Saving Seafood

MARYLAND: Maryland’s blue crabs — and its crabbers — are having a rough season

July 15, 2025 — In Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, two populations are under threat: the iconic blue crab and the crabbers whose livelihoods have depended on this fishery for hundreds of years.

This season, survey counts of the iconic crustaceans hit one of their lowest points on record. That has driven up costs at restaurants at a time when disposable income is scarce and inflation is driving up costs of food and other consumer goods.

Luke McFadden, 29, who has been crabbing since he was 18, says he’s seen a rough start to the season.

“We’re trying to offer them to the consumers as cheaply as possible, being able to cover our cost,” he said. “But I get it, you know, it’s tough out there.”

At the family-run crab house, Pit Boys, in Annapolis, a dozen crabs will cost customers between $75 and $140, depending on size, according to seafood manager Charlie George. That’s “a lot higher” than previous years, an effect he and others attributed to fewer crabs in the bay.

According to the 2025 blue crab advisory report, the total blue crab population has dropped to an estimated 238 million, down from 317 million last year. That’s the second-lowest level since the annual winter dredge survey began in 1990.

US seafood preference ranking reveals strong regional differences

February 5, 2024 — Catfish, lobster, haddock, pollock, and crab each have regional strongholds in the U.S. But a few species have broken through to national popularity, with shrimp, salmon, and cod leading the charge.

Shrimp was ranked the most popular species of seafood in every region of the U.S. for 2023. Salmon also made an appearance in the top five seafood species in all nine regions of the U.S., as identified by a Circana SupplyTrack survey done over 52 weeks ending June 2023. The data was presented at the Global Seafood Market Conference on 25 January 2024 in Orlando, Florida, U.S.A.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

USDA to purchase 405,000 pounds of wild salmon, awards catfish contracts

December 14, 2023 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture is inviting companies to bid on contracts to supply 405,000 pounds of wild salmon, in a continuation of the department’s support for the Pacific Northwest commercial salmon fishery. The announcement comes soon after the agency awarded more than USD 2 million (EUR 1.85 million) in contracts to supply domestic catfish. 

The USDA wants to purchase 252,000 pounds of wild frozen salmon fillets and 153,520 cases of wild canned pink salmon for use in the National School Lunch Program and other Federal Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs.  

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

USDA announces plans to buy more Alaska pollock and catfish

May 11, 2023 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture wants to purchase up to 470,000 pounds of catfish and 1.2 million pounds of Alaska pollock for use in domestic food distribution programs.

The Alaska pollock will be used for the USDA’s National School Lunch Program. The department is looking for both frozen Alaska pollock fillets and fish sticks, with bids due 17 May. The USDA will announce the contract awards by midnight on 23 May.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US government begins bid process for 320,000 pounds of breaded catfish

July 29, 2021 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is asking for bids on 320,000 pounds of breaded catfish strips.

Bids are due by 4 August for the catfish, which will be used in the National School Lunch Program and other Federal Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs. The USDA will announce winning suppliers by midnight on 11 August. The suppliers must make deliveries to several U.S. cities in January and February 2022.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Is Mississippi losing the catfish wars? Flood of fish imports continues despite USDA oversight

June 22, 2021 — Mississippi farmers are losing the catfish wars against their foreign competitors with the very weapon they saw as their salvation.

The domestic catfish industry along with representatives like the late U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi lobbied to move oversight of catfish processing from the Food and Drug Administration to the U.S. Department of Agriculture five years ago with the expectation the USDA’s stricter eye would limit the foreign imports that had decimated domestic production throughout the Mississippi Delta.

Instead, imports of siluriformes– the larger category of catfish and catfish-like fish sometimes referred to by their family name “pangasius”– have only increased since the switch to the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service in 2016. Meanwhile, domestic prices and production, mainly in Mississippi and other Southern states, have continued to decline.

Almost 65,000 additional tons of catfish were imported in 2019 than in 2015 before the FSIS took over according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service.

The Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce lists recent processing volumes at 5 million pounds per month less than in 2015 during FDA oversight. As domestic prices have declined, the average value of imports has grown with the added USDA label.

Read the full story at Magnolia State Live

Winners of giant USDA pollock, catfish buys announced

May 27, 2021 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded nearly USD 20.9 million (EUR 17 million) in contracts as it continues to purchase Alaska pollock for use in federal food and nutrition assistance programs.

Two suppliers nabbed the pollock contracts: Seattle, Washington-based Trident Seafood earned USD 15.1 million (EUR 12.4 million) worth of the contract, while Channel Fish Processing in Braintree, Massachusetts, snared nearly USD 5.8 million (EUR 4.8 million).

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US importer recalls Chinese catfish product

April 26, 2021 — Super World Trading is recalling more than 26,000 pounds of a ready-to-eat catfish product from China.

The Brooklyn, New York-based company is recalling the catfish-containing “Golden Spoon Hot Pot Fish Chips” from the People’s Republic of China, since China is ineligible to export processed siluriformes products to the United States, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) said in a press release.

Read the full story at Seafood Source