A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is asking the Biden administration to investigate and show evidence of efforts to stem illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing across the global economy. They say the practice is costing U.S. producers billions of dollars a year.
Letters released Wednesday by the House Natural Resources Committee to eight senior administration officials — including White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory and NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad — asked for responses to recent independent investigations revealing widespread illegal fisheries practices, including the use of child labor in some countries.
Evidence of widespread IUU activities was reported in 2023 by the nonprofit Outlaw Ocean Project in a series of articles about India’s and China’s seafood industries, and by the Associated Press in its Pulitzer Prize-winning 2015 investigation focused on Southeast Asia.
The House members also cited a recent International Trade Commission report that found nearly 11 percent of all U.S. seafood imports valued at $2.4 billion are derived from IUU fishing activities.
