SSA joins other commercial fishing organizations in asking the Court of International Trade to support MMPA import provisions, while NOAA Fisheries and U.S. seafood importers seek an extension to allow crabmeat imports
A group of eight U.S. commercial fishing organizations, including the Southern Shrimp Alliance, is opposing a lawsuit that would stop enforcement of the import provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA).
SSA joined the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, Alaska Marine Conservation Council, Hawaii Longline Association, Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, New England Young Fishermen’s Alliance, and The Commercial Fisheries Center of Rhode Island in filing an amicus brief today that asks the Court of International Trade (CIT) to reject a case brought by the National Fisheries Institute (NFI), Restaurant Law Center, and eight U.S. seafood importers and distributors. The seafood importers seek to bar the U.S. government from implementing any bans of imports from fisheries that do not meet the MMPA’s standard.
The amicus brief was submitted after the Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Animal Welfare Institute opposed NFI’s request for a preliminary injunction. The environmental organizations’ brief was accompanied by a declaration from the Southern Shrimp Alliance’s Deputy Director, Blake Price.
U.S. importers have become reliant on the U.S. government’s failure to enforce MMPA. Here is what they argued to the Court of International Trade: “But for 50 years, seafood from those fisheries has been crossing the U.S. border and making its way onto American plates, while the government has ignored its directive from Congress. That will change on January 1, 2026, when, as a result of a decade-long administrative process, the government will finally ban imports from fisheries that do not meet the MMPA’s standard. Plaintiffs seek to bar the government from implementing any of those bans . . .”
About MMPA
Since 1972, the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) has required foreign fisheries to meet the same environmental standards as U.S. fisheries to protect dolphins, whales, seals, and other marine mammals. For more than 50 years, the government has only enforced these rules for domestic fishermen—meaning foreign wild-caught shrimp and seafood have been flooding into the U.S. market without meeting these protections.
What Changes on January 1, 2026
NOAA Fisheries will order the prohibition of imports of seafood from 272 commercial fisheries in 46 nations that were denied “comparability findings” by the federal agency. The amicus brief explains why American commercial fishermen need the same standards applied to foreign fisheries as those imposed on U.S. fisheries.
NOAA Fisheries Settles Case
While U.S. commercial fishermen and environmental organizations expressed strong opposition to NFI’s attacks on the implementation of the MMPA’s import provisions, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a “joint stipulation” with the CIT yesterday. In exchange for the dismissal of the lawsuit, NOAA Fisheries agreed to allow imports from five rejected commercial swimming crab fisheries in Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam while the agency “reconsiders” its denial of comparability findings of these fisheries. Four of the five swimming crab commercial fisheries involve the use of gill nets.
Earlier today, the CIT accepted the proposed settlement and dismissed NFI’s lawsuit. NOAA Fisheries’ settlement does not affect the bans on seafood harvested from the other 267 fisheries denied comparability findings, including certain foreign shrimp fisheries, scheduled to go into effect on January 1st.
NOAA Fisheries Chooses Imports Over Domestic Seafood
Over the last 15 years, foreign crabmeat from swimming crab has flooded the United States. In the five-year period between 2009 and 2013, the United States imported an average of 40.9 million pounds of crabmeat from swimming crabs annually. Since then, imports of foreign crab meat have increased by roughly 50%, averaging 59.6 million pounds annually between 2020 and 2024. As shown in the chart below, imported crabmeat now regularly exceeds 60 million pounds a year.
While imports have flooded the market, landings of blue crab in the United States have plummeted to historically low levels. According to NOAA Fisheries, 113.7 million pounds of blue crab were landed last year, the lowest reported for the nation’s blue crab commercial fishery since 1958 (110.9 million pounds). Between 2009 and 2013, U.S. commercial fishermen landed an average of 179.8 million pounds of blue crab each year. Over the last five years, that volume has declined by over a third, as American watermen landed an average of 118.3 million pounds of blue crab annually. As the chart below shows, while imports surged into the U.S. market, the commercial blue crab fishery saw substantial, continued declines.
NOAA’s Actions Defy President Trump’s Efforts
President Trump’s April 17th Executive Order, Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness, accurately explained that:
“The United States should be the world’s dominant seafood leader. But in addition to overregulation, unfair trade practices have put our seafood markets at a competitive disadvantage. Nearly 90 percent of seafood on our shelves is now imported, and the seafood trade deficit stands at over $20 billion. The erosion of American seafood competitiveness at the hands of unfair foreign trade practices must end.”
But NOAA Fisheries’ settlement facilitates the continued importation of crabmeat from swimming crabs harvested in a manner that would never be permitted in the United States. This action is simply inconsistent with President Trump’s ongoing efforts to restore American seafood competitiveness.
“We’ve had enough of the delays, enough of the one rule for our foreign competition and different, more exacting standards for American fishermen. Failed federal policy is driving the U.S. commercial fishing industry out of business,” said Blake Price, Deputy Director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. “What we have all learned today is that as a unified voice, America’s commercial fishermen must collectively fight back against unfair import trade to ensure the long-term survival of our industries.”
Read the October 31, 2025 amicus brief of U.S. commercial fishing industries here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Amicus-Brief-in-Response-to-NFI-PI-Motion.pdf
Read the October 30, 2025 brief from environmental organizations here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/CBD-Response-to-NFI-PI-Motion.pdf
Review the Declaration of Blake Price here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Blake-Price-Declaration-Exhibit-to-CBD-Response-to-NFI-PI-Motion.pdf
Review the U.S. Department of Justice’s October 30, 2025 joint stipulation here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Proposed-Joint-Stipulation-for-NFI-Suit.pdf
Review the CIT’s October 31, 2025 order of dismissal here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Dismissal-of-MMPA-Case.pdf