With every incoming new federal administration and Congress, there are new opportunities to make changes in federal programs that benefit the nation’s fisheries. The incoming second Trump Administration and 119th Congress are no exceptions.
But fishing industry leaders also will have to educate many incoming new federal officials on the daily realities of our industry—and what our needs are as an industry—for us to continue to deliver high quality seafood to America’s tables.
We must also highlight that commercial fishing is a major American industry that in 2022 alone generated $183 billion dollars in sales, supporting more than 1.6 million fisheries-linked jobs across the nation.
While PCFFA’s direct focus is on U.S. West Coast fisheries, these comments apply nationally as well.
We urge the incoming 119th Congress and the new administration to prioritize reducing America’s over-reliance on imported seafood, which now accounts for more than 90% of what is consumed in the U.S. Much of this imported seafood comes from countries with significantly weaker fishery management practices and human rights standards than those required in the U.S.
Meanwhile, our own commercial fishing fleets, which operate under some of the most stringent and science-based fisheries regulations in the world, struggle to remain viable. Supporting domestic fisheries is not only critical for maintaining jobs and economic vitality in coastal communities, but also ensures that Americans have access to sustainably harvested, high-quality American seafood produced under fair labor conditions.
Ending Conflicts Between Ocean Development and Fisheries
In recent years the commercial fishing industry has been shoved aside repeatedly by other industries trying to claim large portions of our federally owned U.S. coastal waters for industrial-scale wind farms, aquaculture operations and/or offshore oil and gas development.
Traditional fisheries are now threatened with major closures as the federal government continues to lease away large chunks of ocean to other industries, often with little consideration for the fact that many of those areas are the basis of economically important fisheries. It makes little economic sense to jeopardize America’s seafood supply and all the jobs it supports by continuing these kinds of conflicts.
The White House should (by Executive Order) instruct the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and all other federal agencies to protect American fisheries from any disruptions from offshore wind farms, aquaculture operations and offshore oil/gas development.
The first Trump administration started in this direction with its Ocean Policy Executive Order No. 13840 (June 19, 2018) but did not complete this important de-conflicting process to protect already existing ocean fisheries.
It should be a federal priority to ensure that American seafood jobs and supply chains are not jeopardized, and to implement compensation programs for fishing communities impacted by unavoidable conflicts.
Funding Coastal Port Infrastructure Upgrades
It’s no secret that much of our coastal port fisheries infrastructure is urgently in need of upgrading. This means at least improving, expanding and upgrading local port ice plants, fuel docks, expanding landing, staging and gear storage areas, improving and expanding harbor mooring facilities and improving fish processing access and operations.
But it also may mean improving crumbling local coastal road access, repairing decrepit bridges, more regular harbor dredging and modernizing of local coastal emergency communications and fishing boat safety systems.
Modernizing coastal port infrastructure is essential to the resilience and sustainability of the fishing industry. Expanding infrastructure funding programs to reduce red tape and engage the private sector can accelerate these improvements, benefiting coastal communities.
Durable, resilient port infrastructure is not just a sound investment; it sustains tens of thousands of jobs and ensures that high-quality, American-caught seafood continues to reach our tables.
Expand NOAA’s Advance Storm Warning Systems
Reliable weather forecasting is essential for the safety of fishing fleets. Recent proposals to privatize NOAA’s National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center risk undermining public safety. Congress should fully fund and expand NOAA’s weather services to ensure timely, accurate and accessible forecasts for the fishing community and the public.
Early warnings of bad weather and accurate forecasts make a life-or-death difference to our ocean fishing fleet. Privatizing what is vitally needed public safety weather alert information that is currently free as well as paid for by taxpayers would be a costly experiment limiting that life-saving information to a handful of for-profit companies, with no assurances.
Congress should instead fully support and fund expansion of NOAA’s National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center and all other NOAA weather forecasting services, including its weather satellite programs. All of these vital services have been underfunded for many years.
