Steve Bittenbender

Contributing Editor

Steve Bittenbender works as a freelance journalist based in Louisville, Kentucky. Besides working for SeafoodSource.com as a contributing editor, Steve also works as an editor for Government Security News and as the Kentucky correspondent for the Reuters News Service. He also works as a sports writer for The (Louisville) Courier-Journal and The Associated Press. He has received awards from the Kentucky Press Association and the Louisville Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists for his on-going and enterprise reporting work.

Published on
April 28, 2022

The U.S. House of Representatives honored the late Don Young on Tuesday, 26 April, by passing legislation the longtime Alaska Republican congressman sponsored.

Young first won the state’s only House seat in 1973. He was the “Dean of the House,” a term given to the longest-tenured member in Congress. He died at age 88 on 18 March while traveling back to the state from Washington, D.C.

One of the bills, H.R. 6651, calls for NOAA

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Published on
April 27, 2022

Proponents of expanding America’s aquaculture industry began a three-day meeting with lawmakers and their aides in Washington D.C. on Tuesday, 26 April, in hopes of drumming up more support for a bill to create more opportunities for offshore fish farms.

The fly-in sponsored by industry coalition group Stronger America Through Seafood is the first since the COVID-19 pandemic began more than two years ago. The event is drawing

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Published on
April 4, 2022

Once again, the U.S. federal government has announced a short-term expansion of the H-2B visa program, which non-agricultural businesses – including seafood processors – use to hire foreign workers to fill temporary but essential positions.

On Thursday, 31 March, 2022, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced the H-2B visa cap for the second half of the 2022 fiscal year that starts on 1 April will be more than doubled. The

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Published on
March 21, 2022

U.S. Rep. Don Young, the Alaska Republican who served as that state’s only congressman for nearly half a century, died unexpectedly Friday, 18 March, 2022. He was 88.

According to the Anchorage Daily News, Young fell unconscious while on a flight heading back to Alaska and could not be revived.

“We have lost a giant who we loved dearly and who held Alaska in his heart – always,” U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said in

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Published on
March 16, 2022

Officials with a port in the U.S. state of Oregon and representatives from a regional seafood processor trade group have joined forces to seek funding for a wastewater treatment plant for processors based at the port ... 

Photo courtesy of Manuela

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Published on
March 14, 2022

U.S. President Joe Biden’s order from Friday, 11 March, 2022, banning Russian seafood imports from entering U.S. ports will give U.S. businesses some time to accept previously made orders, according to guidance issued by the Treasury Department.

For those companies that have previously done business with Russia, any contract that was in place before Biden signed the executive order can still be carried out. But the U.S. Treasury

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Published on
March 11, 2022

U.S. President Joe Biden announced a ban on Russian seafood imports on Friday, 11 March, amid a raft of new economic sanctions he’s imposing in response Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and other members of that state’s congressional delegation, who called for blocking Russian seafood imports as the country prepared to invade Ukraine, backed Biden’s move. A bill introduced into the Senate by

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Published on
March 11, 2022

The U.S. government filed a lawsuit on Wednesday, 9 March, against a Washington state seafood processor that it wants to shut down for safety reasons ... 

Photo courtesy

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Published on
March 8, 2022

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to establish a rule to better protect migratory birds from entanglements with commercial fishing gear ... 

Photo courtesy of

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Published on
March 4, 2022

Two U.S. representatives who have worked across the aisle to combat illegal fishing practices succeeded on Wednesday, 2 March, in amending a Coast Guard funding bill to include a requirement for more fishing vessels to install tracking systems.

U.S. Reps. Jared Huffman (D-California) and Garret Graves (R-Louisiana) say requiring boats that are at least 65 feet in length to have automatic identification systems (AIS) technology on board. A grant

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