Jimmy Buchan became a household name in the mid-2000s as one of the stars of Trawlermen, the hard-hitting BBC documentary that offered a rare glimpse into life aboard the North Sea’s fishing fleet. As viewers watched him battle fierce storms in search of the perfect catch, Jimmy became, for many, the face of Scottish fishing, much loved for his grit and good humour. But long before the cameras rolled, and long after they stopped, Jimmy was a mainstay of Peterhead: the skipper of his own trawler, a familiar figure in Europe’s largest whitefish port, and a lifelong advocate of the industry he entered at just 14 years old. Today, at 64, he’s still immersed in the trade, though no longer at sea. Jimmy now runs Amity Fish Company, a quayside business supplying premium Scottish seafood to customers across the UK and internationally. It’s a different kind of challenge, he admits, but for a man who spent his life chasing the next catch, the competitive instinct remains sharp. Photos, 
Mud dumping in Mobile Bay is impacting fishermen and their quality of life, according to the Alabama Commercial Fishermen Association. The dumping is from the Port of Mobile deepening and widening project to allow larger ships into the channel. Alabama Commercial Fishermen Association secretary Alabama Commercial Fishermen Association said the dumping is impacting the shrimping and oyster business. She said shrimpers cannot drag the bottom in the areas of Mobile Bay where the mud is being discharged. “This is experimental, open disbursement that they’re doing in the Bay,” she continued. “It’s never been done before anywhere. This much material has never been released anywhere, and it’s really scary for us in the fishing industry.” Video, 
The agency’s climate and oceanic research supports the U.S. Navy’s operations and even the commercial fishing industry – described during the forum as having “a love-hate relationship” with the agency – depends on NOAA to open and close fisheries, the lawmakers and experts said. The group of Democrats, who met without involvement of the committee’s Republican majority, said the cuts would hurt a wide range of Americans who depend on the agency’s data collection and rulemaking. Magaziner was the one who called the commercial fishing industry’s connection with NOAA “a love-hate relationship,” but he and witnesses noted that the agency oversees the most basic functions the industry needs to operate. Sarah Schumann, a fisherman with operations in Rhode Island and Alaska, criticized President Joe Biden’s administration for allying too strongly with offshore wind developers, but said the new administration’s actions were also detrimental to the industry. 
Commercial fishing is a tiny contributor to the UK economy. In 2023, UK vessels landed approximately 719,000 tonnes of sea fish with a value of £1.1 billion. It amounts to around 0.03% of total economic output and around 5% of the broader agriculture, forestry and fishing sector. Compare this with UK offshore wind, with its 15 GW of installed capacity and current GVA per GW installed of around £1.8 billion and rising. David is small, semi-nomadic and works across a vast sea area; Goliath is massive and growing rapidly. Whilst Big Wind occupies clearly defined areas, it overlaps massively into traditional fishing grounds and is becoming a major UK employer. The fishing industry eventually learned to live with Big Oil, which is now on the wane, but living with territory-guzzling offshore wind farms – fixed and floating – may prove a lot more challenging. Fishing feels threatened. 
To avoid high insurance costs, some groups of commercial fishers in Alaska have formed cooperatives to collectively pay liability and damage claims themselves. A bill passed April 25 by the Alaska House of Representatives would exempt these cooperatives from regulation under the state’s insurance laws. The House voted 37-0 to pass House Bill 116, which now goes to the Senate for consideration. The bill was carried on the House floor by Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, but came from the ideas of a legislative task force assigned to study the commercial fishing industry, she told the House. Links, 
Before the environmentalists and fearmongers in the press get their oil skins, jumpers and mesh undies in a bind over President Donald Trump’s executive order concerning the fishing industry, they need to catch their collective breath and slowly exhale. First of all, read the damn thing! The Associated Press says, “The order represents a dramatic shift in federal policy on fishing in U.S. waters by prioritizing commercial fishing interests over efforts to allow the fish supply to increase.” That is fake news. The executive order calls for the Secretary of Commerce to immediately consider suspending, revising, or rescinding regulations that overburden America’s commercial fishing, aquaculture, and fish processing industries. Links, 
The New England Young Fishermen’s Alliance (NEYFA) is proud to launch its fourth annual Deckhand to Captain Training Program, beginning April 16, 2025. 
Many Maine fishermen are applauding a new executive order from President Trump, which calls on the federal government to identify and roll back regulations that are overly burdensome to the commercial fishing industry. The order signals that the Trump administration wants to listen to commercial harvesters and involve them in decision-making and research, said Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association. Jerry Leeman, CEO of the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association, described the order as a “long time coming.” Many of his members have long questioned the data that federal fisheries regulators use to conduct stock assessments and set stock limits. 
