NOAA Fisheries Releases National Seafood Strategy Implementation Plan

By fisheries.noaa.gov.

The plan outlines actions we can take to enhance industry resilience and competitiveness in the face of climate change and other stressors.

NOAA Fisheries released its National Seafood Strategy Implementation Plan (PDF, 14 pages). Our National Seafood Strategy, released in 2023, outlines our direction for supporting the U.S. seafood economy and enhancing the resilience of the seafood sector, including wild-capture and aquaculture, in the face of many challenges. This plan outlines actions we are currently implementing as well as those we can take to support the strategy.

“The Implementation Plan is where the rubber meets the road,” said NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Janet Coit. “It outlines the specific actions to achieve the goals we laid out in the strategy to support our nation’s seafood sector and the benefits it provides.”

The plan focuses on NOAA Fisheries’ industry services, such as the Seafood Inspection ProgramFishery Finance Program and Saltonstall-Kennedy grant program. It also underscores our socio-economic activities—such as seafood market and supply chain analyses—and communications efforts around the sustainability of U.S. seafood. The plan identifies ongoing, new, and aspirational activities, with a focus on those currently within our capacity. Critical to achieving the goals is coordinating with other federal agencies, as well as states, tribes, harvesters and seafood farmers, nongovernmental organizations, and other groups.

“No one entity can do this work alone. To truly achieve a more resilient and competitive seafood sector, we all need to work together.

The National Seafood Strategy and now our Implementation Plan demonstrates what we at NOAA Fisheries can do to reach those goals,” Coit said.

The plan identifies four pilot initiatives around which we will activate and enhance partnerships to tackle cross-cutting issues. These initiatives include efforts to:

  • Bolster industry resilience in the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic shrimp fishery
  • Support revitalization of the Port of Port Orford, Oregon
  • Increase climate resilience in highly migratory species fisheries
  • Support Alaska’s seafood sector resilience
read more at fisheries.noaa.gov.