November 1, 2016 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its annual Fisheries of the United States report for 2015 last week and, by almost any measure, the news was good.
Whether they are more health-conscious or some other factors came into play, the per capita consumption of fish and shellfish last year was 15.5 pounds. That’s an increase of just under a pound over the 14.6 pounds of seafood (and freshwater fish) Americans consumed in 2014.
All that good eating — if you included goodies like fried catfish, breaded scallops and fish sticks — didn’t come cheap. U.S. consumers spent some $96 billion for the products from various fisheries last year.
What was good for the nation’s consumers was good for the economy, too. The commercial marine fishing industry contributed about $48.7 billion to the domestic Gross National Product — including the “value added” aspects of the industry such as processing.
The commercial fishing industry had a strong year in terms of volume in 2015 but, in some fisheries, prices dropped enough to affect the “ex-vessel” price across all fisheries.
All commercial landings increased 2.4 percent from 2014 to a total of 9.7 pounds. Finfish represented 88 percent of landings, but just 46 percent of landed value — reflecting the high value of species such as lobster and scallops.
A closer look at the numbers shows that U.S. fishermen landed almost 7.8 billion pounds of edible fish and shellfish at ports within the 50 states — down 78 million pounds from 2014. Stateside landings of fish for industrial uses (animal feed, agricultural and other products) were almost 2 billion pounds, up 19 percent from the year before.
American lobster landings were 145.9 million pounds valued at $617.2 million — a decrease of 1.9 million pounds (over 1 percent), but an increase of $50.6 million (nearly 9 percent) compared with 2014. Maine led in landings for the 34th consecutive year with 121.7 million pounds valued at more than $498.4 million — a decrease of 2.4 million pounds (nearly 2 percent) compared with 2014. Massachusetts, the second leading producer, had landings of 16.4 million pounds valued at $78.3 million — an increase of 1.1 million pounds (over 7 percent) compared with 2014. Together, Maine and Massachusetts produced almost 95 percent of the total national landings. The average ex-vessel price per pound was $4.23 in 2015, compared with $3.83 in 2014.