The Seafood Import Monitoring Program establishes for imports of certain seafood products, the reporting and recordkeeping requirements needed to prevent illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU)-caught and/or misrepresented seafood from entering U.S. commerce, providing additional protections for our national economy, global food security and the sustainability of our shared ocean resources. This is a risk-based traceability program—requiring the importer of record to provide and report key data—from the point of harvest to the point of entry into U.S. commerce—on a list of imported fish and fish products identified as particularly vulnerable to IUU fishing and/or seafood fraud. January 1, 2018 is the mandatory compliance date for this rule. *Shrimp and abalone compliance will be mandatory by December 31, 2018.
Priority Seafood Species
- *Abalone
- Atlantic Cod
- Blue Crab (Atlantic)
- Dolphinfish (Mahi Mahi)
- Grouper
- King Crab (red)
- Pacific Cod
- Red Snapper
- Sea Cucumber
- Sharks
- *Shrimp
- Swordfish
- Tunas (Albacore, Bigeye, Skipjack, Yellowfin, and Bluefin)
Overview
The Seafood Import Monitoring Program final rule establishes permitting, data reporting and recordkeeping requirements for the importation of certain priority fish and fish products that have been identified as being particularly vulnerable to IUU fishing and/or seafood fraud.
The data collected, through the International Trade Data System (ITDS) will allow these priority species of seafood to be traced from the point of entry into U.S. commerce back to the point of harvest or production to verify whether it was lawfully harvested or produced.
The Seafood Import Monitoring Program is not a labeling program, nor is it consumer facing. In keeping with the Magnuson-Stevens Act authority (under which the regulatory program has been promulgated) and the strict information security of the ITDS–the information collected under this program is confidential.
The importer of record will be required to keep records regarding the chain of custody of the fish or fish product from harvest to point of entry into U.S.
*On April 23, 2018, NOAA lifted the stay on shrimp and abalone in SIMP. By December 31, 2018, it will be mandatory for foreign shrimp products to be accompanied by harvest and landing data and for importers to maintain chain of custody records for shrimp and abalone imports entering the U.S. Learn more.
Additional Information
January 1, 2018 is the mandatory compliance date for most priority species listed in the rule. *Shrimp and abalone compliance will be mandatory by December 31, 2018.
NOAA Fisheries initially adopted an “informed compliance” approach to its implementation of SIMP – which ended on April 9, 2018. Learn more.
NOAA Fisheries has announced a proposed rule to establish a voluntary Commerce Trusted Trader Program for U.S. importers –a valuable complement to the U.S. Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP).