Ocean Strategies is a public affairs firm specializing in seafood, fisheries and marine resources.
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Seafood’s Opportunities in the Years Ahead
It’s impossible to ignore that 2024 has been enormously challenging for the seafood industry. But in every setback there are opportunities, and I’m optimistic that 2025 will bring some big ones. Yes the realities are tough: geopolitics and market disruptions threaten prices, industry consolidation has decreased competitiveness, and changing ocean conditions continue to complicate management and pose challenges for fishing communities. But 2024 also highlighted solutions the industry is rallying around, and I see a strong foundation for growth ahead as well as opportunity to vision and build the industries and communities we want to become.
At Ocean Strategies, we are proud to advise, represent and report to a national audience. Our growing readership of nearly 5,000 seafood professionals — including fishermen, seafood growers and policy wonks — is a testament to the industry’s desire for active involvement and a forward-looking mindset. This community’s dedication to staying informed and connected shows that as a collective we are not only weathering the storm but also positioning the American seafood sector for success.
Investing in American Jobs and Coastal Infrastructure
The strength of the seafood industry lies not just in its products but in its people. As we look ahead, it’s clear that workforce development and coastal infrastructure will be key to building a competitive U.S. seafood sector. These are the port services, docks, marine trades, processing facilities, cold chain facilities, and other tangible waterfront assets
that get seafood into the food system and economy. They are also critical to coastal community resilience far beyond their commercial enterprises. While state and national programs like Sea Grant are vital, they must be complemented by targeted, local investments in job training, infrastructure improvements, and economic resilience for fishing communities.
During a recent workforce development panel at Pacific Marine Expo, fishing community members representing every domestic coastline spoke to their local initiatives to develop new talent and strengthen coastal economies. I saw many new faces walking the Expo halls, including fishermen from the Gulf of Mexico and California. I saw shellfish and seaweed farmers and maritime innovation businesses talking shop, comparing notes and deepening relationships within our shared seafood sector. These investments in people and infrastructure help strengthen American coastal economies and community systems, in seafood and beyond.
The Farm Bill: A Critical Opportunity for the Seafood Industry
Seafood’s inclusion within both the House and Senate versions of the Farm Bill is one of the most important legislative opportunities for the seafood industry. A unified sign-on letter from hundreds across the industry sent a clear message to lawmakers: American seafood is essential to our economy and food security, and U.S. seafood producers are unified in requesting support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For more background on the Farm Bill — and why a better name is the Food and Farm Bill — read our analysis here.
It’s important to remember that both chambers have not reconciled, nor passed a Farm Bill reauthorization. Meaning, we have a lot of work to ensure the gains we’ve made are passed into law, hopefully in 2025. But the progress made in 2024 has been considerable, and consistent, clear and unified messaging across all sectors of the seafood industry will keep that moving forward. Here are the key provisions within the Senate’s 2024 Farm Bill that will help level the playing field for American seafood producers, wild-capture and aquaculture alike:
- A seafood liaison at the USDA to advocate for the needs of fishing businesses.
- Expanding access to agricultural credit programs for seafood processors, providing U.S. businesses with the same financial resources available to agricultural producers.
- “Buy American” language in federal nutrition programs, ensuring that U.S. seafood is prioritized.
- Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) for processed crab and salmon, which will promote transparency and strengthen consumer trust in American products.
- Support for developing seafood processing in coastal communities, bolstering local economies and infrastructure.
These provisions reflect a growing recognition that the U.S. seafood industry is essential to our national food security. As Noah Oppenheim of the Fishing Communities Coalition explains, “Like their terrestrial agriculture counterparts, seafood producers need support in order to thrive in today’s economy. The seafood provisions in this framework will go a long way toward helping our communities rebuild after catastrophic storm losses and ensuring a future for our working waterfronts. We deeply appreciate Ranking Member Boozman’s support for fishing communities in his framework and his team’s hard work at the Agriculture Committee.” The Farm Bill is a crucial piece of the seafood puzzle, and it’s clear that bipartisan support for the unique challenges of our domestic industry is growing. We need to keep the momentum up.
*At the time of publication, it appears there will be a one year Farm Bill extension (through September 2025) and an additional $31 billions for disaster support to farmers. Aquaculture may be eligible for this funding and support in some states. However, these provisions are tied to a larger legislative package – a CR – that will continue to fund the government through mid-March. The fate of the entire bill remains to be seen and Congress has until December 20th to finalize the details.
