American fishermen will no longer be treated unfairly as they compete with cheap and questionable seafood from international suppliers, under a new initiative announced by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The announcement, made by President Donald Trump at a lively rally in Fort Myers, Florida on Friday, includes the creation of a voluntary label for U.S.-caught fish to distinguish it from products often grown in contaminated fish farms abroad.
Ongoing initiatives also include a new government website, seafood.gov, which is now live and tracks catches, sales and infrastructure, and outlines strategies to assist U.S. commercial fishermen.
Kennedy told the rally that fish caught in the United States cannot compare with fish imported from countries with few quality and safety controls and may even be poisonous.
The secretary cited examples in Vietnam and Cambodia, where shrimp farms fenced off mangrove swamps, killed local fish and raised shrimp in an “antibiotic-rich” way for five years, ultimately destroying the swamps in the process.
“No European country would accept them, so they shipped them here,” Kennedy said. “President Trump is rebuilding infrastructure and he is reopening markets for our commercial fishermen.”
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), by 2023, an estimated 80% of fish purchased in the United States will be imported from other countries.
Kennedy said he has been working for “40 years” to help New England fishermen overcome constraints that hinder their production, and finally President Trump’s administration is stepping up to help the industry.
The New England Fishermen Stewardship Association (NEFSA) issued a statement on X in response to Kennedy’s announcement, calling the “Made in the USA” label a “major victory” for Americans.
“We believe U.S. seafood is the most sustainably caught in the world, and this label provides consumers with a simple, identifiable way to identify U.S.-caught seafood while supporting our domestic fisheries, processing and retail industries,” NEFSA communications director Jason Joyce said in a statement.
this HILL “The new fishing plan comes after the president’s trade war with Canada angered some in the industry,” the report said on Friday.
The outlet quoted the Maine Lobster Association’s position in August as saying the association was worried about “collateral damage” due to Canada’s large purchases of lobsters from the Maine fishery.
At the rally, Kennedy noted that Florida fishermen are at a disadvantage in a market flooded with imported goods.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services called the Fort Myers plant “the largest shrimp farm in Florida,” drawing cheers and applause from the crowd, but noted that the plant “must compete with criminal enterprises abroad.”
He continued, “Commercial fishermen in this country have the most stringent environmental regulations, they have the most stringent sustainability regulations, but that puts them at a disadvantage compared to all other fishermen in the world.”
The seafood.gov website lists strategies to overcome this disadvantage, including eliminating “unnecessary burdens,” restoring “access to productive fisheries,” and increasing catch limits “based on the best, latest science.”
Infrastructure measures mentioned include removing “permitting barriers to private investment in seaside, cold storage and onshore facilities”.
Breitbart contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Los Angeles crime novels offline and nine other crime novels and non-fiction novels. look lowellcauffiel.com learn more.