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.