Trump Signs New Executive Order to Strengthen US Seafood Industry, Review Marine National Monuments

On April 17, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order, titled “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness,” which focuses on improving the domestic seafood industry by addressing unfair trade practices, instating new policies that promote domestic seafood resources, and revising current regulations that “overly burden America’s commercial fishing, aquaculture, and fish processing industries at the fishery-specific level.”

Collaborating with the domestic seafood industry

Per the order, the Secretary of Commerce (Howard Lutnick) will cooperate with the Regional Fishery Management Councils (RFMC), interagency partners, and other stakeholders...

NOAA Fisheries and FWS Propose Rule Rescinding Endangered Species Act’s “Harm” Definition

On April 17, 2025, NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) proposed a rule to rescind the regulatory definition of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The law, which was established in 1973, currently prohibits the take of any fish or animal listed as an endangered species, with “take” defined as “to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect or to attempt to engage in any such conduct.”

According to Justice Scalia’s 1995 position...

MSC Consumer Poll Shows Seafood as Top Sustainable Animal Protein

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) recently released new data from a consumer poll showing that a quarter of the consumers surveyed view fish and seafood as the most environmentally sustainable animal protein. Seafood was followed closely by chicken in the poll results.

In addition, poll data revealed that Gen Z and millennial shoppers aged 18-29 are almost twice as likely to consider environmental impact when grocery shopping and meal planning than those aged 55 and over.

Of all the respondents, 36% of consumers indicated that it...

Eight Projects Recommended for NOAA’s 2025 Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside Program

NOAA Fisheries recently recommended eight new projects for the 2025 Scallop Research Set-Aside Program. The program, which supports applied research for the U.S. wild-caught scallop fishery, awards scallop set-asides instead of monetary funding, thus providing fishery researchers with the means to conduct their research while also harvesting scallops to fund their work.

The scallops that are set aside would normally have been available for commercial harvest only. NOAA Fisheries placed 2023 U.S. commercial scallop landings at 27.4 million pounds, valued at $360 million, making...

Virginia’s Experience with MSX Aids Atlantic Canada’s Aquaculture Industry

William & Mary's Batten School & VIMS recently hosted a delegation of government officials and aquaculture industry representatives from Atlantic Canada. Alarmed by the discovery of the oyster disease MSX (Multinucleate Sphere X) in the waters around Prince Edward Island (PEI) last July, they came to learn more about the strategies Virginia has employed to manage this serious shellfish disease.

MSX had already been discovered around Nova Scotia in 2002, leading to significant mortality. Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences & VIMS Professor Ryan Carnegie worked closely with government officials and the local industry...

Onda Receives Ignition Fund Grant for Aquaculture Project to Develop Rapid Diagnostic Test Kits

According to a press release published on April 15 by Canadian research organization Onda, the company was recently awarded grant funding from the Ignition Fund to support the development of rapid diagnostic test kits designed to improve disease detection and management in aquacultural operations.

Onda specializes in aquaculture health, nutrition, and innovation and will utilize the funding to advance its work in creating user-friendly, field-deployable diagnostic kits. The rapid detection of harmful pathogens will enable aquaculture producers to detect diseases early on, proactively address biomass...

West Coast Salmon Seasons Set: No California Season, Limited Elsewhere

After a week of tense negotiations and discussion, salmon managers finally adopted a set of seasons for Washington, Oregon, and California, as of Tuesday, April 15. Now it’s up to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS, or NOAA Fisheries) for approval.  

California commercial season is simple: It’s closed. For the third year in a row. Recreational salmon fishermen will get a chance at a fishery this year, though, the first since 2022. 

Oregon has limited opportunity, due to concerns of Klamath and Sacramento River stocks...

The Retail Rundown: Protein Adds to Holiday Price Gains

Easter week has arrived and grocers are tapping into the holiday's spending momentum. But for consumers, Easter dinner is shaping up to be pricier than last year, with many holiday staples seeing year-over-year price increases.

According to Expana’s latest US Easter Index—which tracks price changes in key holiday-related commodities—overall prices rose 11.8% year-over-year, driven largely by higher costs in the protein and bakery categories.

Expana’s Easter Protein Index, which covers lamb, beef, pork, salmon, cod, and eggs...

