President Donald Trump declared July 2 “National Scallops Day” after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) opened New England to scallop fishing.
“Today I am declaring a National Scallops Day ... fulfilling the dream to our Great Fishermen who were so badly treated by the Obama and Biden Administrations, and by the Country of Canada,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
“This will mean millions more pounds of beautiful Wild Scallops a year on the kitchen table of Americans, and more Jobs in Norfolk, Virginia, Cape May, New Jersey, New Bedford, Massachusetts, and essentially all parts of the East Coast,” Trump added.
The Commerce Department closed the northern edge of Georges Bank and other fishing grounds to commercial fishing in 1994 as an emergency action to protect spawning habitats for scallops and groundfish.
The northern edge of the bank was closed by the Clinton administration. The area remained closed through the Bush administration, and the Obama and the Biden administrations maintained the closure and expanded protections in the region.
Fisheries regulators have considered reopening the area in recent years but voted to keep it closed.
The New England Fishery Management Council reported the 2026 scallop season off the East Coast was highly active this year.
“The 2026 scallop fishing year is seeing strong early season landings, driven by high catch rates of over 2,000 pounds per day in the Mid-Atlantic,” the council reported June 29.
In his message, Trump also mentioned opening more lobster fisheries.
“This is in addition to freeing up a massive area off the East Coast for our Great Lobster Fishermen, and others (An Environmental Monument declared by Barack Hussein Obama and Sleepy Joe Biden, that I terminated!), and a half a million square miles of the beautiful Pacific Ocean, where every country was allowed to fish except for our Great American Fishermen!” Trump said.
“Go out and vote Republican in the midterms, because if the communists get in, you’ll never fish again!” Trump added.
The Northeast U.S. continental shelf generates about $500 million each year on the Atlantic sea scallop fishery, making it one of the most valuable fisheries in the United States, according to a study published by Rutgers University in February.
