U.S. fisherman will no longer be getting a raw deal when trying to compete against cheap and questionable seafood from international suppliers under a new initiative announced by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The announcement, made at a boisterous rally Friday with President Donald Trump in Fort Meyers, Florida, included the creation of a voluntary label made for U.S.-caught fish to differentiate them from items often grown in polluted fish farms abroad.
Initiatives also in the works include a new government website, seafood.gov, which is now up and tracking catches, sales, and infrastructure as well as outlining strategies to aid American commercial fisherman.
Kennedy said at the rally that fish caught in the U.S. does not compare with the imports from countries that have few quality and safety controls and can even be toxic.
The secretary cited examples in Vietnam and Cambodia where shrimp farms fence off mangrove swamps and kill the local fish to raise shrimp “loaded with antibiotics” for five years, ultimately destroying the swamp in the process.
“No European country will take them, so they ship them all over here,” Kennedy said. “President Trump is rebuilding the infrastructure, he’s reopening the markets for our commercial fishermen.”
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data shows that in 2023, an estimated 80 percent of fish bought in the U.S. was imported from other countries.
Kennedy said he had been working for “40 years” to help fisherman in New England overcome the restrictions that hamper their output, and finally the government under President Trump is stepping up to help the industry.
The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) issued a statement on X in reaction to Kennedy’s announcement, calling the made in the USA label a “major win” for Americans.
“We believe U.S. seafood is the most sustainably harvested in the world, and this label gives consumers a simple, recognizable way to identify American-caught seafood while supporting our domestic fishing, processing, and retail industries,” NEFSA director of advocacy Jason Joyce said in the statement.
The Hill reported on Friday that “the new fishing initiative comes after the president’s trade war with Canada ruffled feathers with some in the industry.”
The outlet cited the Maine Lobstermen’s Association’s position in August that it feared becoming “collateral damage” because Canada purchases large quantities of lobster from Maine fisheries.
At the rally Kennedy cited the disadvantage Florida fishermen have in a market flooded with imports.
The HHS secretary called the Fort Meyers location “the greatest shrimpery in all of Florida,” drawing cheers and applause from the crowd, but pointed out it “has to compete with criminal enterprises abroad.”
He continued, “Commercial fishermen in this country have the strongest environmental regulations, they have the greatest sustainability regulations, but it puts them at a disadvantage to all the other fishermen in the world.”
The seafood.gov website lays out strategies to overcome the disadvantage, including removing “unnecessary burdens” and restoring “access to productive fishing grounds” as well as upgrading catch limits “on the best and most current science.”
Infrastructure measures cited include elimination of “permitting barriers to private investment in working waterfronts, cold storage, and shoreside facilities.”
Breitbart contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
