March 19, 2020 — Sales of shelf-stable, fresh, and frozen seafood are all soaring in United States supermarket chains in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the U.S. restaurant industry suffers unprecedented losses due to closures and reduced traffic at eateries across the country, retailers have benefited from consumers making panicked purchases over concerns that their access to groceries may be limited by travel limitations imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
November 15, 2019 — Two recent studies, Hibbeln et al. 2019 & Spiller et al. 2019, published together in Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids (PLEFA), examined the health benefits of consuming seafood during pregnancy. Researchers found that seafood consumption during pregnancy was strongly linked to increased IQ in children.
Thirteen leading dietary scientists spent the last two decades conducting the most thorough review on the subject in history. The research evaluated studies on 102,944 mother-child pairs and 25,301 children.
The findings strongly supported what many consumers already know—seafood is good for you. But the specific measurements to this notion were striking, so much so that one of the authors warned SeafoodNews.com, “There is a lost opportunity for IQ when mothers are not eating enough seafood.”
The study found children gain an average of 7.7 IQ points when mothers ate seafood during pregnancy, compared to mothers that did not eat seafood. Another finding showed that children born from mothers who did not eat seafood during pregnancy were three times more likely to be hyperactive.
October 23, 2019 — The National Fisheries Institute (NFI) on Tuesday announced the creation of the new YouTube channel, AboutSeafood, which is designed to educate health care professionals and consumers about the role of seafood in the diet. NFI’s registered dietitian, Jennifer McGuire, hosts the channel.
“Seafood is one of the healthiest foods on the planet, yet confusion still exists about how much to eat, what pregnant women and children’s seafood diets should look like, and how fish fits into an overall eating pattern,” said McGuire.
The core videos on the channel feature McGuire with expert guests. “Through conversations with colleagues in the nutrition space, we hope to debunk myths and provide clarity about seafood.”
The channel also offers shorter videos in which McGuire shares quick facts about seafood nutrition.
October 16, 2019 — The following was released by the Seafood Nutrition Partnership:
A new paper published by a group of 13 leading dietary fats scientists highlights the tremendous health benefits from consuming seafood for infant and adolescent brain development. Among the key findings of the systematic review is an average 7.7 IQ point gain in children whose mothers ate seafood during pregnancy compared to mothers who did not eat seafood.
“Relationships between seafood consumption during pregnancy and childhood and neurocognitive development: two systematic reviews” (PLEFA) uncovered 44 scientific studies since 2000 that collectively show the importance of consuming seafood by moms to support the brain development of their babies as well as the need for children to consume more fish and shellfish.
“There is a lost opportunity for IQ when mothers are not eating enough seafood,” the paper’s lead author, Capt. Joseph Hibbeln, MD, Acting Chief, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, said at the State of the Science Symposium.
The 13 scientists formed a technical expert collaborative to address two questions posed by the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC), and utilized the USDA’s Nutrition Evidence Systematic Review to evaluate the science following the DGAC prescribed review process.
Highlights from the paper, which evaluates studies on 102,944 mother-offspring pairs and 25,031 children, includes:
“The risk is not eating enough seafood — the benefits are so substantial for the development of baby brains, eyes and overall nervous system,” said J. Thomas Brenna, PhD, an author of the paper and a member of the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee.
These findings are consistent with a technical report from the American Academy of Pediatrics earlier this year that emphasized the importance of fish and called attention to the fact that U.S. children are not eating enough seafood. Additionally, Health Canada, the European Food Safety Authority, and World Health Organization have all stated the importance of seafood for brain development.
The authors of the paper, or the technical expert collaborative who conducted the systematic review, include: Capt. Joseph Hibbeln, MD; Philip Spiller, JD; J. Thomas Brenna, PhD; Jean Golding, PhD; Bruce Holub, PhD; William Harris, PhD; Penny Kris-Etherton, PhD, RDN; Bill Lands, PhD; Sonja Connor, MS, RDN, LD; Gary Myers, MD; J.J. Strain, PhD; Michael A Crawford, PhD; and Susan Carlson, PhD. None of the scientists were paid to conduct this review, all were voluntary, and do not have a conflict of interest.
