Maintaining a healthy ocean includes ensuring that fisheries are sustainable and fish stocks are abundant. If you like to eat seafood, go fishing or visit the coast, then how United States fisheries are managed affects you. We see a number of troubling signs that our fishery management system is unraveling at the seams. Here are five concerns we have about the future of American seafood.
1. Funding and staffing cuts to NOAA and NOAA Fisheries threaten sustainable fisheries
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its National Marine Fisheries Service, often called NOAA Fisheries, are the key federal agencies responsible for the stewardship of the nation’s ocean resources and their habitats. This includes managing fisheries and ensuring a safe and sustainable seafood supply.
Unfortunately, NOAA and NOAA Fisheries are facing drastic funding cuts in budget proposals from the administration and Congress. In addition, the agency has lost substantial staff capacity. Between firings, resignations and retirements, NOAA has lost more than 2,000 staff, including nearly 600from NOAA Fisheries.
Many of the staff at NOAA Fisheries come from regional offices and fisheries science centers around the country that are now struggling to fulfill their important mission. For instance, the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, which produces critical science to inform management of some of the biggest and most valuable fisheries in the country, has lost half of its staff. The staff lost at NOAA Fisheries were experts—scientists, managers and others who ran surveys, assessed how fish stocks were doing and analyzed the impacts of different management decisions. They were often closely connected to local fishing communities and had irreplaceable knowledge and experience. Without these staff, core fishery management functions are grinding to a halt. Now Ocean Conservancy is calling on Congress and the administration to ensure NOAA is fully funded and staffed.
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2. Delays in issuing regulations lead to overfishing, reduced accountability and uncertainty for fishermen
In the last several months, we’ve seen regulatory freezes, lags in contract execution and delays in opening and closing fishing seasons. A good example of this happened in September 2025 when NOAA Fisheries failed to close the recreational fishery for greater amberjack. The season for private anglers should not have been open this year since, in 2024, the recreational fishery caught more than double its quota. However, NOAA Fisheries failed to issue the regulations needed to close the fishery on time, and a stock that has been overfished for decades was subject to unsustainable fishing for nearly a month.
At the end of the day, these delays and failures to act are bad for everyone. They mean less predictability for fishermen, who look for certainty and stability to help plan their fishing. They risk harming fish stocks, especially when they allow fishing above sustainable limits. Delaying contracts and firing employees hurts partnerships and collaborations that are key to successful management.
3. Annual national snapshots of the status of U.S. fish stocks have disappeared
Typically, NOAA Fisheries releases its “Status of Stocks” report to Congress each spring. Required by law, this report gives a snapshot of how well U.S. fish stocks are doing overall and provides details on how many stocks are experiencing overfishing and/or are at low populations and need to be rebuilt. This year, the Status of Stocks report for 2024 was not released. While this might seem minor, the Status of Stocks is an important part of having a transparent and accountable fishery management system. Without the Status of Stocks, decisionmakers and the public can’t fully understand whether NOAA Fisheries and its partners are meeting their objective of conserving and managing fish stocks for the greatest overall benefit of the nation.
4. A deregulatory agenda is undermining U.S. seafood competitiveness
The U.S. fishery management system is often considered a model for the rest of the world. The system is far from perfect but, using a strong regulatory framework, it has been largely successful at keeping fish stocks sustainable. Regulations help to ensure management is fair and efficient, incorporates the best scientific information available and balances the need for fishing opportunity now and the need to conserve stocks and marine ecosystems for the long term. Signed earlier this year, an Executive Order on Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness is clearing the way for rapid deregulation of fisheries. The options currently on the table as part of this deregulation are likely to weaken management and cause unintended impacts on other fisheries and the ecosystem. For example, regulations that reduce bycatch often help protect the interests of fisheries whose catch would otherwise be incidentally caught and wasted by another fishery, such as Gulf red snapper caught as bycatch in the shrimp fishery. Weakening those regulations would inadvertently harm one fishery by reducing restrictions on another. In the long run, the best way to have a safe and stable seafood supply in the U.S. is to make sure that we manage fish stocks for sustainability and invest in science and management capacity.
5. Managers are taking steps to stop managing fish stocks altogether
Across several regions of the U.S., fishery managers are considering moving fish stocks out of the very federal management system that has made the U.S. a model around the world. In some cases, fish stocks that currently receive active management would be demoted to “ecosystem-component” species that receive little science and management attention, even though they are still caught in fisheries. In other cases, stocks would be moved to management by states, which often have much lower capacity, less funding and fewer requirements. Even worse, some stocks are being removed from management entirely, meaning there will be no management for them in federal waters and little, if any, use of science or monitoring. These stocks are being swept under the rug, and there are few pathways to bring them back into active federal management in the future.
No matter where you live, we all have a connection to the ocean. Together, we can ensure U.S. seafood is safe, sustainable and available for decades to come. Speaking up for NOAA is a crucial way we can help maintain healthy fish stocks and promote thriving ocean ecosystems. Let Congress know you support NOAA and a hopeful future of fish in America.
The post Recent Trends Impacting U.S. Fisheries and American Seafood appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.
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