Trump’s fishing reforms hit home in Cape May: Navarro
By Peter Navarro | The Press of Atlantic City | August 10, 2026
Walk the docks at Cape May, and you will see one of the finest scallop fleets in America — and far too many of those boats tied up, going nowhere.
That is not the ocean’s fault. Washington did that.
America imports roughly 80% of the seafood we eat, while our annual seafood trade deficit now regularly tops $20 billion. Only Washington could call that “conservation.”
Current federal rules can leave full-time scallop boats in port for about 11 months a year. The stock is not collapsing. The fishermen have not forgotten how to fish. The problem is a regulatory system that keeps American vessels idle while America imports seafood it could be catching for itself.
President Trump is fixing it.
Start with the rule that hits South Jersey scallopers directly: one permit, one boat.
Every permit must be tied to a separate vessel, forcing owners to carry the cost of boats that are barely allowed to fish anyway. Insurance, dockage, maintenance, crew, safety equipment — all for steel that sits still.
Permit stacking is the common-sense solution now moving toward consideration by the New England Fishery Management Council under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s scallop initiative, undertaken at White House direction. If an owner holds two comparable full-time scallop permits, both allocations should be harvestable from one qualified vessel.
The total catch limit would not change. Overfishing would not be authorized. The same lawful harvest would simply be taken with fewer idle boats, lower costs, better safety and a stronger American fleet.
That reform alone would matter on the Cape May waterfront.