An additional paper, “An abundance of seafood consumption studies presents new opportunities to evaluate effects on neurocognitive development,” published in PLEFA provides more background on the systematic review paper.
September 23, 2019 — More than a dozen seafood-loving scientists are working to make the message contained in the US’ next update of its “Dietary Guidelines for Americans” even stronger when it comes to encouraging consumption by pregnant mothers and young children.
Their lengthy research paper, which cites some 40 studies that paint a very positive picture of seafood, is expected to be published within weeks in a peer-reviewed journal. Immediately after, the group plans to share its meta-study with the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, another 20 academics that make recommendations to the US departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services (USDA and HHS), about what should go into the document that has the most influence when it comes establishing nutrition policy in the country.
The hope: USDA and HHS altogether strike the current document’s mercury warnings and also the suggestion that seafood consumption be limited to 12 ounces per week from the language.
August 8, 2019 — It’s been one year, so how’s that trade war with China working out for the nation’s seafood industry?
As with farmers, there’s not much winning and ongoing tweeted skirmishes have global fish markets skittish.
The quick take is the 25 percent retaliatory tariff imposed by China on U.S. imports last July caused a 36 percent drop in U.S. seafood sales, valued at $340 million, according to an in-depth analysis of Chinese customs data by Undercurrent News.
“Chinese imports of US seafood fell from $1.3 billion in the 12 months prior to tariffs (July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018), to $969 million in the 12 months after (July 1, 2018-June 30, 2019), underlining the heavy impact of weaker demand for U.S. seafood subject to tariffs, while poor catch of U.S. wild-caught seafood was also to blame,” the News wrote.
July 9, 2019 — U.S. seafood groups are lauding an updated government guidance that encourages pregnant and breastfeeding women and children to eat more seafood.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is updating its 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released in 2017, which recommends that Americans eat at least eight ounces of seafood per week, based on a 2,000-calorie diet. While FDA did not increase the amount of seafood adults should eat, it is emphasizing the nutritional benefits – particularly to pregnant and breastfeeding women as well as children – of eating at least eight ounces of seafood weekly.
The agency also aims to help consumers who should limit their exposure to mercury choose from the many types of fish that are lower in mercury – “including ones commonly found in grocery stores, such as salmon, shrimp, pollock, canned light tuna, tilapia, catfish and cod,” the FDA said in a press release.
However, “it is important to note that women who might become pregnant, or who are pregnant or breastfeeding – along with young children – should avoid the few types of commercial fish with the highest levels of mercury listed on the chart,” FDA said.
June 3, 2019 — This week, the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation (NMSF) is convening Capitol Hill Ocean Week in Washington, D.C. Additionally, President Trump has declared the month of June “National Ocean Month” in recognition of the importance of the ocean to the economy, national security, and environment of the United States.
For the duration of Ocean Week, Saving Seafood will share materials related to the sustainable and economically vital U.S. commercial fishing and seafood industries, including information tied directly to events being organized as part of the NMSF conference.
To kick off the week, Saving Seafood is sharing the following article on the importance of eating fish to global food security and the environment. It was written by renowned fisheries scientist Dr. Ray Hilborn and published by the Oxford University Press Blog last week:
The famous ocean explorer, Sylvia Earle, has long advocated that people stop eating fish. Recently, George Monbiot made a similar plea in The Guardian – there’s only one way to save the life in our oceans, stop eating fish – which, incidentally, would condemn several million people to starvation.
In both cases, it’s facile reasoning. The oceans may suffer from many things, but fishing isn’t the biggest. Earle and Monbiot’s sweeping pronouncements lack any thought for the consequences of rejecting fish and substituting fish protein for what? Steak? That delicious sizzler on your plate carries the most appallingly large environmental costs regarding fresh water, grain production, land use, erosion, loss of topsoil, transportation, you name it.
