Saving Seafood

Economic Impact

Cooke quietly launches premium Cutler Cove Salmon brand

October 14, 2022 — Cooke Aquaculture’s True North Seafood has quietly launched a premium salmon brand that leans heavily on its origins in the U.S. state of Maine.

Described in a promotional video as “one of the best ocean-raised Atlantic salmon in America, straight from the heart of Maine,” and “exceptional in every way,” Cutler Cove Salmon is now available on a limited basis in fillets and portions through Baldor Specialty Food in New York City; Harbor Fish in Portland, Maine; and Taylor Lobster in Kittery, Maine, according to True North Vice President of Marketing Jill Cronk.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

The U.S. is not harvesting as many fish as it could, driving up imports

October 5, 2022 — In 2020, the global fishing industry reached an all-time record of production worth an estimated $406 billion, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

Fish is a key source of protein, making it essential in feeding the growing world population.

In the United States, New Bedford, Massachusetts, is the country’s most valuable fishing port, bringing in a whopping $376.6 million worth of seafood in 2020.

“Fishing stocks did have a collapse in the ’90s. It changed the species that we were offering. It changed the availability. It changed the pricing,” Laura Foley Ramsden, fourth generation “fish mongress” of Foley Fish in New Bedford, told CNBC.

The collapse led to an amendment to the Magnusson-Stevens act of 1976, which is the primary law governing marine systems, and it ultimately made the U.S. into a world leader of fisheries management, outlawing overfishing and demanding population rebuilding.

Read the full article at CNBC

Inflation continues to impact US fresh, frozen seafood sales

September 13, 2022 — Inflation continued to impact fresh and frozen seafood sales in U.S. supermarkets in August 2022.

Fresh seafood sales plunged 6.1 percent in August to USD 504 million (EUR 504 million), according to new data from 210 Analytics and IRI Worldwide. Frozen seafood sales declined at a slower rate of 3.6 percent to USD 530 million (EUR 530 million). Conversely, shelf-stable seafood sales rose 5.3 percent to USD 213 million (EUR 213 million).

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Maine lobstermen, politicians rally in protest of fishing restrictions and boycott

September 12, 2022 — Maine lobstermen and their elected leaders are fighting back over two setbacks this week — one in court and one in the marketplace — that could threaten their livelihood.

At a rally in Portland on Friday, they protested a federal judge’s ruling allowing the National Marine Fisheries Service, a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) to impose limits on where and how lobstermen fish in order to protect endangered North Atlantic Right Whales.

Gov. Janet Mills said, “Regulations that are not based on sound science, not proven fact, and will often pose a risk of devastating Maine’s lobster industry! These guys are fed up. I’m fed up. We’re all fed up!”

The rally was also protesting Seafood Watch, a California-based sustainable seafood advocacy group now advising food distributors and restaurants to boycott Maine lobster.

Read the full article at WABI

FAO: Global seafood trade has slowed

September 6, 2022 — Thanks to decades of increased fishery and aquaculture yields and growing global demand, seafood is one of the most-traded food categories in the world today. However, the volume and value of overseas sales achieved by the industry has slipped in the past few years, according to the latest analysis from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

The 2022 edition of the U.N. body’s biennial “The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture” (SOFIA) report confirms 59.8 million metric tons (MT) of seafood products worth USD 151 billion (EUR 148.4 million) were exported in 2020, the most-recent year for which data is available. This value was down from the record high USD 165 billion (EUR 162.2 billion) that the FAO recorded for 2018, while the live-weight equivalent volume was around 200,000 metric tons (MT) lower.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

UN: Global seafood production, consumption will bounce back

September 6, 2022 — Global seafood production totals are down as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but are expected to rebound, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) 2022 edition of the “The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture” (SOFIA) report.

While the world’s total fisheries and aquaculture yield climbed to an all-time record of 214 million metric tons (MT) in 2020, actual global seafood production fell slightly to 178 million MT, with algae providing the remaining 36 million MT, according to the report. The limited growth in 2020 was mainly caused by a 4.4 percent decline in capture fisheries due to reduced catches of pelagic species, particularly anchoveta, a reduction in China’s catches, and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

More than 130 container ships awaiting entrance to US ports

August 30, 2022 — More than 130 vessels are waiting to unload at North American ports, an ongoing symptom of supply-chain bottlenecks that have stymied the global economy.

U.S. imports totaled 2.53 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) in July, up 3 percent year-over-year and up 15 percent from July 2019, according to new data from Descartes, per FreightWaves. It was the country’s busiest-ever July for imports, and the fifth-highest monthly volume ever recorded by Descartes.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource