NOAA Fisheries has released its Fisheries of the United States 2015 report, to give a profile of the nation''s fishing and seafood by the numbers.
According the report, there had been a jump in domestic seafood consumption to 7kg per person, in addition to strong landings and economic values for US fishermen.
Increased consumption of seafood is anticipated to continue, highlighting the importance of domestic aquaculture as part of a sustainable seafood portfolio.
“Fishing and seafood is big business for our country. Marine and coastal fisheries contribute billions of dollars to the national economy, support 1.8m jobs, and keep our ports and waterways open for business,” said Eileen Sobeck, assistant NOAA administrator for fisheries.
“Thanks to longstanding legislation and continued innovation in fisheries science and management, we are seeing real returns on our nation’s efforts to end overfishing and make our fisheries more sustainable.”
The strong trend high landings and values of US fisheries over the last five year has continued in the report. In 2015, commercial fishermen landed 9.7bn pounds of seafood valued at $5.2bn.
This trend shows the collective progress of the US fisheries management system, the fishery management councils and fishermen which are working together to ensure the sustainability and economic stability of our nation's fisheries.
US anglers took more than 60m trips in 2015 and caught more than 350m fish, 57% of which were released.
Although aquaculture figures for 2015 are not yet available, in 2014 the top US aquaculture produced species included oysters, clams, and Atlantic salmon, and a value of $1.3bn.
This equates to 20% of the value and 6 percent of the volume of total US production of fishery products.
A copy of the report and related materials, go to our fisheries statistics webpage.
