Estimated U.S. per capita consumption of fish and shellfish was 19.0 pounds (edible meat) in 2020, according to Fisheries of the United States, 2020, from NOAA Fisheries.
Americans increased their consumption of shrimp, canned tuna, and canned sardines, while reducing consumption of fresh and frozen finfish.
For 2020, per capita consumption of fresh and frozen products was 14.6 pounds, with fresh and frozen finfish accounting for 8.3 pounds, while fresh and frozen shellfish consumption was 6.3 pounds per capita.
Consumption of all canned fishery products was 4.1 pounds per capita in 2020, up 0.3 pounds from 2019. Cured fish is estimated to be 0.3 pounds per capita, the same as in previous years.
Imported seafood accounted for approximately 79 percent of overall consumption.
The USA is the second largest consumer of seafood in the world after China.
USA Wild Caught Seafood Statistics (2020):
U.S. fishermen at ports in the 50 states landed 8.4 billion pounds valued at $4.7 billion in 2020.
U.S. landings decreased by about 10% with the overall value down 15% compared with 2019. Finfish accounted for 87 percent of the total landings and 44 percent of the value.
Alaska led all states in volume with 800 million pounds landed. Alaska led all states in value of landings with $1.8 billion of seafood landed.
Dutch Harbor, Alaska, was the leading U.S. port in quantity of commercial fishery landings, due mainly to landings of Alaska Pollock.
New Bedford, Massachusetts was the leading U.S. port in terms of value. Sea scallops were the most valuable seafood landed in New Bedford.
The five highest value commercial species categories included crabs, lobsters, scallops, salmon, shrimp, and Alaska (walleye) pollock.
Landings of walleye pollock, the nation’s largest commercial fishery, totaled 3.2 billion pounds valued at $420 million.
USA Aquaculture (2019)
In 2019, estimated freshwater plus marine U.S. aquaculture production was 658 million pounds with a value of $1.5 billion, a decrease of 22.5 million pounds in volume from the previous year.
Atlantic salmon was the leading species for marine finfish aquaculture, with an estimated 31.9 million pounds produced.
Oysters had the highest volume for marine shellfish production with 42.3 million pounds produced.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that nearly half of the world’s consumption of seafood comes from aquaculture.
Globally, Asia is the leading continent for aquaculture production volume. FAO reported that the United States ranked 18th in aquaculture production.
Imported Seafood
U.S. imports of edible fishery products in 2020 were 6.1 billion pounds, valued at $21.4 billion. Shrimp remains the most overall valuable import accounting for 27 percent of the value of total edible imports.
The top valued imported items included: shrimp (1.6 billion pounds), salmon fillets and steaks (637.1 million pounds), salmon (primarily Atlantic) (267.9 million pounds), tuna (185.7 million pounds), and canned tuna (452.2 million pounds).
Exported Seafood
In 2020 overall U.S. exports of edible seafood products dropped significantly. The United States exported 2.4 billion pounds of seafood valued at $4.4 billion.
The top valued exports included salmon (213 million pounds), groundfish (364 million pounds), surimi (347 million pounds), lobster (76 million pounds), caviar and roe (87.1 million pounds) and crab and crabmeat (32.4 million pounds).
Produced by NOAA Fisheries, Fisheries of the United States is an annual yearbook of fishery statistics for the United States.
Information about Fisheries of the United States reports can be found at:
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/sustainable-fisheries/fisheries-united-states
source: Fisheries of the United States, 2020
Related Information
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.