Nathan Strout is a Portland, Maine-based associate editor of SeafoodSource. Previously, Nathan covered the U.S. military’s space activities and emerging technologies at C4ISRNET and Defense News, where he won awards for his reporting on the U.S. Space Force’s missile warning capabilities. Nathan got his start in journalism writing about several communities in Midcoast Maine for a local daily paper, The Times Record.
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The U.S. Department of Commerce has allocated USD 42 million (EUR 39 million) in financial relief for fishery disasters NOAA Fisheries has determined took place.
“Sustainable fisheries are essential to the health of our communities and support the nation’s economic well-being,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo said. “With these allocations, it is our hope that these funds help the affected communities and
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More than 100 chefs have signed a letter organized by nonprofit Oceana calling on U.S. President Joe Biden to expand the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP), which imposes traceability requirements on some seafood species to prevent illegal fishing.
SIMP currently covers just 13 species or species groups, but many fishery observers and lawmakers have called on the program to expand.
“Chefs don’t want to serve their customers
Fishermen and government officials in the northeastern U.S. region of New England are surveying the damage caused by a pair of massive storms that hit the region in early January.
The first storm hit on 10 January, bringing precipitation totaling nearly 3 feet that sunk vessels, damaged docks, and flooded coastal communities. As New England began picking up the pieces, a second storm hit on 13 January with a record-breaking high tide and
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has partnered with the state government of Alaska on strengthening the supply chain of local and regional food systems.
Together, the USDA and Alaska are offering more than USD 1.9 million (EUR 1.7 million) in competitive infrastructure grants for projects that can “build resilience across the middle of the supply chain.”
“This partnership between USDA and Alaska is allowing critical
The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), which has been representing commercial fishermen in an ongoing case before the U.S. Supreme Court, expressed cautious optimism that the court would align with their reasoning following oral arguments.
“After many years, our clients were finally before a court that seemed disinclined to defer to the agency they have been fighting as to what the law is,” NCLA Senior Litigation Counsel John
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A challenge by New Jersey herring fishermen to a rule requiring commercial fishermen to pay for at-sea monitoring equipment could significantly weaken the rulemaking authority of NOAA Fisheries and U.S. regulatory agencies more broadly.
On 17 January, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. The case began as an attempt to overturn a single rule originally set by the New England Fishery
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The Wild Fish Conservancy has petitioned NOAA Fisheries to list Alaska king salmon under the Endangered Species Act.
The organization claims the petition is a response to “the severe decline and poor condition of Chinook populations” in Alaska.
“For decades, scientists have been sounding the alarm that Alaska’s Chinook are in dire trouble,” Wild Fish Conservancy Executive Director Emma Helverson said. “Despite
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The U.S. Department of Commerce has finalized antidumping tariffs for imported tin products used in seafood canning.
The tariffs are largely unchanged from the preliminary rates announced in August 2023, with the department implementing dumping rates of 123 percent for Chinese tin imports, 5 percent for Canadian tin imports, and 7 percent for German tin imports. However, the department also opted to set tariffs on some imported steel from South
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The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has issued a USD 10 million (EUR 9.1 million) contract to the Center for Enterprise Modernization to develop technologies that can help protect endangered North Atlantic right whales.
“NOAA and its partners are working to stabilize the North Atlantic right whale population and prevent extinction of this species,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said. “This partnership,
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The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Turtle Restoration Network have jointly filed a lawsuit against NOAA over the latter organization's alleged failure to protect Pacific leatherback sea turtles from becoming entangled in sablefish pot gear on the U.S. West Coast.
The lawsuit comes on the heels of NOAA Fisheries’ December 2023 decision to reopen about 2,000 square miles of critical sea turtle habitat for commercial sablefish
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