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Published on 2 Jul 2026
US President Donald Trump’s administration is cracking down on commercial fishing regulations from coast to coast, including reopening New England waters to fishing that was banned after overfishing.
“We’re opening up the Atlantic and the Pacific, and the American consumer will benefit from what we’re doing now,” White House adviser Peter Navarro said in a press conference Thursday.
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The US Department of Commerce and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have announced requirements in areas that the government said were designed to revive the seafood sector.
In a post on the Truth Social, Trump said he was declaring scallops day to celebrate NOAA’s efforts.
He added: “I have opened the seas, oceans, seas and oceans to our Fishermen, freeing them from the stupid Environmental restrictions that allowed other countries to take advantage of the waters of the United States under Barack Hussein Obuma, Sleepy Joe Biden, and the Dumocrats. BECAUSE COMMUNIST IS IN, YOU CAN’T FISH ANYMORE!”
It was not clear how NOAA planned to implement these requirements or how long it would take, depending on their number.
This follows an April 2025 executive order from Trump seeking to expand seafood production by ordering the Commerce Department to loosen regulations and open up marine fisheries for commercial fishing. Seawalls are installed to protect marine areas. They are managed by NOAA and other partners.
“His mission was simple: We must protect our domestic fisheries, promote profitable harvests for our economy and promote American fishermen,” the executive said.
Finding scallops
The desire to ease restrictions on scallop fishing came from an Oval Office meeting between Trump and scallop fishermen, who complained that they were not allowed to fish in certain areas of Georges Bank, Navarro said.
Georges Bank is an area between Cape Cod in Massachusetts in the US and Cape Sable Island in Nova Scotia in Canada. The northern shores of New England’s coastal waters are infested with scallops.
“We are going to do this in an environmentally friendly way, and in a maintenance way. This is going to be done in an orderly way,” said Navarro.
The process will include input from the New England Fishery Management Council, he said.
Officials closed a large portion of the Georges Bank fishery in 1994. That year, a National Marine Fisheries Service survey of cod on Georges Bank found a 40 percent decline in four years, and concluded that the fishing community was nearly twice the size that Georges Bank could sustain, according to the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
The New England Fishery Management Council voted in 2024 not to reopen the fishery, which is also home to Atlantic cod, to protect the long-term harvest of scallops.
The council discussed resuming work to consider the scallop fishery northwest of Georges Bank, but decided to extend it to its 2026 requirements, said spokesman Alexander Dunn. He said the issue could come up again at his September meeting.
Georges Bank is part of a submerged reef that used to be a rich fishing ground until overfishing led to the extinction of some fish, according to the museum.
Other activities prioritized by NOAA include testing restrictions, permitting procedures, response methods, limits and definitions of properties along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and along the Pacific coast.
America’s $320bn fishing industry relies on NOAA to manage coastal fisheries. NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service develops management plans for 45 fisheries, establishing divisions and determining the opening and closing of fishing seasons, in cooperation with state scientists and local fishermen.
