Saving Seafood

COVID-19 Took A Bite Out of US Seafood Industry

December 1, 2020 — The US seafood industry faced massive declines in the months following the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, and will need targeted federal assistance to recover, a new study shows.

“Seafood is part of the narrative that I would say doesn’t get as much attention as something like agriculture,” says Halley Froehlich, aquaculture and fisheries professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and an author of the study in the journal Fish and Fisheries.

“And that certainly appears to be the case when we’re looking at something like the CARES Act, the federal funding source specifically passed to provide economic relief in the US,” she says.

That is, in large part, due to the fact that policymakers lack sufficient real-time data to see how the seafood industry has fared in the time of lockdowns and social distancing, says lead author Easton White, an ecologist at the University of Vermont.

“One difficulty is that a lot of this data isn’t released until months and years later,” White says. From the boat to the table, data is generated that must be gathered and processed before it gets released, he says.

The pandemic is a rapidly evolving situation and the seafood industry can’t afford to wait. So, to get a big-picture look at the early effects of COVID-19 on US fisheries and seafood consumption, the researchers synthesized multiple sources from across the seafood supply chain, including some unconventional real-time data sets.

Read the full story at Futurity

Pandemic has taken a bite out of seafood trade, consumption

November 24, 2020 — The coronavirus pandemic has hurt the U.S. seafood industry due to a precipitous fall in imports and exports and a drop in catch of some species.

Those are the findings of a group of scientists who sought to quantify the damage of the pandemic on America’s seafood business, which has also suffered in part because of its reliance on restaurant sales. Consumer demand for seafood at restaurants dropped by more than 70% during the early months of the pandemic, according to the scientists, who published their findings recently in the scientific journal Fish and Fisheries.

Imports fell about 37% and exports about 43% over the first nine months of the year compared to 2019, the study said. The economic impact has been felt most severely in states that rely heavily on the seafood sector, such as Maine, Alaska and Louisiana, said Easton White, a University of Vermont biologist and the study’s lead author.

It hasn’t all been doom and gloom for the industry, as seafood delivery and home cooking have helped businesses weather the pandemic, White said. The industry will be in a better position to rebound after the pandemic if domestic consumers take more of an interest in fresh seafood, he said.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

US seafood industry flounders due to COVID-19

November 24, 2020 — The global pandemic is hurting the seafood industry, and American fishmongers may flounder without more government aid, according to the largest study of COVID-19’s impacts on U.S. fisheries.

The new study, published Nov. 23 in the journal Fish and Fisheries, found that monthly fresh seafood exports declined up to 43% compared to last year, while monthly imports fell up to 37%, and catches dropped 40% in some months.

Additionally, over the first six months of 2020, total U.S. seafood exports were down 20% and imports were down 6%, compared to the same period last year. Further losses are likely as restrictions increase to address COVID-19.

“Seafood has been hit harder than many other industries because many fisheries rely heavily on restaurant buyers, which dried up when the necessary health protocols kicked in,” said lead author Easton White of the University of Vermont. “Restaurants represent about 65% of U.S. seafood spending, normally.”

For context, over one million U.S. seafood workers regularly produce more than $4 billion in annual exports, much of which is processed overseas and imported back to the U.S.

While seafood data often takes several months — or longer — to compile, the research team, including Trevor Branch of the University of Washington, used pioneering methods to quickly determine the pandemic’s impacts on fisheries. U.S. Congress received preliminary data from the study in September.

Read the full story at University of Washington News