Beaver Street Fisheries Partners with Dot Foods to Enhance Nationwide Seafood Distribution

Beaver Street Fisheries (BSF), a leading US seafood supplier, has announced a strategic partnership with Dot Foods, North America’s largest food industry redistributor, in a move designed to increase product access for customers and improve supply chain efficiency, especially for less-than-truckload shipments.

By partnering with Dot, BSF aims to streamline distribution, reduce logistical challenges, and better support its growing customer base, the company stated in a press release.

Dot Foods will enable BSF to expand its product reach and provide more consistent product availability...

Handy Seafood Names Doug Santschi Chief Commercial Officer 

Handy Seafood has appointed Doug Santschi as its new Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), effective immediately. 

With more than 20 years of experience in the food industry, Santschi will oversee the Maryland-based company’s core business operations and lead growth and innovation initiatives.  

"We are incredibly excited to welcome Doug Santschi to our leadership team," said Todd Conway, CEO of Handy Seafood. " Doug Santschi's impressive track record of operational excellence and strategic leadership at large public corporations and in private equity turnarounds makes him the ideal person to guide our...

North Coast Seafoods Teams Up with Sysco to Launch Seaweed Kelp Balls 

Boston-based North Coast Seafoods has joined forces with Sysco Corporation to launch its Seaweed Kelp Balls. The product is featured in Sysco’s Summer 2025 Cutting Edge Solutions (CES) Program, which showcases innovative additions to the food industry.  

North Coast Seafoods says it sources kelp domestically to help strengthen local coastal economies and support fishing families across the U.S.  

The Seaweed Kelp Balls earned their place in the CES lineup as the world’s only plant-based product of their kind. Made from...

Wild Planet Foods Launches “Go Wild” Marketing Campaign with Boat Excursion Contest

On July 23, 2025, canned seafood brand Wild Planet Foods launched its new “Go Wild” marketing campaign to encourage consumers to “reconnect with the untamed essence of nature” and embrace active lifestyles and sustainable choices.

Along with the digital portion of the campaign, the company has also launched a contest to win a boat excursion experiencing the wild beauty of Washington state’s San Juan Islands.

“‘Go Wild' is more than a tagline -- it's a rallying cry to reconnect with nature, adventure, and the untamed essence of life itself,” says...

Ready Seafood Sues Ex-Executives, Alleges Trade Secret Theft After Founding Packers Pride

Ready Seafood, a prominent Maine-based supplier of live and processed lobster products, has filed a lawsuit against two of its former executives, Andrew Daughan and Robert Kragh, as well as their newly formed company, Packers Pride.

The suit, filed on July 14 in US District Court, alleges that the former employees breached their contracts and illegally used confidential business information to directly compete with their former employer. 

Daughan was hired in 2018 as Ready Seafood’s Vice President of Category Management. He was tasked with...

Fortune Fish & Gourmet Showcases Premium Seafood and Meats to NBA Chefs in Las Vegas

Fortune Fish & Gourmet took center stage at the National Basketball Association (NBA) Summer League in Las Vegas last week, presenting their specialty seafood and meat products to chefs from all 30 NBA teams.

Each summer, Las Vegas hosts the NBA’s annual meetings for coaches, trainers, and the Performance Nutrition Association to discuss best practices for supporting their organizations. For the first time, NBA chefs held their own dedicated meeting in 2025, inviting Fortune Fish & Gourmet, current supplier to the Philadelphia 76ers, to present its offerings to...

Congressman Jared Golden Pushes to Extend Lobster Fishing Regulation Moratorium Until 2035 

Congressman Jared Golden (D-ME) is calling on lawmakers to extend a federal pause on new lobster fishing regulations aimed at protecting North Atlantic right whales.  

Golden worked alongside Maine Governor Janet Mills in 2023 to create the current moratorium, which is set to expire in 2028. Now, he’s urging the House Natural Resources Committee (HNRC) to extend the pause until 2035 through a proposed amendment to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). 

Speaking before the HNRC Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries on...

SHARKED Act Seeks to Address Shark Depredation and Protect US Fisheries

On July 22, 2025, Sens. Rick Scott and Brian Schatz introduced bipartisan legislation to address the growing issue of shark depredation, which occurs when sharks prey on fish from anglers’ lines while the lines are still submerged in the ocean. Shark depredation affects commercial and recreational fisheries and the local and state economies that rely on them, while also posing safety issues for humans and potentially disrupting the marine ecosystem.

