A new policy brief released by a coalition of human rights and environmental civil society organizations concludes that most seafood imported into the United States lacks basic catch documentation and traceability.
The brief draws on a technical report by Simeone Consulting LLC in Littleton, N.H., which outlines critical reforms needed to keep seafood connected with illegal, unreported, and unregulated from entering U.S. markets.
Only a small percentage of all seafood imported into the U.S. is covered under current import regulations, and even for those 13 species groups, there are many loopholes, said John Simeone, author of the report, in an interview on May 19.
Most people think that a report released by NOAA Fisheries in November 2024 to improve the U.S. Seafood Import Monitoring Program is very good, but this plan is missing how those goals would be achieved, he said.
The program, now in its eighth year, was revisited by NOAA Fisheries in 2024 to see what was working and what was not. "It is not new, but we have not had it forever, and we still have a long way to go," said Lindsay Ceron of FishWise Seafood Consultancy in St. Petersburg, Fla., a member of the U.S. Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing & Labor Rights Coalition, which solicited the report.
The brief found that in 2024 the U.S. imported $25 billion in seafood, yet more than 60% of that value ($15.3 billion) entered domestic markets without being subject to the federal government’s Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) reporting requirements. Although NOAA designed SIMP in 2016 with the intention of expanding beyond the initial 13 species groups, no new species have been added during the program’s decade-long existence.
The report also found that imports of non-SIMP-covered “close substitute” species far exceed imports of SIMP-regulated species. These substitutes include nearly four times as much northern red snapper, more than eight times as much Atlantic blue crab, and more than seven times as much red king crab, according to the report.
"The cost of gaps in SIMP coverage is borne by law-abiding fishers competing against illegal practices, workers whose exploitation is a structural feature of global seafood supply chains, and consumers who have the right to know where the seafood they eat comes from and under what conditions it is caught," Ceron said.
The Simeone brief underscores the urgency of fully implementing NOAA's SIMP Action Plan, she said.
The brief "does not specifically talk about needing work on enforcing deterrent strategies and boosting enforcement capabilities or new deterrent strategies," Simeone said.
"IUU fishing can include fishing without authorization, ignoring catch limits, operating in closed or protected areas, targeting protected wildlife, and fishing with prohibited gear. These illicit activities can destroy important ocean habitats, severely deplete fish populations, and threaten global food security. These actions not only contribute to overfishing but also give illegal fishers an unfair advantage over those who play by the rules," he said.
