President Trump today issued an Executive Order on “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness” intended to promote productive harvest of U.S. seafood resources, remove regulatory burdens on U.S. commercial fishermen, combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and protect U.S. seafood markets from unfair trade practices.
Among other things, within 30 days, the Order requires the Commerce Secretary to identify the most heavily overregulated fisheries and take appropriate action to reduce regulatory burdens on them, including the following:
- Within 6 months, solicit the regional fishery management councils for recommendations to reduce burdens on domestic fishing and increase production
- Solicit public comments from all relevant parties on innovative ideas to improve fisheries management and science within the confines of applicable laws including the Magnuson-Stevens Act, Endangered Species Act, and Marine Mammal Protection Act
- Pursue additional public engagement to ensure federal entities are focusing core fisheries management and science functions to support priority needs that strengthen the U.S. seafood supply chain
Additionally, the Commerce Secretary is ordered to direct the National Marine Fisheries Service to incorporate less expensive and more reliable technologies and cooperative research programs into fishery assessments, and as soon as practicable, expand exempted fishing permit programs to promote fishing opportunities nationwide, and take all appropriate action to modernize data collection and analytical practices to improve the responsiveness of fisheries management to real-time ocean conditions.
Per the Order, the Commerce Secretary is directed to consult with the Agriculture Secretary to develop and implement an America First Seafood Strategy, work with the U.S. Trade Representative to assess seafood competitiveness and develop a comprehensive seafood trade strategy by June 17, immediately consider revising or rescinding recent expansions of the Seafood Import Monitoring Program and further improve the program to more effectively target high-risk shipments, consider options to use improved technology to identify foreign fishery-related violations, and work with the Health & Human Services and Homeland Security Secretaries to use cost savings to improve through checks at U.S. ports to prevent IUU seafood from entering the U.S. market.
Lastly, within 6 months, the Commerce Secretary is required to review all existing marine national monuments and provide recommendations on any that should be opened to commercial fishing.