On September 14, 2025, the Office of Advocacy (Advocacy) submitted comments on the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) request for recommendations on improving regulations for the fishery and seafood industries. NOAA’s request builds upon President Trump’s Executive Order (EO) 14276, “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness,” which directs the federal government to “immediately consider suspending, revising, or rescinding regulations that overly burden America’s commercial fishing, aquaculture, and fish processing industries at the fishery-specific level.”
In addition to submitting comments, Advocacy conducted outreach to small fishing and seafood industry stakeholders. Advocacy also hosted a small business regulatory roundtable on September 24, 2025. Nearly 100 people participated in the discussion, and many spoke and provided written materials during the roundtable and afterwards. Advocacy also held a meeting with small businesses in New Bedford, MA, on September 15, 2025, to discuss NOAA’s request for information.
Representatives of the fishing and seafood industry expressed to Advocacy a strong desire for better dialogue with NOAA and felt their interests were not fairly represented in current regulations. They also noted that many of NOAA’s regulations needed to be reviewed, as they are out of date with current fishery conditions.
A key theme of the small businesses’ comments closely overlaps one of President Trump’s executive orders observing that “The United States is blessed with … abundant natural resources” but have been subject to “years of mismanagement [and] regulatory overreach.” America’s fisheries have been poorly and unlawfully managed. Fishing yields, and the economic returns on fishing-business assets, should be greater.
NOAA should work with Advocacy in the pursuit of reforming or repealing all the regulations raised in the comments. Advocacy will continue to investigate each small business issue received from its outreach and the roundtable in its ongoing effort to achieve regulatory reform on behalf of the nation’s affected small businesses in the fishing and seafood industries.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 14276
Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness
COMMENT LETTER
Recommendations for Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness
(PDF, 330KB)
CONTACT:
Nick Goldstein
EMAIL:
Letters to Agencies
TAG(S):
NOAA
Access our Regulatory Alerts to view and submit comments on important proposed regulations.