Saving Seafood

June shelf-stable sales defy inflationary pressure at US retail; fresh, frozen sales affected

July 16, 2026 — Seafood prices continued their inflationary trend in June at U.S. retail, rising 4.1 percent in the fresh category, 7.8 percent in shelf-stable, and 12.5 percent in frozen seafood, according to Circana data analyzed by 210 Analytics.

Depending on the species, inflation was even more dramatic. For instance, frozen shrimp prices rose 18.5 percent year over year in June, while frozen crab prices increased 13.5 percent. In the fresh category, tilapia prices rose 8.3 percent, and trout rose 5.8 percent.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Shipping rates still high; mixed signs of relief could be damaged by latest vessel attacks

July 15, 2026 — Global shipping rates continue to be high as the ongoing conflict between the U.S. and Iran drives up costs, and the latest attacks by Iran on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz could cause more issues.

Trans-Pacific shipping rates appeared to moderate in early July, as spot rates for certain major routes stayed relatively flat after months of steady increases, according to shipping rate indexing and analysis firm Xeneta.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Pacific bluefin tuna working group meeting ends without recommendations

July 14, 2026 — A working group of nations that commercially harvest Pacific bluefin tuna concluded its July meeting without agreeing on new management measures to be implemented in 2027.

“For much of the last decade, Pacific bluefin management showed that when governments work together, they can bring a severely overfished species back from the brink of collapse. But at a joint management meeting in Nagasaki, Japan, governments disregarded a tentative agreement they made in March to adopt a much-needed management procedure for the species at this convening,” Dave Gershman, who heads up The Pew Charitable Trusts’ conservation work with Pacific RMFOs, said in a release

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

China could lose $1.5 billion seafood market as US petition targets shark finning

May 27, 2026 — A petition drawing attention to a crisis involving both shark deaths and the treatment of migrant workers on distant-water fishing vessels could put billions of dollars in seafood trade on the line.

If U.S. officials determine that China is not meeting American shark conservation standards, the dispute may lead to restrictions on about $1.5 billion in Chinese seafood imports.

What happened?

The Center for Biological Diversity has petitioned the U.S. government to review possible sanctions against China under the Moratorium Protection Act, saying the country’s shark finning rules do not match U.S. protections, according to Inside Climate News.

In the United States, along with over 90 other jurisdictions, fishers are generally required to land sharks with fins still attached to their bodies. Conservationists say that standard is the most effective way to prevent shark finning. China permits fin removal in many fisheries under ratio-based rules, which critics say are hard to enforce and easy to game.

Shark populations are down by over 70% since 1970, and over a third of shark and ray species face extinction. Per Chinese figures, in 2023, crews discarded more than 10,000 blue sharks and nearly 1,700 shortfin makos in one Pacific region.

The hidden cost of fisheries subsidies

March 17, 2026 — In public finance, some costs are politely kept off the books. The ocean has long been one of them. Governments often speak of “blue growth” and “sustainable use,” yet many policies still treat marine ecosystems as a kind of free input: available, resilient, and cheap to replace. The result is ecological decline. It is also a fiscal problem. States end up assuming risks they would not tolerate on land.

Fishing provides a clear example. For decades, a large share of industrial effort has been propped up by public money. One influential analysis of high-seas fishing found that governments subsidized high-seas fleets by about $4.2 billion in 2014—more than the estimated net economic benefit of that fishing—and that without subsidies, as much as 54% of the high-seas fishing grounds currently exploited would have been unprofitable at the prices and costs prevailing at the time.

Read the full article at Mongabay

Iran war disrupts trade routes; freight indexes tick up

March 2, 2026 — U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran have had an immediate effect on global trade patterns as both air and ocean routes in the region have closed.

FreightWaves reported ocean shipping lines have “fled” the Strait of Hormuz, which is the narrow route between Iran, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. Iran announced it planned to “close” the strait, according to media reports, which was followed by reports of attacks on ships.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Canadian and US regulations are at odds in the Salish Sea, and whales are caught in the middle

December 30, 2025 — The Salish Sea is one ecosystem but Canada and the US are playing by different rules when it comes to protecting threatened whales, experts warn.

Endangered southern resident killer whales and at-risk humpbacks are blind to borders when transiting the transboundary waters in southern BC and northwestern Washington State that encompass the Strait of Georgia, Juan de Fuca Strait and Puget Sound, said Chloe Robinson, director of whales for Ocean Wise.

But an inconsistent patchwork of protection measures on either side of the border means the two whale species are increasingly vulnerable to ship strike, vessel disturbance, pollution, underwater noise and diminishing food sources, she said.

“The threats don’t change just because whales have crossed an invisible line,” Robinson said.

Problematic discrepancies exist between regulations around whale distance rules for boats, fisheries management, habitat protections and pollution standards, said Robinson, who led a comparative study of key conservation measures on each side of the border.

Both countries, along with provincial and state governments, need to align regulations, close protection gaps and reduce confusion for mariners, whale watching operations and vessels transiting the region to reduce cumulative stresses of whales, Robinson said.

There’s a dizzying mix of vessel approach distances and speed regulations for whale watching operators and recreational boaters on either side of the border depending on the type of whale and, in some cases, what they are doing, she added.

Read the full article at the National Observer

Record Prices and Tariff Pressures Challenge the US Scallop Complex

September 22, 2025 — The scallop market in the US has faced continued challenges in 2025. Low domestic landings continue providing upward pricing pressure, while potentially constrained availability from Canada adds to tight North American supply. A similar scenario played out in 2024, when many market participants turned to Japanese product as a quality substitute for domestic shortfalls.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

US, Canadian retailers slash prices to entice anxious shoppers

August 26, 2025 — Retailers in both the U.S. and Canada have implemented price drops in order to entice shoppers, many of whom are seeking value wherever they can find it amid continued global trade uncertainty.

Bentonville, Arkansas, U.S.A.-based retail giant Walmart rolled back prices on 7,400 items in the second quarter of its 2026 fiscal year, which is 2,000 more than the same period last year, per Supermarket News.

Read the full article at the SeafoodSource

Newly implemented tariffs not altering Norway’s seafood marketing strategies for the US

August 15, 2025 — The U.S. started out 2025 as the top buyer of Norwegian seafood but fell to third place behind Poland and China in July, according to the latest figures from the Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC).

NSC Communications Director Martin Skaug told SeafoodSource that while the new tariffs levied by the U.S. on all Norwegian goods might have contributed a bit to July’s shakeup, the NSC is primarily attributing it to the massive volume growth of farmed salmon – both from Norway and other markets this year. Poland’s ascension up the rankings can, therefore, be attributed to the fact it is a country that heavily processes and redistributes salmon to other markets.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource