The government wants more of your seafood to come from U.S. waters

Guest:	Mike Illenberg
Title:	Acting director of the Office of Seafood
Summary:	Seafood isn’t usually top of mind at the Agriculture Department, but that’s starting to change. A new Office of Seafood is meant to help grow domestic production and connect producers to markets using USDA’s existing tools.

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Interview transcript

Terry Gerton Back in April, the Secretary of Agriculture announced the establishment of a new office, the Office of Seafood. I think when most people think about seafood, they don’t think about the Department of Agriculture. They’re thinking fisheries or coastal issues or something like that. What brought the need forward to create this office?

Mike Illenberg So, our seafood producers, both in the aquaculture industry and the wild-caught industries, have been asking for this for well over 10 years. It’s been a demand. They look forward to having access to programs that USDA provides. So USDA is starting to look at the food economy holistically, which our seafood producers have typically sat outside of our programs. This gives us an opportunity to bring them into our programs for them to learn a little bit more about USDA and participate in programs that were already available to them but they weren’t familiar with.

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Terry Gerton What kind of programs?

Mike Illenberg So, it runs the gambit, but we have marketing programs. We have capital support and loan programs that would help them with their boats and their fishing activities and setting up their businesses. We provide technical assistance to farmers, which they’re asking for as well on the seafood side. And we have several aquaculture programs already in place that people are asking for more of.

Terry Gerton You’ve used the word aquaculture a couple of times. I think farm raised fish versus say wild caught fish. Is it the farm raised aquaculture that you’re focused on here?

Mike Illenberg So, we’re looking at seafood holistically and the food ecosystem holistically. So we are looking at both our wild catch harvesters as well as our aquaculture producers. Now, historically USDA over the past five to 10 years has been providing a lot of support to aquaculture producers because within the legislation that grants us money and appropriations to fund these programs, aquaculture producers fall within the definition of a farmer because they have closed systems, whereas the seafood producers or the seafood harvesters, like wild catch fishermen, work in open environments and has historically fallen outside of our purview.

Terry Gerton Is the demand for this then correlated with the rise in aquaculture? I mean, we didn’t hear much about farm raised fish, say a decade or so ago.

Mike Illenberg Partially, there has been a huge growth in the aquaculture industry in the United States and globally. However, there’s also been a demand for fleet support on the wild caught harvesting side because we have an aging fleet that has encountered a lot of obstacles to ensuring that their rural economies continue and the rural businesses are able to support their needs.

Terry Gerton So what lane is this new Office of Seafood stepping into here? NOAA’s already got responsibility for ocean fisheries. Department of Interior’s got the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Even FDA’s got a rule here. So where is USDA’s Office of Sea Food lane?

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Mike Illenberg So, again, the USDA focuses on rural economies, and we also focus on food production and food distribution systems. So looking at it holistically, USDA is expanding our program opportunities to this group of people who have historically been outside of that. Additionally, NOAA and Interior are viewed by the seafood industry as regulatory agencies versus support industries. While they do have programs that support seafood producers, they’re not as broad or as deep as USDA’s programs.

Terry Gerton Mike Illenberg is the acting director of the new Office of Seafood at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. All right, so we’ve talked a little bit about what you’re gonna do, and I thought that last response, the difference between being a regulatory agency and a support agency is so important. If I was an aquaculture industry owner, what would I be looking for the USDA to help me with and how would I engage?

Mike Illenberg So what I would say is let’s not focus on aquaculture first. Let’s think of them as seafood harvesters, which would include both the aquaculturists, the seafood, wild catch seafood producers, and then also your processing plants. So what you would be looking for when you come to USDA is the availability of programs that provide capital for your investment to build your business and also the technical expertise to help you as you grow that business.

Terry Gerton What needs to happen in the regulatory space or the program development space to make this new office impactful?

Mike Illenberg So, right now, the Office of Seafood, and as we stand it up this month, this has been our focus, we’re reviewing USDA regulations to see where those opportunities are and those blockers are to participation, to see if there’s an opportunity to lift some of those, and we’re advising Congress with technical expertise to advise them as they look at the 2026 farm bill.

Terry Gerton And are there particular issues from the industry that are at the top of your to-do list, things they really want you to tackle?

Mike Illenberg So there are things they really want us to tackle, and we’re still prioritizing our own list internally, but just to give you some ideas, we’re getting a lot of asks about support to put in cold storage for seafood processors. We’re getting lots of asks for loans and grants that would help fishermen out on the water fix their boats or buy new boats and prepare those for the fishing season, nets, other types of gear. On the aquaculture side, we’re being asked for continued support. Like I said, we’ve been supporting the aquaculturists for several years now, but continued support in developing those businesses and value-added products.

Terry Gerton Are there new international conditions or climate conditions or other sorts of environmental factors that are really challenging the aquaculture environment these days?

Mike Illenberg Again, focus on seafood harvesters as a whole. I don’t want to leave out our fishermen because they have historically been left out and a big part of the establishment of this office is addressing the needs and the demands they’ve had. On the whole, globally, there has been an increase in aquaculture farming overseas and the United States has increased their consumption of seafood significantly over the past 20 to 50 years. So, our seafood harvesters in the United States, while we have some of the best regulated and best managed fisheries in the world, do not have the materials and the resources they need to provide the demand within the United states and we’re relying more heavily on external partners and our other trading partners. At the same time, some of our trading partners are establishing regulations that will block the U.S. Industry from expanding. So we’re working collaboratively with other federal departments to advise best practices for ensuring that we can get our seafood to foreign markets and to increase domestic demand and get it to the domestic markets.

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Terry Gerton And so how does your role fit in with the president’s Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness executive order?

Mike Illenberg So, the president’s order directs NOAA and USDA to work together to establish a America First seafood strategy, the intent of which is to promote American consumption of seafood and the consumption of American seafood globally. I am working closely with NOAA, and again with the White House, to develop that strategy and look for opportunities to expand U.S. markets.

Terry Gerton And if this office is successful, what will look different in the seafood harvesting industry a year or two from now?

Mike Illenberg We expect in a year or two from now, or we hope within a year or two from now, we’ll start to have more of that capital funding and those loan opportunities available to our seafood producers so that they can start gearing up their industry to meet the increased demand.

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