American fishermen should no longer be treated unfairly when competing against cheap and dubious seafood from foreign suppliers. That is the aim of a new initiative announced by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., reports Breitbart.
Poor fish farms abroad
The announcement came during a lively campaign rally on Friday alongside President Donald Trump in Fort Myers, Florida. A key measure is a voluntary labelling scheme for fish caught in the US, so that American seafood can be more easily distinguished from products that often come from polluted fish farms abroad.
Among the measures currently being developed is a public website, seafood.gov, which is already up and running. It maps catches, sales and infrastructure and sets out strategies to support US commercial fishermen.
Kennedy said at the meeting that fish caught in the US cannot be compared with imports from countries with few quality and safety controls, where seafood may even be toxic.
He highlighted Vietnam and Cambodia, where prawn farms are being established around mangrove swamps. The farms are killing local fish to produce prawns which, according to Kennedy, are full of antibiotics. After five years, the swamps are destroyed.
“No European countries will accept them, so they send them all here,” said Kennedy.
He pointed out that the Trump administration is rebuilding the infrastructure and opening up markets for American commercial fishermen.
80 per cent of seafood is imported
Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows that an estimated 80 per cent of the seafood purchased in the US in 2023 was imported from other countries.
Kennedy said that for 40 years he has been working to help New England fishermen overcome restrictions that limit their production. Now, under the Trump administration, the government is finally taking action to help the industry, according to the Secretary of Health.
The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) described the ‘Made in the USA’ label as a major victory for Americans in a statement published on X following Kennedy’s announcement.
The label provides consumers with a simple and recognisable way to identify seafood caught in the US, whilst supporting the domestic fishing industry, said Jason Joyce of NEFSA.
The Hill reported on Friday that the new fisheries initiative comes after Trump’s trade war with Canada has caused unrest in parts of the industry.
The newspaper referred to a statement from the Maine Lobstermen’s Association in August. The association feared that Maine’s fishermen would suffer as a result of the conflict, as Canada buys large quantities of lobster from the state.
The largest prawn fishery in the whole of Florida
During the meeting, Kennedy highlighted the difficulties faced by Florida fishermen in a market flooded with imported goods.
He described the area around Fort Myers as the largest prawn fishery in the whole of Florida, which drew cheers and applause from the audience. At the same time, he said that fishermen have to compete with criminal organisations abroad.
“Commercial fishermen in this country are subject to the strictest environmental regulations and the strictest sustainability regulations. But that puts them at a disadvantage compared with fishermen in the rest of the world,” said Kennedy.
Seafood.gov sets out several strategies to redress this imbalance. Among the proposals are removing unnecessary burdens, restoring access to productive fishing grounds and adjusting catch quotas upwards based on the best and most up-to-date science.
The plans also include measures to remove barriers to private investment in active port areas, cold stores and onshore facilities.
Seafood caught in the US, packed in China
Hopefully, Walmart and other retailers will follow suit and stop selling seafood such as cod and salmon that is caught in the US but packed in China.
Ever since I spotted labels like these, I always study the labelling carefully to ensure that the seafood has been both caught and packed in the US. The only seafood I buy from abroad is Norwegian.
Norwegian salmon is, of course, particularly popular in the US.
When I was working in a restaurant a few years ago, a customer asked where the salmon came from. I’d only just started working there and wasn’t sure. When I asked the head chef, he replied jokingly: ‘Just say it comes from Norway.’
Of course, it didn’t – something I later discovered when I looked at the packets in the freezer. But it’s a funny memory!