For many people, when Dungeness crab is on the menu, it’s a go-to in Oregon. It’s a savory treat that fuels a multi-million dollar a year industry in the state. “If I could, I’d eat it every day,” said Jared Reeves, a crab fisherman out of Coos Bay, whose spent much of his life on a boat, fishing with family. It’s a tradition that not only supports the state economy, but also families up and down the Oregon coast, like Reeves’. According to numbers from the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission, commercial crabbing has over the last decade pulled in an average of more than $68 million a year. Typically, Dungeness crab fishing brings in more money than every other type of fishing in Oregon, said Crystal Adams, the executive director of the commission, which supports and promotes the state’s crabbing industry. Video, 
President Donald Trump’s regulatory freeze has injected chaos and uncertainty into a number of lucrative American fisheries, raising the risk of a delayed start to the fishing season for some East Coast cod and haddock fleets and leading to overfishing of Atlantic bluefin tuna, according to Reuters interviews with industry groups and federal government employees. America’s $320 billion fishing industry relies on a branch of the federal government, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to manage coastal fisheries. Under a 1976 law, NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service develops management plans for 45 fisheries, setting quotas and determining the start and close of fishing seasons, in consultation with federal government scientists and local fishermen. 
The government’s proposed changes to New Zealand’s fisheries management mark the most substantial reforms in decades and have sparked debate over environmental oversight and public transparency. LegaSea, a non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting and restoring the marine environment, is among those rocking the boat to halt the changes. “We are going back to the 80s, it’s neo-liberal behaviour, and if we are not careful, we will kill the goose that lays the golden egg.” The government proposed the changes last month, saying they want to streamline regulations, improve data collection, and enhance sustainability while protecting fishers’ privacy. 
When one turbine on the Vineyard Wind project near Marthas Vineyard began supplying electricity to the grid in January 2024, the project stood as the first step in the Biden administration’s plan to develop 30 gigawatts of offshore wind along America’s coastline by 2030. Since then, the project experienced a blade failure that dumped a football-field sized blade into the ocean and littered the beaches of Nantucket with sharp and toxic debris. Nantucket-based activists ACK 4 Whales sued over the permitting of the project, arguing that the Department of Interior (DOI) wasn’t factoring cumulative impacts into its environmental assessment of the project. Video, 
Facing skeptical and sometimes fiery comments from commercial and recreational fishing interests from Beaufort to the Outer Banks, the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission met at the Hilton Garden Inn in Kitty Hawk on March 12 and 13 for the first quarterly meeting of 2025. It was the first time since November of 2018 that the commission has met on the Outer Banks. More than 30 speakers addressed the commission, consistently calling out what they criticized as questionable science and data and the effect it has had on the commercial fishing industry. “Over-regulation has been the default course, and commercial fishermen have borne the front of it,” Joe Romano, a commercial fisherman from Wilmington told the commission. “We called it a death by a thousand cuts, one rule after another, reducing access, increasing cost, driving more water men out of business. 
Chinese counter tariffs on Canadian seafood will include east coast lobster. Nova Scotian exporters have heard directly from buyers in China that the 25 per cent tariff goes into effect March 20. “For America and China to simultaneously, and for entirely different reasons, target Canadian seafood is incredibly poor luck, and beyond that it is incredibly hard to comprehend,” Stewart Lamont, owner of Tangier Lobster, said on Sunday. Just over 40 per cent of Nova Scotia’s live lobster exports go to China. About 40 per cent of live lobster exports, along with 70 per cent of frozen processed lobster, go to the United States. 
“Mississippi Seafood Labeling Task Force.” The goal is to bring a panel of experts and governing figures to the table,,,
Legislation initially intended to require those selling seafood in Mississippi to be transparent about where the food comes from, has been altered to create a task force to tackle the state’s mislabeling crisis. House Bill 602, which cruised through its chamber without a dissenting vote back in February, was gutted by the Senate before lawmakers in the chamber voted unanimously to advance an amended version of the bill on Thursday. Instead of expanding an existing state law requiring restaurants and others selling certain seafood items to advertise the food’s country of origin, the text now creates the “Mississippi Seafood Labeling Task Force.” more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 14:07
Like everyone, Nova Scotia’s fishing industry has been trying to parse what U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs will mean for them. “It’s too early to know yet,” said Geoff Irvine, executive director of the Lobster Council of Canada. There is little lobster coming ashore right now, which buys the industry time to hope for a resolution that sees the 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian products heading south dropped. Fishing will pick up later this month off southwest Nova Scotia as waters warm, and then in April seasons will start opening from Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island to Nova Scotia, with massive quantities of crustaceans coming over wharves throughout the region by May 1. 
