes. These vessels would normally be subject to VGP requirements – including ballast water management rules – if classified as ordinary commercial vessels.

“[The Act] will provide Alaska’s fishermen with a long sought peace of mind from the threat of federal regulation. While this issue has taken over a decade to resolve– with a series of 11th hour, temporary extensions over the years – I’m pleased to see Congress provide Alaska’s fishermen with a permanent exemption from these over burdensome regulations,” said Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) in a statement.

Read the full story at Maritime Executive

US SIMP for shrimp, catfish advocates to lose champion in Cochran

March 6, 2018 — The US lawmaker who is one of the biggest forces behind an effort to make imported shrimp comply with new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) record keeping rules for imports is calling it quits.

Mississippi Republican senator Thad Cochran, the 81-year-old chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee and the longest current serving member of Congress, cited health issues on Monday in confirming that he will leave his seat, effective April 1.

He also noted his determination to help reach a long sought after conclusion in efforts to pass final budget legislation before he steps down. The latest continuing resolution, a stopgap spending measure for fiscal 2018, expires on March 23.

I regret my health has become an ongoing challenge,” Cochran said in a statement. “I intend to fulfill my responsibilities and commitments to the people of Mississippi and the Senate through the completion of the 2018 appropriations cycle, after which I will formally retire from the US Senate.”

Cochran, who began his nearly 35-year stay in Congress in the House of Representatives, will be forever remembered as the domestic catfish industry’s best friend on Capitol Hill.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

More US Senators push for shrimp to be added to SIMP

February 13, 2018 — A bipartisan group of 11 U.S. Senators have signed on to a plan that would require the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to add shrimp to the Seafood Import Monitoring Program.

In a letter addressed to Sens. Thad Cochran (R-Mississippi) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), the chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the senators expressed their support for language in the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, which mandates the inclusion of shrimp in the monitoring program within 30 days of the spending bill’s enactment.

SIMP, which officially took effect last month, requires imported seafood to be traced from the time it was caught or harvested to the time it reaches the United States. The program was created to crack down the sale of counterfeit or illegally caught seafood products to consumers.

Most of the seafood Americans consume is imported and shrimp makes up nearly two-thirds of those imports. Shrimp was one of the species included in the program. However, federal officials have waived it from compliance at this point until similar recordkeeping requirements are also in effect for domestic producers. That, however, has not stopped U.S. commercial fishing groups from pushing NOAA add shrimp to the program.

“The domestic, wild-caught shrimp industry has been in a state of decline for decades due to the flood of cheap, imported shrimp from countries such as India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam,” said Ryan Bradley, Director of the Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United. “This bill is a beacon of hope for our coastal communities that greatly rely on domestic shrimp production – the largest commercial fishing industry in the southeastern United States.”

In their letter, the senators expressed concerns over the use of unapproved antibiotics in foreign farmed shrimp and cited reports of human rights abuses by processors in Thailand, one of the world’s largest shrimp providers.

“We believe that SIMP is a key step to restoring a level playing field for the U.S. shrimp industry,” the senators wrote.

Read the full story at Seafood Source