Fishermen in New England are calling on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to rethink federal regulations that they say pose an “existential threat” to their communities, according to a letter shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) sent the letter to DOGE Wednesday outlining the “unnecessary bloat” of federal regulations that are “destroying the fishing industry.” The group urged DOGE to begin the process of deregulating the industry by reallocating National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries’ funds currently used to “destroy” the industry by placing regulations that have benefitted “foreign competitors” to instead go to “supporting and marketing” the fishing industry.
“Fishing is one of the most dangerous and challenging trades in existence, but it is an invaluable source of food and commerce,” the letter reads. “Overregulation by climate-focused, ideological bureaucrats is destroying the fishing industry, making it nearly impossible for working-class fishermen to make a living.”
The letter follows an April 9 executive order signed by President Donald Trump to “revitalize U.S. maritime industries” and “review ways to improve competition within the private sector.” The president said in the order that the industry had been “weakened by decades of government neglect” and vowed to prioritize its restoration.
Founded in 2023, NEFSA represents hundreds of members with the shared goal of “fighting to save the American commercial fishing heritage and to preserve the opportunity for future generations to work in the fisheries providing fresh, wild-caught, protein-rich, sustainable seafood to the nation.” according to its website.
In its letter, the group specifically called on DOGE to “investigate” and “reallocate NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] funding to support the fishing industry” through subsidies for ship modernization as well as advertising fish consumption, which the group says “aligns” with the administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement.
“Given the NOAA accounts for over half of Commerce’s budget, it is undoubtedly a ripe target for further investigation by DOGE,” the letter reads. “Indeed, DOGE was established for this very purpose — to target federal government inefficiencies that often manifest themselves as overreach.”
The letter further calls for the “elimination” of the NOAA’S Office for Coastal Management (OCM), arguing that it has been “effectively captured by environmentalist groups,” resulting in the oversupply of protected areas that prohibit fishing entirely.
The group points to over regulation as a burden on the industry, which notably increased under the Biden administration. During former President Joe Biden’s term, the NOAA proposed and expanded restricted fishing areas in New England. The administration also increased federal restrictions on allowable catches and lobster robe, though there was a seafood trade imbalance to the tune of $20.3 billion in 2023. Seafood exports from the U.S. also dropped substantially, roughly 23%, from 1995 to 2023, according to the Economic Research Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Meanwhile, the U.S. has begun to import much of its seafood from China, according to an analysis from Oceana which also found that “Americans are eating seafood from countries with a history of illegal fishing and human rights violations at sea.”
“Foreign fishers are reaping the rewards and benefiting from high demand in the United States,” the letter continues. “This trade imbalance is precisely the type of issue that President Trump has a mandate to fight.”
NEFSA’s letter also references reports that the U.S. fishing industry’s revenue dropped by a compound annual rate of 3.5% over the past five years totaling $5.9 billion, despite increasing demand for seafood. The group argues that imports from “foreign competition” serve to “fill the gap,” which is “precisely that type of issue that DOGE was designed to tackle,” in the letter.
“We feel that fishermen know how to catch a fish. They are very good at it. That is what they do. That’s what they’ve been doing since they can walk, most of them,” Dustin Delano, a fourth-generation Maine lobsterman and NEFSA’s chief operating officer told the DCNF.
Commercial fishing is a huge part of New England’s maritime heritage.
NEFSA is proud to protect this way of life for generations to come! pic.twitter.com/LSSiRXnTcn
— NE Fishermen’s Stewardship Assoc. (@fishstewardship) February 20, 2025
“It feels like we haven’t been listened to for decades,” Delano added. “It feels like when we provide comments, we show up to meetings, but the decisions are already made, and essentially we are just answering to bureaucrats that have gone rogue. They have their own personal agendas and climate initiatives that they put over us.”
The letter further references how other regulatory bodies in Canada, Iceland and Norway “protect fisheries and boost exports,” while it singles out the U.S. for being “wholly captured by environmental interests.”
NOAA has implemented policies based on “inaccurate assumptions” that lobster fisheries harm endangered whale species, which caused a “detriment” to the industry, according to the letter.
“We feel quite strongly that a lot of the actions taken over recent years have essentially catered to climate change type regulations rather than actual fisheries management. We would like to reign things back in,” Delano said. “We want to see some balanced reforms that support all of these sustainability measures, while also safeguarding our livelihoods and also food security for people.”
Delano added that many fishermen have proven themselves to be effective self-regulators in order to respect and protect the environment, such as size limits, escape vents and protecting female lobsters.
The letter also calls for reform to the Maritime Safety Administration, which the letter said “began with a worthy goal” to protect “American enterprise from foreign encroachment — the federal takeover of fishing regulation has resulted in the growth of a leviathan bureaucracy that is now doing just the opposite,” the letter continues.
Commercial fishing has been the backbone of our coastal towns for generations.
Today, government regulation threatens this way of life, but as long as NEFSA exists, we will continue to #FightSalty to protect commercial fishing. pic.twitter.com/5ixb6pLoSe
— NE Fishermen’s Stewardship Assoc. (@fishstewardship) January 8, 2025
“Climate-change hysteria has resulted in the establishment of projects detrimental to [the] U.S. fishing industry by the NOAA,” the letter reads.
Delano further called attention to the several offshore wind projects in New England, which were also championed under the Biden administration.
“It’s impossible to have offshore wind and do commercial fishing in the same area,” Delano said, and referenced a memory in which a fisherman from the UK told him to “fight like hell” against the expansion of offshore wind. “We’ve been extremely fearful up here in New England for offshore wind development.”
Delano noted that the fisheries are looking to this new administration as “potentially a friendly atmosphere” to try and accomplish their goals to “allow access to an extremely sustainable fishery.”
“I think that most fishermen are going to be some of the most environmentally conscious people that you’ll see,” Ed Wenger, NEFSA’s outside counsel told the DCNF. “They understand the importance of our natural resources.”
Wenger said that these changes will “make the fisheries themselves more lucrative and make sure that they continue to feed the American families from coast to coast.”
The White House, NOAA and the MSA did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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