U.S. President Donald Trump’s regulatory freeze has injected chaos and uncertainty into a number of lucrative American fisheries, raising the risk of a delayed start to the fishing season for some East Coast cod and haddock fleets and leading to overfishing of Atlantic bluefin tuna, according to interviews with industry groups and federal government employees.
America’s $320 billion fishing industry relies on a branch of the federal government, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to manage coastal fisheries. Under a 1976 law, NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service develops management plans for 45 fisheries, setting quotas and determining the start and close of fishing seasons, in consultation with federal government scientists and local fishermen.
Trump’s Jan. 20 declaration of a 60-day freeze on regulations disrupted this process for several of those fisheries, delaying key meetings and causing confusion over the issuance of new rules, according to interviews.
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