Published July 2, 2026
President Donald Trump’s administration is reducing commercial fishing regulations from coast to coast, including restarting scallop fishing in New England waters, which had been banned due to overfishing.
“We’re opening up the Atlantic and the Pacific, and American consumers are going to benefit from what we’re doing now,” White House adviser Peter Navarro said in a briefing with reporters Thursday.
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The U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced the government’s regional priorities aimed at revitalizing the seafood sector.
In a post on Truth Social, President Trump said he would proclaim National Scallop Day to celebrate NOAA’s actions.
He continued, “I opened up our oceans, rivers, lakes, and oceans to fishermen, freeing them from the ridiculous environmental regulations that allowed other countries to use our waters under Barack Hussein Obuma, Sleepy Joe Biden, and the Democrats. I’m honored to be able to do that because I’m a friend of fishermen. Go vote Republican in the midterm elections. If the communists come in, you’ll never be able to fish again!”
It was not clear how NOAA planned to implement these priorities or how long it would take given their scope.
The move follows Trump’s April 2025 executive order, which directed the Commerce Department to ease regulations and aims to increase domestic seafood production by opening marine monuments to commercial fishing. Marine monuments are designated to protect marine environmental areas. They are managed by NOAA and other partners.
“The goal was very simple: We need to protect our nation’s fisheries, promote productive harvest of our resources, and support our great American fishermen,” said a senior administration official.
Access to scallop fishing
Navarro said the desire to ease restrictions on scallop fishing stemmed from a meeting in the Oval Office between Trump and scallop fishermen who were unhappy that they weren’t allowed to fish in parts of Georges Bank.
George’s Bank is an area between Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA, and Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. Scallop fishing is prohibited in the northern reaches of the waters off New England.
“We’re going to solve the problem in an environmentally sensitive and conservation-friendly way. It’s going to be done in a systematic way,” Navarro said.
The process will include input from the New England Fishery Management Council, he said.
Authorities closed most of George’s Bank fishing grounds in 1994. According to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, a National Marine Fisheries Service assessment of George’s Bank’s cod stock in the same year concluded that it had declined by 40 percent in four years, and that the fishing fleet was about twice the size that George’s Bank could sustain.
In 2024, the New England Fishery Management Council voted not to reopen these fishing grounds, which are also spawning grounds for Atlantic cod, to protect the long-term productivity of scallops.
Spokesman Alexander Dunn said the council had discussed restarting work to consider scallop fishing at the north end of George’s Bank, but decided not to make it a priority for 2026. He said the issue could be taken up again at the September meeting.
According to the museum, Georges Bank is part of a series of submerged plateaus that were rich fishing grounds until large-scale overfishing pushed some fish populations to the brink of extinction.
Other NOAA priorities include assessing limits, permitting policies, liability measures, boundaries and resource definitions along the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts.
America’s $320 billion fishing industry relies on NOAA to manage coastal fisheries. NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, in consultation with federal scientists and local fishermen, develops management plans for 45 fisheries, determines the opening and closing of fishing seasons, and sets quotas.
