The Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) submitted formal comments to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) today in response to the agency’s indication that it is considering weakening enforcement of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) import provisions. In its comments, SSA made clear that foreign commercial fisheries must be held to the same standards as American fishermen.
What is the MMPA Import Rule?
Since 1972, the MMPA has required foreign fisheries to meet the same environmental standards as U.S. fisheries to protect dolphins, whales, seals, and other marine mammals. Until the beginning of this year, the government enforced these rules for fifty years only on domestic fishermen—meaning foreign seafood has flooded the U.S. market while the U.S. commercial seafood industry has declined.
Should the MMPA Rules Change?
In its request for comments, NMFS claims that administering the MMPA import provision has been difficult and asks whether the agency should take economic considerations into account in enforcing the law. This makes no sense. Marine mammals, which are highly migratory, should be equally protected in U.S. and other waters. Nevertheless, NMFS has historically forced U.S. commercial fishermen to bear the costs of conservation while allowing foreign competitors to sell into this market without regard for how their fisheries interact with marine mammals.
SSA agrees with the views expressed to NMFS by another member of the Seafood Harvesters of America, the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association: “conservation cannot be a one-way obligation” and “[i]t is fundamentally unfair to require American commercial fishermen to operate under stringent marine mammal protection standards while allowing seafood harvested in foreign fisheries under substantially weaker standards to enter the United States and compete directly against American fishermen.”
Because domestic fishermen have operated under strict conservation rules for decades, the U.S. now imports more than 90% of its seafood. Failing to hold foreign competitors to U.S. environmental standards provides an economic advantage that, ironically, makes seafood produced with fewer marine mammal protections more abundant in the U.S. market. If a foreign nation wants access to U.S. markets, it should meet standards equivalent to those American commercial fishermen have met since 1972.
Section 609: A Model that Works
Strong foreign compliance comparable to U.S. environmental requirements is achievable, as seen by the Section 609 laws administered by the Department of State. Section 609 requires foreign shrimp fisheries to use turtle excluder devices (TEDs) and backs that requirement with certification, routine on-site inspections, and trade consequences for noncompliance.
And enforcement of the law as a requirement of access to the U.S. market is driving positive changes abroad:
- The spread of the use of TEDs to foreign commercial shrimp fisheries is credited to the adoption of Section 609
- Panama adopted a law in 2005 requiring the use of TEDs in shrimp trawlers and NMFS routinely confirms compliance with this law
- Guyana went from failing inspections in 2005 to a 100% pass rate by 2023
- India, after facing an import ban, ramped up TED training programs, funded free TED installations for thousands of fishing boats, and began testing NMFS-assisted TED designs.
The MMPA import program can similarly improve practices overseas if NMFS applies similar tools.
SSA’s Recommendations
- Keep the “comparable in effectiveness” standard. Foreign rules don’t need to be identical to U.S. rules, but results must be comparable and verified through on-site visits, not paperwork alone.
- Incentivize through market access. Use Section 609 as an established model for conditioning foreign market access on effective mitigation, fisheries management, certification, enforcement, and verification.
- Improve traceability. NMFS should make full use of existing tools, such as the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) and existing import data, and coordinate with federal agencies such as Customs and Border Protection and the FDA to improve traceability and enforcement while reducing duplication.
- No conditional approvals. Promises of future compliance should not count as compliance today and can become mechanisms for indefinite delay.
- Level the playing field. U.S. fishermen already bear the costs of complying with U.S. conservation requirements.
“The unfair, one-sided enforcement of MMPA makes no sense, and has negatively impacted our U.S. markets. American fishermen face heavy regulation to protect marine mammals and provide an ethically sourced, sustainably managed, and safe seafood product. Meanwhile, much of the foreign supply that displaces American catch on our dinner plates faces little to no regulation,” said Blake Price, Executive Director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. “In addition to fulfilling the conservation goals of the law, strong enforcement of MMPA’s import provisions would greatly assist with restoring American seafood competitiveness.”
Read SSA’s comments to NMFS on MMPA import provisions: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/SSA-Comments-NOAA-NMFS-2026-0826-9-23-26-FINAL.pdf
Read about coalition work to defend MMPA import provisions: https://shrimpalliance.com/commercial-fishing-groups-and-environmentalists-oppose-attacks-on-mmpas-import-provisions/
Read SSA’s criticism of recent MMPA enforcement: https://shrimpalliance.com/marine-mammal-protection-act-noaa-fisheries-lets-foreign-fishermen-off-easy/
Read the letter from the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association: https://www.regulations.gov/comment/NOAA-NMFS-2026-0826-0006