2015 USA Seafood Statistics

A recent report, Fisheries of the United States, 2015, provides insight into U.S. per capita seafood consumption, aquaculture production, the U.S. seafood processing industry, imports and exports, and domestic supply of fishery products.

Fisheries of the United States (FUS) is the NOAA Fisheries yearbook of fishery statistics for the United States. It provides a snapshot of data on U.S. commercial fisheries landings and value, recreational catches, and other information.

USA Seafood Facts:

Seafood Consumption

For 2015, U.S. per capita consumption of fish and shellfish was estimated at 15.5 pounds, an increase of 0.9 pounds from 2014. U.S. consumers spent $64.8 billion in expenditures at food service establishments and $31.0 billion for home consumption.

Commercial Fisheries

Edible fish and shellfish landings in the 50 states were almost 7.8 billion pounds in 2015. Commercial landings by U.S. fishermen at ports outside the 50 states provided an additional 547.5 million pounds.

The most valuable U.S. seafood species included lobsters, crabs, shrimp, salmon, pollock, scallops, cod, flatfish, oysters, and clams.

Recreational Fishing (marine)

The 2015 U.S. marine recreational finfish harvest was estimated at 151 million fish weighing 188 million pounds.

Aquaculture

The report includes aquaculture data through 2014, one year behind the rest of the data in Fisheries of the United States. In 2014, estimated freshwater plus marine U.S. aquaculture production was 608 million pounds with a value of $1.33 billion, down 2.9% in volume and <1% in value from 2013.

Atlantic salmon was the leading species for marine finfish aquaculture, with 41.3 million pounds produced, essentially unchanged from 2013. Oysters had the highest volume for U.S. marine shellfish production. in 2014, farmed oyster production was 33.3 million pounds, down 5% from the previous year.

Processed Products

The estimated value of the 2015 domestic production of edible fishery products was $9.3 billion – down 11% compared with 2014.