A Supremely Steady Hand
Earlier this year Sea Pact leadership penned an op-ed in response to a recent Supreme Court decision that overturned the Chevron deference, a precedent that gave regulatory agencies like NMFS broad interpretation powers. Sea Pact’s leadership urges industry and regulators to keep a steady hand to the fundamentals of responsible fishery management. While opinions on this ruling are mixed, we cannot let this shift in regulatory processes derail the industry’s efforts to improve monitoring and compliance in fisheries.
What Sea Pact and other leaders in the industry emphasize is the importance of the underlying issue: the U.S. needs well-managed fisheries to support coastal economies, improve food security, and preserve the ecological health of our waters. This is not about reacting to crises but rather building resilient systems for the long term. It’s the kind of forward-looking leadership that gives me faith in the opportunities and growth ahead of us.
Looking Ahead: A Bright Future for American Seafood
As we leave 2024 behind, I remain optimistic about the opportunities that 2025 may offer. The industry has faced many hurdles this year, but the unity, leadership, and focus on the American workforce, food production and fishery management give me confidence that the U.S. seafood sector is poised for growth. Let’s continue to build on our strengths — our people, our businesses, and our commitment to supporting coastal communities.
Trends of 2024… and beyond!
The covid era — for better and worse — highlighted weaknesses in the global supply chain. Post-lockdown era, we’re seeing established trends in unreliable consumption of seafood, production woes and policy roadblocks. But the bright side of the same coin is recovery funds that many forward-thinking industry leaders, organizations and fishing communities are using to strengthen, stabilize and upgrade some components of the seafood industry that we *do* have some control over — namely infrastructure and training.
Production Woes
Two years into a trend of consolidation, shutdowns and fat-trimming among domestic producers, there’s no ignoring that this sector is in a tenuous position at best.
Climatic shifts, management errors, data lapses and/or gaps, and fishery biomass gluts and glitches, all have contributed to instability in our domestic seafood supply, and the buck gets passed to processors who have to staff and equip for the raw product that’s coming in (or manage expenses when it’s not coming in) and also find market streams for whatever product they are able to turn out. Meanwhile, the overall health of global supply chains is still middling following covid disruptions and the market effects of international politics.
Although global access literally opens the world to consumers and offers opportunities to market premium American products to choosy buyers in any locale, it has also had the effect of amplifying inequities and creating a fast-flowing stream for cheaper products with more lax restrictions compared with fleets that prioritize safe working environments, humane working conditions, a sustainable product and minimal climate impacts.
Consumer Flux
Inflation, another factor of the post-covid economic rebound effect, has also made consumers price-wary, which affects premium, sustainable products first.
To top it off, despite our best industry efforts, consumers are still confused and intimidated by seafood, especially wild 
products — the range in the category, the varying measures of quality, prices, and of course the fluctuation in supply.
The uptick in seafood consumption during lockdown did, however, seem to translate to more people cooking at home, according to FMI’s The Power of Seafood report. It also resulted in a slightly downward trend of consumers eating seafood in restaurants.
As we head into 2025 and a new administration, inflation is easing into normal territory, which could bode well for seafood sales for price-wary shoppers. Industry leaders are concerned about the threat of tariffs as promised by the incoming Trump administration, which could upset the apple cart (see our news links below for more).
Congressional Roadblocks + Avenues
On the policy side, a gridlocked Congress has moved very little legislation forward outside of omnibus packages, so the Magnuson-Stevens Act awaits another session as we close in on 20 years since its last reauthorization in 2006.
Funds from the Inflation Reduction Act have been driving momentum with investment in shoreside infrastructure as well as the road-, air- and waterways that connect our ports to the rest of the supply chain. Extreme weather events on our coasts have also highlighted a need to shore up critical seafood and fisheries infrastructure.
The next best hope is the Farm Bill, which seems likely to be punted into the next session and could well include new access points for fisheries and aquaculture.
The status of the Farm Bill remains a hot topic on the Hill — now in a lame-duck session between the election and inauguration.
Hope springs eternal for aid to commercial fishing communities. (See our Special Report on the Senate Republican markup for the Farm Bill that included a laundry list of requests from the fishing industry.)
Similar to the Magnuson-Stevens Act (which is ideally reauthorized at least every decade but is currently operating from its 2006 reauthorization) the Farm Bill is supposed to be reauthorized on a five-year cycle. However, the current iteration of the bill was last overhauled in 2018 and since then has been punted to future congressional cycles without significant changes.
At the time of publication, it appears there will be a one year Farm Bill extension (through September 2025) and an additional $31 billion for disaster support to farmers. Aquaculture may be eligible for this funding and support in some states. However, these provisions are tied to a larger legislative package – a CR – that will continue to fund the government through mid-March. The fate of the entire bill remains to be seen and Congress has until December 20th to finalize the details.