The bill, entitled "Supporting the Health of Aquatic systems through Research, Knowledge, and Enhanced Dialogue (SHARKED) Act," will establish...

Russian Fishermen Face Challenges in Renewing Domestic Fishing Fleet

The Russian government is considering extending the term for investment quota allocations to domestic fisherman from the current 15 years to 20 years, according to Aleksey Osintsev, Vice President of the Russian Association of Fishing Fleet Owners (AFFO).   

Many Russian fishing companies are having difficulty building new vessels on time, which could result in penalties. The proposed extension would give them more time under the state’s investment quota program, while also providing them with additional support amid ongoing economic challenges. 

Osintsev says the move is essential since payback periods for...

FDA Issues Norovirus Advisory on Korean Frozen Oysters Sold in Five Western States

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an advisory warning restaurants and retailers not to serve or sell certain frozen half-shell oysters from the Republic of Korea due to concerns about norovirus.

The advisory focused on food establishments and consumers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Montana and Utah that purchased frozen, raw, half-shell oysters with lot code: B250112, harvested from Designated Area No. 1 in the Republic of Korea (ROK) on Jan. 12, 2025, and processed by JBR KR-15-SP in Tongyeong-si, ROK...

Fulton Fish Market Hosts Rally Urging President Trump to Stop Empire Wind Project 

The Fulton Fish Market Cooperative, which operates the largest seafood market in the United States, held a rally last week at its Hunts Point facility in the Bronx, urging President Donald Trump to halt the Empire Wind Project happening off the coast of Long Island. 

The rally brought together union seafood workers, commercial fishing leaders, and coastal advocates who say the project poses a threat to seafood jobs, supply chains, national food security, and working waterfronts.  

“Offshore wind is not a supplement to our...

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...

Pacific Seafood Appoints Raul Squadritto to Lead Farmed Salmon Division

Pacific Seafood has tapped longtime industry executive Raul Squadritto to lead its PacMar farmed salmon division, marking a key step in the company’s plan to double in size by 2031.

Squadritto will be based in Pacific’s Miami office and will work to strengthen customer partnerships and accelerate growth in both farmed salmon and poultry segments.

“We’re excited to welcome Raul Squadritto as our farmed salmon sales leader for PacMar,” Mark Bowen, Vice President Pacific Seafood, PacMar, said. “Raul brings more than...

Canada Aquaculture Industry Alliance Joins Effort to Elevate Agriculture as a Federal Priority 

The Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance has joined 31 national agricultural organizations in co-signing a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney, urging the federal government to prioritize the agriculture industry.  

The letter, titled “Let’s Grow Canada: Staking a Claim for Agriculture in the Government Mandate,” argues that the sector is often overlooked in national policy and investment decisions, despite its contributions to the economy.  

Citing a decline in Canada’s global agricultural market share since 2000 and a projected drop in productivity to...

Frozen Oysters Recalled in Several States After Norovirus Illness Reports

A pair of companies announced recalls of frozen half-shell oysters due to Norovirus concerns, according to notices published on the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference (ISSC) website.

California-based Wang Globalnet announced the recall of 1,200 cases of Frozen Half Shell Oysters. Specifically product KR-15-SP with a harvest date of 1/12/2025. The product was distributed in California, Utah and other states. The oysters were packaged in white corrugated boxes labeled “Frozen Half Shell Oysters, Product of Korea, Pack 144 counts,” with a shellfish...

Japan’s Frozen Cod Imports from Russia Plunge 80% from January–May 

Japan’s imports of frozen cod from Russia dropped by 80% from January–May, according to Minato Shimbun. While imports hovered around 15,000 metric tons annually until 2017, they declined to roughly 10,000 metric tons between 2018 and 2021. Since 2022, though, annual volumes fell even further to around 5,000 metric tons. 

Rising prices played a key role in this trend. Since 2022, the per-kilogram cost of cod increased significantly, prompting a shift from US to Russian imports. However, in 2024, prices for Russian cod surged, narrowing the...

Trump Signs Landmark US-Japan Trade Deal, Slashes Tariffs to 15%

United States President Donald Trump announced this week that he had signed what he described as “perhaps the largest deal ever made” with Japan, aimed at reshaping trade relations between the two countries. The agreement sets a new 15% tariff rate on all Japanese products imported into the US, a notable decrease from the 25% rate imposed earlier this month, as Expana reported.

According to President Trump, the deal is expected to create hundreds of jobs in the United States and will require Japan to open its markets further...