Improve Fisheries Monitoring and Management
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and regional Fisheries Management Councils are cornerstones of sustainable fisheries management, ensuring that U.S. fisheries remain among the most well-regulated and science-based in the world.
However, chronic underfunding has significantly limited their capacity to collect the comprehensive data needed for informed decision-making and effective resource management. This lack of resources also strains the councils’ ability to advise the Secretary of Commerce on key fisheries issues, putting both economic and ecological sustainability at risk.
To safeguard the future of America’s fisheries, Congress must provide robust, consistent funding for NMFS, regional councils and state and federal fisheries data collection programs. These investments are critical to maintaining productive fisheries, recovering depleted stocks and ensuring that science-based decision making remains the foundation of fisheries management.
Fully funding these entities supports not only the health of marine ecosystems, but also the economic vitality of coastal communities that depend on sustainable fishing practices.
Funding and Expanding Existing Salmon Habitat Restoration Efforts
Salmon fisheries, once the backbone of the West Coast commercial fishing industry, have been devastated by habitat loss, water mismanagement and climate change.
Despite decades of restoration efforts and substantial investments through programs like the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF), the results have yet to deliver meaningful improvements for fishermen. Salmon runs remain dangerously low and the communities that depend on them continue to suffer economically and culturally.
While it is essential to continue and fully fund the PCSRF salmon habitat restoration work, it is equally critical to ensure that these efforts produce tangible benefits for salmon populations and the fishermen who depend on them.
Restoration strategies must be more focused, targeted and responsive to the challenges facing specific watersheds and fisheries. The goal should not simply be spending more money, but achieving measurable outcomes, such as increased salmon returns and improved access to harvestable stocks.
We urge Congress and federal agencies to re-evaluate the current approach to salmon habitat restoration, prioritize projects with the highest likelihood of success and establish clear benchmarks to measure progress.
This includes integrating restoration efforts with broader water management reforms and ensuring that all stakeholders—fishermen, Tribes and local communities—have a voice in shaping recovery strategies.
Salmon restoration must move beyond well-intentioned efforts and start delivering real results for the fishing families and coastal economies that depend on these vital resources.
Maintain Funding for Federal Salmon Mitigation Hatcheries
There are a number of West Coast watersheds where historic salmon habitat is either irrevocably destroyed or blocked by impassable dams—or both.
As mitigation for lost fisheries that these major watershed changes damaged, our industry was repeatedly promised permanent support for salmon fisheries through various federally managed salmon hatcheries, particularly in the Columbia River (through the 1938 Mitchell Act) and in the California Sacramento-San Joaquin River system, to mitigate the impacts of multiple dams.
All these federal hatchery programs must be annually funded by Congress. This includes funding appropriate upgrades to hatchery infrastructure and policies, such as maintaining and implementing newly required Hatchery Genetics Management Plans (HGMPs) for many of these aging structures.
The time has come to accept that the consequences of generations of mismanagement and habitat destruction are a precarious dependence on harvesting hatchery-origin fish. We are facing unprecedented closures and well-run hatcheries are imperative to bringing a robust salmon fishery and food source back to the West Coast.
Without hatchery improvements, there soon will be no ocean salmon fisheries over most of the West Coast.
Better Balancing Salmon and Farming Water Needs
The careful balance between the in-river water needs of salmon fisheries and the diverted water needs of agriculture is essential for sustaining these two vital sectors of the West Coast’s food-producing economy.
Both fishing and farming support billions of dollars in economic activity, hundreds of thousands of jobs and countless communities. Striking this balance is challenging, but it is critical for ensuring that both industries can thrive without one being sacrificed for the other.
In the past, efforts to tip the scales too far in one direction have led to severe consequences. Policies implemented during the first Trump administration disrupted this balance, contributing to coastwide salmon season closures in 2023 and 2024 and likely reducing opportunities in 2025.
These closures cost fishing-dependent economies hundreds of millions of dollars and perpetuated a cycle of litigation-driven water management that benefits no one.
