New FISH Act Creates Global Blacklist, Bans Seafood from Foreign Vessels Linked to Forced Labor and Illegal Fishing

If you care about where your seafood comes from—both ethically and environmentally—this new piece of legislation, the Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvests Act of 2025 (FISH Act), is a big deal. It’s essentially a major upgrade to how the U.S. government fights illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and the use of forced labor on foreign fishing vessels.

The Global Blacklist: No Port Access, No U.S. Market

The core of the FISH Act is Section 4, which mandates the creation of a public “black list” of foreign vessels, fleets, or even the beneficial owners of those vessels, if they are involved in IUU fishing or forced labor. This isn't just a list for show; it carries immediate and severe real-world consequences. Once a vessel is blacklisted, it is generally barred from accessing U.S. ports, receiving port services (like refueling or repairs), or transshipping within U.S. waters. Crucially, any seafood caught, processed, or transported by a blacklisted vessel is banned from import into the U.S. market.

Think of it this way: if you run a U.S. seafood processing plant, you now have a clear, public resource to check your supply chain. If one of your foreign suppliers is on this list, their product is now contraband. This provision aims to squeeze the profits out of illegal fishing operations by cutting off access to one of the world’s largest seafood markets. The bill defines “beneficial owner” broadly, including anyone with substantial control or 50% ownership, which means the people truly profiting from these illegal activities can’t just hide behind shell corporations.

Financial Sanctions and Travel Bans

Section 5 gives the Secretary of the Treasury powerful new tools to go after the money behind illegal fishing. The Treasury can now impose sanctions on foreign persons or entities involved in IUU fishing or the trade of endangered fish species. These sanctions are serious, mirroring those used for national security threats: they include freezing all assets and financial interests held in the U.S., and immediately barring the sanctioned person from entering the country.

This is the policy equivalent of hitting them where it hurts most—their bank accounts and their ability to travel. For example, if a foreign executive uses IUU fishing profits to buy property in the U.S., that property can be seized. This is a significant expansion of authority, using economic warfare tools usually reserved for terrorists or rogue nations, and applying them directly to environmental and labor crimes at sea.

Data Sharing and Supply Chain Cleanup

The Act understands that you can’t fight what you can’t track. Section 9 requires an interagency working group to develop a strategy for optimizing data collection and sharing among agencies like NOAA, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Coast Guard. The goal is to automate risk targeting for seafood imports to stop IUU and forced-labor seafood without slowing down trade for legitimate producers. If you’re a small business importing ethically sourced seafood, this provision is designed to make sure the new enforcement mechanisms don't create unnecessary bottlenecks for you.

Furthermore, Section 11 specifically directs CBP to develop a public strategy for identifying seafood imports coming from foreign vessels using forced labor. This is a direct response to the growing awareness that much of the world's seafood supply chain is tainted by human rights abuses. By targeting forced labor at the import stage, the U.S. is using its market power to clean up global supply chains, which ultimately means consumers can be more confident about the ethical sourcing of the fish they buy.

The Global Strategy: Stopping It at the Source

Sections 6, 7, and 10 focus on international cooperation. The U.S. government is directed to increase technical assistance and investment to help other nations better manage their fisheries and enforce maritime laws. This is the long game: instead of just punishing bad actors, the U.S. aims to build up the capacity of coastal nations to police their own waters and manage their resources sustainably. For instance, the Coast Guard is mandated to increase inspections of suspected IUU vessels and report back to Congress on what follow-up actions the vessels' flag states actually take.

Finally, the Act mandates several studies, including one on the economic cost of IUU fishing and forced labor globally, and another specifically examining the role of the Russian and Chinese fishing industries in the global market (Section 12). This ensures that future policy decisions are based on hard numbers and a clear understanding of the major players driving these illegal activities.