SEAD Testing Shows 43% of Gulf Shores Restaurants Are Falsely Labeling Shrimp Dishes

According to genetic testing conducted last week by Seafood Development Consulting (SEAD), approximately 43% of restaurants in Gulf Shores, Alabama (19 out of 44 establishments) are currently misrepresenting farm-raised imported shrimp as local wild-caught Gulf Coast shrimp.

The testing was commissioned by the Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA), along with previously conducted genetic testing for other Gulf coast shrimp towns like Baton Rouge, Savannah, Galveston, St. Petersburg, and Tampa, which showed notable percentages of mislabeling...

Russia Plans to Lift Restrictions on Shrimp Catch This Year

Russia is considering a significant increase to its shrimp catch this year, which should lead to reduced imports to the domestic market.

For this purpose, Russian authorities plan to lift all the existing restrictions on the catch of northern and scalloped shrimp in the Primorye subzone and the West Sakhalin subzone.

According to recent calculations made by German Zverev, head of the All-Russian Association of Fish Producers (VARPE), maintaining the current ban will lead to potential losses of up to 1,500-ton catch volumes, which is equivalent to 6%...

ANALYSIS: Tariffs and Shifting Demand Shape Live Lobster Market Outlook

The Canadian Spring lobster season is set to begin, with fishermen scheduled to set traps on April 19 and fishing to commence the following Monday. Early indicators point to a strong start, buoyed by recent biomass assessments suggesting landings could match—or even surpass—last spring’s solid production. Yet, this promising outlook unfolds against a backdrop of economic and trade uncertainty, tempering optimism across global markets...

Russia to Sell New 2025 Crab Quotas to Investors

The Russian Federal Agency for Fisheries (Rosrybolovstvo) has announced a tender for the distribution of crab quotas for a total sum of RUB 2.1 billion (US$26 million).  

Under the terms of the tender, the winner of the tender will build medium-tonnage fishing vessels over 50 meters long that are designed for crab catch.  

As for quotas, they will be for extracting red snow crab in the Primorye subzone (50%), red snow crab in the West Sakhalin subzone (50%), snow crab angulatus in the East Sakhalin subzone (50%) and...

Slow Zones in Effect for Massachusetts Waters Due to Endangered Whale Activity

ccording to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS/NOAA Fisheries), the North Atlantic right whale Slow Zones are currently in effect through May 1, 2025, for three Massachusetts areas after the presence of right whales was recently detected in coastal waters east of Boston as well as in the waters southeast and southwest of Nantucket.

This comes after officials detected right whale activity in the areas of Cape Cod Bay and Massachusetts Bay between the dates of March 28 and April 10.

The whale presence east of Boston...

Navigating the Trump Tariff Turbulence: A Comprehensive Timeline

US President Donald Trump and his administration have paused reciprocal tariffs on most countries.

“Based on the lack of respect that China has shown... I am hereby raising the [tariff] charged to China by the [USA] to 125%, effective immediately,” wrote Trump on Truth Social at 1:18 pm ET. 

It’s not clear if this 125% is in addition to the 20% imposed on Chinese imports to the US. In early March, Trump noted that he would add another 10% tariff on Chinese goods...

ANALYSIS: Reduced Catches and Demand Shape Floridian Stone Crab Season

The 2024–2025 Floridian stone crab season has been marked by irregularity, with lighter overall landings and reduced demand contributing to uneven market behavior. Monthly harvests were generally lower year-over-year, with the exception of a stronger November. Colder weather and isolated red tide events affected availability...

Russia Seeks to Increase 2025 Catches in Territorial Waters of African States

Since the beginning of 2025, the overall fish catch in Russia has exceeded 1.6 million tons, according to recent statements by an official spokesman of Rosrybolovstvo, Russia’s federal fish agency.

Of all the country’s regions, the biggest catch volume produced so far was in the Far Eastern basin with a volume equivalent to 1.352 million tons.

This year, a significant growth in catch has been achieved in the territorial waters of some foreign states (particularly certain African states), where, as of now, the Russian fleet has produced about...

Tariff Talks 2025: Expana's Weekly Rundown #4

Expana’s global team of specialist reporters has been tracking every twist and turn in the fluid tariff situation.

Click to read "Tariff Talks 2025: Expana's Weekly Rundown #4."

This report allows the Expana community to see where key commodity markets stand as of this past week... Click the above PDF report, or keep scrolling to read in plain text...