State Rep. Chip Brown (R-Hollinger’s Island) announced on Monday that he has filed a three-bill legislative package designed to “protect, promote, and expand Alabama’s commercial seafood industry.”
The 2026 regular legislative session is scheduled to convene on January 13.
“More than just a major economic driver in our region, the Gulf Coast commercial seafood industry is a beloved tradition that must be preserved for the next several generations and decades yet to come,” Brown said. “By passing these commonsense tax cuts and an important ecological protection, we can keep commercial seafood harvesting a growing and viable concern far into the future.”
House Bill 3 provides a state sales tax exemption on retail sales of fish and other seafood sold directly by the commercial entities that caught them. The exemption is intended to promote sales while allowing commercial seafood businesses to maximize profits on their catch.
Another measure, House Bill 28, allows a state income tax credit for restaurants that participate in oyster shell recycling programs. The discarded shells are used to restore existing oyster reefs and build new reefs that allow baby oysters and other marine life to grow.
Restaurants may receive an income tax credit of either $1 for every 50 pounds of shells donated or $2,000 but must claim the lesser amount. The total tax credit program is capped at $100,000 annually as its costs affect revenues in the Education Trust Fund.
Roughly half of the nation’s $250 million oyster industry is located along the Gulf of America coastline, which includes larges portions of Alabama, and preserving the reefs keeps fisherman, oyster farmers, seafood processors, and others employed while also providing a habitat for popular commercial game like shrimp, crabs, and fish that include striped bass and flounder.
A third bill in the package, House Bill 38, creates the Alabama Seagrass Restoration Task Force, which will be responsible for addressing and remediating the loss of seagrass in the state’s marine waters.
The legislation partners both public and private entities together to conduct extensive environmental research and develop new and innovative technologies that will mitigate and reverse the ecological and economic impacts resulting from seagrass depletion.
Seagrasses provide critical habitat for aquatic species essential to the commercial seafood industry and to the marine animals they feed upon. They also stabilize shorelines and combat erosion.
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