The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation unanimously passed a seafood bill on April 30 to fight illegal fishing. The legislation would rely on efforts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which Sen. Dan Sullivan said is already struggling to complete key fisheries surveys.
Sullivan co-sponsored the Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvest, or FISH, Act with seven other senators, including Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Sullivan said he hopes it will help fight unfair trade practices and give a boost to Alaska’s fishing industry.
Sullivan said the act takes aim at foreign illegal, unreported and unregulated, or IUU, fishing.
“It would blacklist foreign vessels and owners that have engaged in IUU fishing — it’s mostly Chinese,” Sullivan said. “And it would provide much more enforcement with regard to our Coast Guard's ability to increase at-sea inspections.”
Any blacklisted vessels would be prohibited from accessing U.S. ports, traveling through U.S. territorial seas, except in accordance with customary international law, making deliveries in U.S. waters, or receiving services from American vessels.
According to Sullivan, the U.S. Coast Guard would largely be responsible for the enforcement of IUU fishing violations. Still, NOAA would be required to build and maintain the “blacklist” of vessels.
At a separate Commerce Committee hearing the following day, Sullivan pushed for the Deputy Secretary of Commerce nominee Paul Dabbar to give government signoff for key fisheries surveys. He told Dabbar that while the Biden Administration was given increased funding for NOAA, they missed out on the “blocking and tackling” of their job, failing to complete stock assessment surveys.
“You guys came in, ‘Hey, we're not going to be like Biden,’” Sullivan told Dabbar at the confirmation hearing. “But you're not — I'm getting really worried that you guys aren't doing this either. When you don't do stock assessment surveys, you know what happens? My fishermen can't fish.”
He pushed Dabbar to make sure a contract was signed with the Oscar Dyson — a research vessel from Kodiak — so that it can head out to perform important fish stock surveys.
“I kind of was kicking him in the rear a little bit,” Sullivan told KUCB after attending the nomination hearing for Dabbar. “His staff was watching. And I'm saying, ‘Go do your job.’”
According to a spokesperson with Sullivan’s office, the Commerce Department approved the contract for the Oscar Dyson to undergo scheduled maintenance. They say it should ensure that future surveys are not delayed.
Sullivan said he told the Trump Administration that NOAA needs the staff and funding to complete those surveying tasks.
“The federal government has two responsibilities: one is to do the surveys and one is to make sure they have the regulatory approvals to open fisheries,” Sullivan said. “That's not a lot to ask.”
However, it could be with proposed funding cuts to NOAA. And NOAA would play a major role in enacting Sullivan’s FISH Act.
But Sullivan said more funding doesn’t necessarily generate a more productive outcome.
“Even when you give a federal government, in this case, the Biden administration additional funding, that doesn't mean they're doing the blocking and tackling of what NOAA is supposed to do — and that is basic fish surveys, species surveys, data surveys — so our fishermen can go fish,” he said.
A large chunk of the Trump Administration’s proposed funding cuts would take aim at climate-dominated research and grant programs. That wouldn’t necessarily affect any stock assessments. However, the National Marine Fisheries Service — also referred to as NOAA Fisheries — is responsible for the management, conservation and protection of marine resources off the U.S. coast. They predict fish stock status, set catch limits and ensure compliance with fisheries regulations. NMFS is facing a possible cut of around 30% to its operational and personnel budget.
Similarly, climate-based research helps scientists and fisheries regulators make educated and sustainable decisions for Alaska’s fisheries.
Sullivan said while the key is to do the surveys, “We need to look at all components of the science, including what climate change has done with regard to our fisheries.”
He said the government has a duty to allow fishermen to fish, under any administration. And at the moment, he is focused on making sure legislation helps fight unfair foreign trade practices, like forced labor and threats to maritime security.
“What I've been trying to do is encourage this administration, the last administration, through executive action and through my legislation to go on offense, to protect our fishermen — fishing communities like Unalaska — and enable them to have stronger markets in America, stronger prices, and not to have to compete against fishing fleets that have practices that are unfair,” Sullivan said.
Among Alaska industry partners, though, there is a more pressing concern right now about how tariffs might directly affect things like dock prices. Sullivan didn’t have an answer for how the tariffs might hit the state’s fishing industry. He says the ultimate goal of the Trump Administration’s threat to increase tariffs is to see them reduced.
“They are undertaking trade negotiations to actually — that will hopefully have the end result of not retaliation, but lower tariffs across the board that will actually help our seafood industry,” Sullivan said.
A large amount of the state’s seafood is processed overseas. Sullivan said the majority of that should be protected from any retaliatory tariffs.
“For Alaskan seafood exporters, when they are catching fish and then that's getting processed overseas, there's an exclusion of 20% or more of a product from tariffs if 20% of the more that product is domestic and was sent overseas for processing,” he said.
Customs and Border Protection has excluded products from reciprocal tariffs as long as they meet that 20% limit for U.S.-originating product.
While Sullivan’s Fish Act has been unanimously approved by the Commerce Committee, it will have to be heard on the House and Senate floors before heading to the President’s desk to be signed into law.