Luckily for our planet, not everyone eats steak. You’re vegan, you say, and your conscience is clean. An admirable choice – so long as there aren’t too many of you. For the sake of argument and numbers, let us assume that we can substitute plant protein in the form of tofu, made from soybeans, for fish protein. Soybeans need decent land; in fact it would take 2.58 times the land area of England to produce enough tofu to substitute for no longer available fish. That extra amount of decent arable land just isn’t available – unless we can persuade Brazil, Ecuador and Columbia to cut down more of the Amazon rainforest. We would also add 1.71 times the amount of greenhouse gases that it takes to catch the fish.
And, again for the sake of argument, were we to substitute beef for fish, we would need 192.43 Englands to raise all that cattle and greenhouse gases would rocket to 42.4 times what they are from fishing.
But aren’t there alternatives that we can eat with a clean conscience? It depends. First, we must accept the inescapable truth that everyone has to eat. You and I and another few billion humans right down to the single cell organisms. The second inescapable truth arises from the first but is often ignored, is that there is no free lunch. The big variable in this business of eating is deciding the appropriate price to the environment.
Read the full opinion piece at the Oxford University Press (OUP) Blog
May 30, 2019 — Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing forms of food production in the world and the fastest growing sector in the livestock industry. In a $140 billion market, startups in seafood and aquaculture technology raised $193 million in 2016, which marked a 271% increase from the two years prior combined. The latest group of innovations in agtech could very well come from the water, as something we could call “aquatech.”
Yet there are many areas in this industry that are in dire need of innovation. Today, I will focus on my top 5: disease prevention, vaccine delivery, fish meal replacement, sustainability solutions (including closed-loop farming) and supply chain management.
Tremendous opportunity exists right now for those interested in investing in the solutions to these issues. Let’s take a look at the five key areas mentioned, and how several forward-thinking companies are meeting them head on.
Disease prevention is a critical aspect of aquaculture. Changing ocean temperatures and water quality make animals and plants more stressed and susceptible to disease, yet innovation is lacking in prevention compared to land-based agriculture. Terrestrial food animal farmers can easily deploy dozens of vaccines and preventive solutions, while aquaculture has less choice and significant delivery challenges (more on this below). Vaccines are still administered by hand, and there simply aren’t good preventive measures for many infestations.
May 28, 2019 — Global seafood trade nearly doubled in recent decades, fueled by decreasing transportation costs, advances in preservation and processing technologies, and open trade policies and is now among the most highly traded commodities. The United States is currently the world’s top seafood importer and among the top five exporters. It is often quoted that 90% of seafood consumed in the United States is imported, implying only 10% is of domestic origin. Over the past decade, this statistic has been widely shared and highlighted with more than 60 news articles quoting it annually since 2014, and it is increasingly used to support proposed policy changes. In recent years, the former US Secretary of State, current US Secretary of Commerce, and members of Congress have all cited the number to call for new policy measures addressing seafood sustainability and dependence on foreign seafood.
However, we argue that far more than 10%, likely 35–38%, of seafood consumed in the United States is of domestic origin. Precise estimates are difficult because of complex supply chains: for instance, some seafood caught in the United States is exported for processing and imported again under a different trade code for consumption in the United States. Such globalized supply chains are commonplace with many products relying on numerous foreign inputs and crossing international borders multiple times. For example, beef production between the United States and Mexico can involve multiple exchanges of calves, adults, and final products. These counterintuitive patterns are created by low tariffs and transportation costs that allow producers to optimize for favorable interest rates and low production costs across supply chains, keeping prices low for US consumers of beef, seafood, and countless other products.
Unfortunately, a dark cloud looms over seafood trade as tariffs recently imposed by the United States and retaliatory tariffs imposed by China and other countries hit US seafood exporters and importers, resulting in higher seafood prices for US consumers. Accounting for the realities of globalized supply chains is not only needed for better statistics that support evidence-based policy but is also key to supporting the US seafood industry, achieving sustainable production, and meeting consumer demand.
Read the full story from the National Academy of Sciences at Medium