NOAA Fisheries has opened a 45-day public comment period, closing Tuesday, October 14, 2025, inviting input from the fishing and seafood industry, technology experts, marine scientists, and the public. The initiative stems from the Executive Order on Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness and aims to strengthen fisheries management, enhance science, and revitalize the U.S. seafood sector.
Comments are being sought on a range of issues, including:
- Regulations: Identifying federal fishery rules that could be suspended, revised, or rescinded.
- Industry Challenges: Highlighting obstacles specific fisheries face, proposing innovative solutions, and offering examples of regulatory changes that could better support U.S. fishing businesses.
- Management and Science Improvements: Exploring how affordable technologies and cooperative research can improve fisheries assessments; ways to modernize NOAA’s data collection to reflect real-time conditions; and what tools, information, or resources businesses need to adapt to changing economic and environmental pressures.
- Fishing Opportunities: Suggestions for expanding exempted fishing permit programs nationwide.
Feedback from the seafood industry and other stakeholders will guide NOAA Fisheries in shaping specific actions to support the sector. The effort reflects the agency’s broader commitment to reversing declines in landings and revenue, advancing sustainable aquaculture, reducing the seafood trade deficit, and strengthening supply chain resilience.
Additional details on the comment process are available in the Federal Register. NOAA Fisheries will also host two public listening sessions during the comment period, with information posted on the agency’s website.