PORTLAND (AP) – United States (US) President Donald Trump’s executive order to boost the US commercial fishing industry drew praise from commercial fishing groups and condemnation from environmental organisations who said they fear cutting regulations will harm fish populations that have already dwindled in some areas of the oceans.
The order represents a dramatic shift in federal policy on fishing in US waters by prioritising commercial fishing interests over efforts to allow the fish supply to increase.
President Trump described his decision as “an easy one” that will improve the US commercial fishing industry by peeling back regulations and opening up harvesting in previously protected areas.
“The US should be the world’s dominant seafood leader,” he said, citing the nation’s seafood trade deficit, which is more than USD20 billion.
Some sectors of the fishing industry have been hit hard by environmental changes and overfishing, including in the Northeast, where once-lucrative industries for Maine shrimp and Atlantic cod long ago dried up. West Coast species, including some kinds of salmon, have also been depleted.
There have also been successes. The federal government said last year it was able to remove Atlantic coast bluefish and a Washington coast stock of coho salmon from the overfished list.
Fishermen said they see a brighter future thanks to the Trump executive order. The changes represent a “thoughtful, strategic approach” that could be a lifeline to America’s fishermen, said President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Fisheries Institute in Virginia Lisa Wallenda Picard.
The order gives Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick a month to identify “the most heavily overregulated fisheries requiring action and take appropriate action to reduce the regulatory burden on them.”
It also calls on regional fishing managers to find ways to reduce burdens on domestic fishing and increase fishing production.