Integrating seafood into national efforts to support our domestic food systems could create a much-needed shift — both in public perception and in funding opportunities. At Pacific Marine Expo this year, a panel discussion on fisheries and seafood inclusions in the Farm Bill highlighted University of Maine Professor Josh Stoll’s research into USDA grants over the last six years.
“In any given year, the USDA distributes around $31 billion in grants,” said Stoll, who also co-founded Local Catch Network. “Seafood-related grants make up only 0.5 percent of the total. Of that, 80 percent goes to aquaculture.”
That small fraction is more likely a result of the seafood industry’s lack of connection to USDA practices and policies, rather than a lack of agency interest in funding seafood projects. Andrea Tomlinson, who founded the New England Young Fishermen’s Alliance, was able to get a USDA grant with help from Local Catch Network.
“We worked with USDA case managers who were very clear, ‘We have the money. Let us teach you how to get it,’” Tomlinson said. “The key is to translate your fisheries language into USDA language.”
Linda Behnken, executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, used USDA grant funding to build Alaskans Own, a community-supported fishery that connects local consumers with local and sustainably caught seafood.
“With the support of this grant, we’ve provided 650,000 seafood meals across Alaska,” Behnken said. “We’re building a system that keeps Alaska seafood in Alaska and addresses the growing demand for local food.”
While success stories like those of Tomlinson and Behnken offer new slivers of hope for funding community-based seafood projects and systems, the lift required to establish these programs is just the beginning.
“Grants like these have helped us make great strides, but it will take more to create a lasting, sustainable system,” Behnken said.
News Thread
- The Environmental Defense Fund has recently released a Best Practices for a Just, Equitable & Climate-Resilient Fisheries Report following an April 2024 workshop for fishery practitioners to explore the intersections between equity and environmental justice, and climate change impacts on fisheries.
- Yet another reason to connect big money with big ideas. Check out this recent Seafood Source article outlining why NGOs caution that a shift in perspective is needed to secure an increase in seafood investments that target ecological and social outcomes as guiding factors alongside financial returns.
- Indeed, everybody is talking about tariffs this season. Learn more about how the seafood industry looks at the incoming administration and potential trade overhauls.
- Two articles highlighting takeaways from the Pacific Marine Expo this year. We’re still feeling proud of our workforce development panel captured in this Building the Next Generation of Commercial Fishermen article, while Bri Dwyer’s summary of the event nailed our sentiments exactly.
- And if you missed it, check out this National Fisherman article on the National Future Fishermen Coalition, a new workforce development initiative formed by a group of community-driven fishing organizations that are prioritizing access to and training for work in America’s fishing fleets.
What We’re Taking In
Highlighting
We plan to keep talking Waterfronts and Workforce Development in 2025. You can find us at these events, where we’ll host panel discussions featuring the fantastic work being done in this space nationwide.
- National Working Waterfronts Network Conference: San Diego, February 4-6
- Seafood Expo North America: Boston, March 16-18
Listening
Check out these incredible additions to the listener’s palette.
- The Alaska Trust Seabank Chronicles Podcast – highlighted as a “7 minute audio portal to science and mystery in Southeast Alaska”.
- On My Coast episode – a conversation with Sabra Comet, Indigenous Knowledge Holder and Coastal Training Program Coordinator, South Slough Reserve
- Talk of the Rock Coastal Climate Radio Series – we enjoyed the first two of a four part series where hosts discuss climate change adaptation in Gulf of Alaska fisheries, and communities.
Reading
A quick review of a new cookbook from the Southeast that celebrates foodways and waterways from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, spotlighting people and businesses promoting ocean health and responsible seafood sourcing.
Cooking
A December Tradition
Feast of the Seven fishes options for this Italian-American tradition. How can you possibly choose just SEVEN?
Gifting
What December newsletter would be complete without a proper nod to the season?
- Alaska gift guide from Salmon Sisters – for last minute gifting.
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We’re also drooling over these Maine the Way 2025 calendars – and of course their seasonal periodicals.
Events
- December 21 deadline – Social responsibility tool seeks public feedback.
- January 27-31, 2025 – Kodiak Area Marine Science Symposium, Kodiak, Alaska
- February 4-6 – National Working Waterfront Network Conference, San Diego, Calif.
- March 16-18 – Seafood Expo, Boston, Massachusetts
- April 15-17 – Comfish Alaska, Kodiak, Alaska
- April 23 deadline Young Fishermen’s Career Development Projects applications due.
- May 6-8 – Seafood Expo Global, Barcelona, Spain
Here is a list of links to our most recent policy reports. You are always able to find them on our Ocean Pulse Blog. If you’d like to receive them directly, just sign up here.