To move forward, we must recognize that collaboration, not conflict, is the key to balancing these competing water needs. In regions like California’s Central Valley, the Klamath Basin and the Columbia River Basin, water management decisions must be guided by the best available science and informed by lessons learned from decades of trial and error.
Sacrificing thousands of jobs in one food-producing sector to benefit another makes no economic sense and only deepens regional divisions.
Recent agreements, such as the new Central Valley Project Salmon Biological Opinion (BiOp), the Klamath Irrigation Project Salmon BiOp, and the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative (CBRI), offer a foundation for achieving this balance.
While these plans are not perfect, they represent hard-fought compromises that should serve as starting points for future negotiations. Building upon these frameworks, rather than discarding them, is essential to avoiding a return to the gridlock and uncertainty of court-ordered water management.
Our industry is committed to working collaboratively with the second Trump administration, agricultural stakeholders and other partners to ensure that water resources are managed equitably and sustainably.
Together, we can protect salmon fisheries, support farming communities and uphold the shared goal of feeding our nation while preserving the natural resources on which we all depend.
Fix Broken Fisheries Disaster Assistance Programs
The commercial fishery disaster relief program authorized by the Magnuson-Stevens Act is itself a disaster. It’s incredible that it can take many months, even years, to deliver any actual disaster assistance to fishing families who already have been hard hit by a fishery failure through no fault of their own.
To his credit, efforts have been made by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) and others to streamline the fisheries disaster relief timeline, including (for the first time) some required deadlines for the Secretary of Commerce to make a determination of “fisheries failure.”
But as the current 2023 salmon fishery disaster declaration demonstrates, it still takes far too long for any actual money to get to any actual fishing families to make a real difference in relieving their economic suffering.
As we enter 2025, the “expedited” disaster relief for 2023 has yet to be distributed. This is inexcusable.
Additionally, the existing NOAA-managed fishery disaster assistance fund is perpetually underfunded by Congress, particularly considering how changes in ocean conditions are making fisheries disasters generally more common.
Congress should both fix this broken fisheries disaster relief distribution system and fund the fisheries disaster relief fund annually to levels sufficient to actually and quickly fund disaster relief in future years.
But systematic fixes to the current disaster relief program only can go so far.
We believe that commercial fishing families should also (as food providers) have access to the same types of U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) grant and loan programs as other food providers (farmers) already have.
Like our land-based farming counterparts, the U.S. seafood industry faces increasing cost burdens and market challenges. It is critical that the nation’s commercial seafood producers and associated support businesses also have access to these existing USDA grant and loan programs, and that the economic and food security benefits seafood producers provide to our nation are also recognized and supported.
This is not a far-fetched ask.
Various legislative proposals in the 118th Congress—including from Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (S. 2354, §§ 402 and 405), Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan (S. 2208, § 7), and Reps. Khanna, Brown, Miller and Molinaro (H.R. 4873)—would have assisted commercial fishermen, processors and other supporting fisheries businesses to gain eligibility to vital USDA grants and loans that help secure America’s food supply.
At least 500 seafood processors, trade associations and individual fishing boat operators have supported these changes in letters to Congress. These USDA programs, if extended and re-authorized to include seafood, could provide a vital lifeline to our industry.
They could support seafood processors seeking to expand their capacity and encourage competition and sustainable growth within the seafood processing sector while improving supply chain resiliency.
There are no good reasons to categorically exclude seafood for America’s tables from eligibility for these long-existing food chain protection programs. The next Congressional session’s farm bill is a natural vehicle for making these much-needed changes.
In summary, there is much that the incoming administration and Congress can—and should—do to help secure, expand and protect America’s seafood supply, and PCFFA remains committed to commercial fishing being part of the solutions.
Glen Spain, J.D., is Northwest Regional Director of PCFFA as well as its general legal counsel. He and Executive Director Lisa Damrosch can be reached at P.O. Box 29370, San Francisco, CA 94129, (650) 209-0801 and info@pcffa.org.