Celebrating National Seafood Month

October is National Seafood Month, a time to highlight smart seafood choices, sustainable fisheries, and the health benefits of eating a diet rich in seafood. It's also an opportunity to illustrate U.S. fisheries successes and challenges as we turn the corner on ending overfishing and begin to rebuild fish stocks. There are amazing stories to tell.

News and Announcements

'Top Chef' Contestant Cooks Up Sustainable Seafood

October 21, 2011: More than 200,000 visitors travelled to Morehead City, North Carolina earlier this month to celebrate one of the state’s greatest natural resources – seafood. For the last four years, North Carolina’s annual Seafood Festival has featured award-winning cooking demonstrations and contests that allow people to better understand the journey of seafood from ocean to plate. Among the chefs at this year’s festival, was Keith Rhodes, one of the contestants from the popular BRAVO reality TV show, “Top Chef.”

When he’s not on TV, Chef Rhodes is a sustainable seafood chef for Catch Restaurant and opening soon Phun Seafood Bar in Wilmington, North Carolina. Read More ...

 Art mirrors life in Monterey Bay

October 20, 2011 – A new art exhibit that opened on October 1 at the Pacific Grove Natural History Museum highlights the natural flux of ocean temperature, nutrients and species that cycle every few decades on the California coast.

"Green Seas, Blue Seas" showcases artwork from a mural that Alaska-based artist Ray Troll created for the Pacific Grove NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center in 2007. The paintings vibrantly depict Monterey Bay's iconic fish, whales, birds and turtles, while interweaving human stories of fishing and scientific research.

Read More...

Fisheries Innovation Fund Begins Next Round of Projects

October 7, 2011 –Fisheries managers, fishermen, nonprofit organizations and others with a stake in America’s fisheries now have additional resources to put their innovative ideas into action. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and NOAA just announced the second round of grants available from its Fisheries Innovation Fund, a public-private partnership to foster the design and implementation of new and ground-breaking ideas for sustainable fisheries practices.

“These grants help unleash the expert knowledge and creativity of fishermen and communities,” said Eric Schwaab, Assistant Administrator for NOAA’s Fisheries Service. “The Fund is already supporting testing and evaluation of new ideas to build capacity in fishing communities and improve their sustainability, which is a win-win solution for stakeholders and managers.   As we celebrate National Seafood Month [links to our splash page], it's fitting that we continue supporting these innovative commitments to stewardship." More…

The Road to End Overfishing: 35 Years of Magnuson Act 

A message from Eric Schwaab -
I want to acknowledge and highlight the 35 th anniversary of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. Simply called “the Magnuson Act”, this law, its regional framework and goal of sustainability, has proven to be a visionary force in natural resource management - both domestically and internationally. More ...

People Behind Sustainable Seafood

Sustainable seafood choices, whether wild-caught or farm-raised, are really made possible by the efforts of the men and women whose lives and livelihoods depend on healthy and sustainable fisheries. These are just a few of their stories.

Bringing Sustainable Seafood to the Table

Laura Anderson's serves up sustainable seafood in Newport, Oregon
U.S. fishermen and local businesses depend on a steady supply of safe, sustainable seafood. As part of our regular Voices from the Waterfront series, we feature Laura Anderson, owner of  Local Ocean Seafood – a popular seafood restaurant on the waterfront in scenic Newport, Oregon. Click on the video to hear her story and learn why she works so hard to bring a variety of sustainable local seafood to her customers.  More…

Oyster Farming on the Waterfront

Perry Raso explains how raise sustainable seafood in Matunuck, Rhode Island
Meet Perry Raso, an oyster farmer and owner of Matunuck Oyster Farm, who has been growing oysters in a Rhode Island salt pond since 2002. Two years ago, Raso also opened Matunuck Oyster Bar, a seafood restaurant next door. This year, NOAA released a draft national policy to encourage the growth of aquaculture, or sustainable marine fish farming. More…  

Crabbing is a Family Affair

Mark and Penny Hooper on 35 years of softshell crabbing in Smyrna, North Carolina
Meet crabbers Mark and Penny Hooper , a husband and wife team who have been running a soft shell crab business for more than 35 years. The Hoopers are the focus of this month's Voices from the Fisheries. More…

Seafood: Get the Facts

Fishing – in all its forms – is a $72 billion per year business in the United States and that business is vital to the economies and identities of our coastal communities. At the same time, U.S. fishermen and local economies are struggling in large part as result of years of decline in fishing.

The economic activity generated by U.S. fisheries and aquaculture creates almost 2 million jobs from boat captains and crews to oyster farmers and the people working in seafood processing plants, seafood markets, and restaurants.

Over 84 percent of the seafood consumed in the United States is imported contributing to a $9 billion annual seafood trade deficit.

In 2010 U.S. commercial fishermen [link to Fisheries of the US page] landed 200 million more pounds of product with an increased value of $600 million compared to 2009.

The Fish Stock Sustainability [link to Status of the Stocks page] Index shows a 63 percent improvement from 2000-2010 for the 230 most economically significant stocks.

The Food and Drug Administration suggests that people eat two six-ounce servings – about the size of an iPhone – of seafood each week.