Newfoundland and Labrador’s fishing industry is preparing for life with heavy economic tariffs in place. Fisheries Minister Gerry Byrne is calling this moment the biggest challenge to the industry since the 1992 cod moratorium. “Never since the 1992 moratorium has such a challenge been put before us,” Byrne told reporters on Tuesday. “While all sectors of the economy are affected by our ally’s betrayal, none more so than our fishery.” Ninety-six per cent of snow crab harvested in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2024 was shipped and sold to the United States. But Byrne says it’s unlikely the U.S. market is avoided entirely, and it will likely come down to what markets are willing to pay. “I have absolutely no doubt that even with a 25 per cent tariff, we can indeed sell to the United States. Buyers will buy, consumers will consume, it’s a question of the details,” he said. “U.S. consumers love Newfoundland and Labrador’s snow crab.” Video, 
Three herring fishermen from Cape May fought the law all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and won. In doing so, the three men overturned the 40-year-old U.S. Supreme Court, thus making it easier for them and others to challenge federal regulations in court. But their battle is not over. The fishermen are challenging what they say is an unlawful requirement that forces them to surrender 20% of their earnings to pay at-sea monitors, who gather information that is used to regulate their industry. That worked out to as much as $700 a day, which is more pay than the crews take home sometimes. The requirement was imposed on them by an executive branch agency — in this case the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, which oversees the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which in turn regulates the nation’s fisheries. The at-sea monitors were never approved by Congress, but due to the so-called Chevron deference, the fishermen were handicapped to fight the rule, because the courts always deferred to the regulatory agencies. 
So much sand built up in Montauk Inlet that commercial fishing boats bumped the bottom, ran aground, some large trawlers were forced to dock in Rhode Island, and surfers rode waves crashing over the shoals. It was dire straits for the largest commercial fishing port in New York State until a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ dredge ship that arrived over Valentines Day weekend began the emergency project to make the inlet safely passable again. The arrival came two weeks after the agency secured funding for the project and surveyed the inlet to verify reports that shoaling made for dangerously shallow waters in parts of the inlet, especially at low tide. 
The 50th edition of the Maine Fishermen’s Forum begins on Thursday, Feb. 27, with seminars on shellfish, green crabs and rockweed, and wraps up on Saturday night, March 1, with its annual closing banquet and dance party. During the three-day event, fishermen, seafood dealers, ocean scientists and representatives from state, federal and nonprofit marine organizations convene to discuss all aspects of Maine’s fishing industry at the Samoset Resort and Event Center in Rockport. The seminars are free and open to the public, as is a marine trade show that spreads out over two floors of the center. “We have over 120 exhibitors offering everything from engines to bank loans, survival gear, electronics, clothing, bait and more,” organizers said. 
In the first conversation Grant Fishbook had with Andy Vitaljic more than a decade ago, Andy surprised the Christ the King Community Church pastor by saying he wanted his tombstone to read, “Andy fed the hungry.” The third-generation Croatian fisherman, who built a commercial seafood empire in Whatcom County and died at the age of 91 in September 2024, got his wish. Andy may be best remembered for his tireless efforts to help people in need, and his mausoleum inscription reflects that. Fishbook said Andy was one of the most generous humans he’d ever met — a compliment that extends to his widow, Erin. “The Vitaljics have their names attached to all kinds of humanitarian organizations around the county,” he said. “Andy was the brain and heart and passion and Erin was the organizer who made sure the ideas actually became real.” Now, Erin is looking for a successor to the empire Andy spent five decades building. 
Federal fishery managers took steps on Tuesday to impose new rules to prevent Alaska chum salmon from being scooped into nets used to catch Bering Sea pollock, an industrial-scale fishery that makes up the nation’s largest single-species commercial seafood harvest. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council advanced a suite of new protections intended to combat the pollock trawlers’ salmon bycatch, the term for the incidental catch of unintended species. Proposed steps in the package include numeric caps on total chum salmon bycatch, with varying allocations for different sectors of the pollock fleet; protective limits in corridors known to be used by salmon migrating through the ocean back to Western Alaska freshwater spawning areas; and provisions that would link new limits in the ocean to real-time salmon counts and conditions in the rivers. 
The federal US Wind Final Environmental Impact Statement concludes on page 135, “U.S. offshore wind projects would likely have a limited impact on global emissions and climate change.” So no impact on sea-level rise. 
The Suffolk County Legislature is considering a bill that, it says, will help commercial fishermen. The bill, now in committee, will allow property owners of commercial fishing businesses to apply for a conservation easement that would restrict future development. The bill was supposed to come to a vote late in 2024 but is now being studied to broaden its scope. The bill did receive positive support at a public hearing in November before the full legislature. Earlier in 2024, Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine signed legislation increasing spending for farmland preservation to $15 million annually. He said the commercial fishing industry needed support as well. According to the legislation, any type of business that contributes to working waterfronts, such as gear storage, aquaculture, docks, boat repairs, could benefit from the pending legislation. 
