Starting January 1, 2026: U.S. restricts imports of 12 Vietnamese seafood categories

Here is the list of 12 fisheries that the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) determined do not have regulatory programs comparable in effectiveness to the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) standards — meaning they were not recognized as equivalent under the MMPA’s comparability finding and are subject to import restrictions into the United States from January 1, 2026:

1. Fishery ID 2932 – Grouper caught with gillnets and bottom trawls.

2. Fishery ID 2988 – Crab and other crustaceans using gillnets, trawls, and pots/traps.

3. Fishery ID 2990 – Cuttlefish, bottom-dwelling fish, flatfish, grouper, mullet, snapper, etc. with gillnets/longlines/trawl.

4. Fishery ID 2991 – Round scad (Decapterus spp.) using gillnets and handlines/longlines.

5. Fishery ID 2992 – Lobster with bottom-set gillnets.

6. Fishery ID 2994 – Mackerel using gillnets and purse seines.

7. Fishery ID 3051 – Mackerel with gillnets and purse seines (variation).

8. Fishery ID 3052 – Mullet using bottom-set gillnets.

9. Fishery ID 3054 – Mackerel using mid-water gillnets.

10. Fishery ID 3057 – Small pelagics and tuna with gillnets.

11. Fishery ID 13124 – Tuna (bigeye, skipjack, yellowfin) with mid-water gillnets and purse seines.

12. Fishery ID 13125 – Billfish/swordfish with mid-water gillnets and handline gear.

    
    

These fisheries were specifically identified in NOAA’s 2025 Comparability Finding Application Final Report for Vietnam as not meeting the criteria necessary to demonstrate marine mammal protection measures “comparable in effectiveness” to U.S. regulations under the MMPA, often due to gear types with higher bycatch risk and insufficient monitoring or mitigation systems.

👉[MMPA] NOAA report on 12 Vietnamese fisheries subject to import restrictions