March 19, 2021 — The United States imported $2.4 billion worth of seafood from illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in 2019, representing 11% of total U.S. imports, the U.S. International Trade Commission said in a report released on Thursday.
The report, from an investigation requested by the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee in December 2019, found that the removal of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) seafood imports would increase the total operating income of the U.S. commercial fishing industry by an estimated $60.8 million. Seafood prices and catch sizes would increase for all species modeled.
The U.S. commercial fisheries that would benefit most include those targeting warmwater shrimp, sockeye salmon, bigeye tuna and squid, according to the report here.