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 19, 2021

A group of 10 West Coast lawmakers have reached out to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to see why fishermen and processors in their region have largely been left out of a program created through COVID-19 relief measures.

Led by U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon), the Senators and House members sent a letter to Vilsack noting that the fishing industry in California, Oregon, and Washington state account for more than USD 500 million

Read More
Published on
April 15, 2021

U.S. President Joe Biden has called on Congress to give the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration a more than 25 percent increase in funding for the 2022 fiscal year.

In a letter to Senate Appropriations Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) on 9 April, Acting Director for the Office of Management and Budget Shalanda Young requested USD 6.9 billion (EUR 5.8 billion) for the agency. That’s USD 1.4 billion (EUR 1.2 billion) more than

Read More
Published on
April 7, 2021

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported on Sunday, 4 April, that six entry lines of shrimp were rejected from entering the country in March because they contained banned antibiotics …

Photo courtesy of U.S. Food and Drug

Read More
Published on
April 6, 2021

Despite being down about 5.5 percent from 2019, U.S. shrimpers in the South Atlantic still enjoyed a strong 2020 with a harvest of 21.9 million pounds of shrimp, according to data from the Southern Shrimp Alliance …

Photo courtesy of Irene

Read More
Published on
April 2, 2021

Later this month, an old U.S. Environmental Protection Agency facility on the waterfront in New Bedford, Massachusetts, will be teeming with seafood industry workers taking the next step toward the industry’s – and the nation’s – recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thanks to nearly USD 4 million (EUR 3.4 million) in funds from the recently enacted American Rescue Plan, the facility will become a COVID-19 vaccination

Read More
Published on
March 31, 2021

Shrimpers in the Gulf of Mexico reported a strong February, landing nearly 3.4 million pounds of shrimp for the month. Not only was that total 22.8 percent higher than the historical average monitored by the Southern Shrimp Alliance, it also served as the second best February in 20 years …

Photo courtesy of Dan

Read More
Published on
March 31, 2021

An additional USD 255 million (EUR 217.3 million) in CARES Act fisheries relief funding has been released to states, territories, and tribal entities to help fisheries impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, once again, questions have been raised about the allocation process.

The move comes nearly a year after USD 300 million (EUR 255.6 million) was allocated to U.S. fisheries in the first round of funding.

NOAA Fisheries Acting Assistant

Read More
Published on
March 23, 2021

Conservationists earned a victory on Monday, 22 March, when the U.S. Supreme Court opted against taking a case that questioned the establishment of national marine monuments. However, Chief Justice John Roberts strongly hinted the court may welcome future challenges of a similar ilk.

The Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association had asked the nation’s top court to consider its case against the federal government and its use of the

Read More
Published on
March 22, 2021

For the second straight term, the top members of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee have filed a bill seeking to reform the fishery disaster process.

On 17 March, Ranking Member Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) and Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) filed the Fishery Resource Disasters Improvement Act. Similar to the Fishery Failures: Urgently Needed Disaster Declarations Act the two filed in 2019, the new bill

Read More
Published on
March 22, 2021

Senior officials from NOAA Fisheries speaking at the Seafood Expo North America Reconnect event on Thursday, 18 March, said U.S. President Joe Biden’s emphasis on action on climate change could align well with support for the domestic seafood industry.

The new administration has not even been in office for two month and still have several political appointments waiting to be confirmed. However, NOAA Fisheries Acting Assistant Administrator

Read More