Looking to the Future, Living in the Present: Supporting a Thriving and Resilient Seafood Industry

October is National Seafood Month, and the hard-working people around our nation who provide healthy, sustainable seafood for our tables deserve to celebrate and be celebrated. If you’re not sure how to join in, we’ve got some suggestions. And if you’re not sure why we observe this month, read on!

We are fortunate here in the United States to have some of the most sustainable and productive fisheries on the planet. We’re a global leader in responsibly produced seafood. Our fishermen and seafood farmers operate under some of the most robust and transparent environmental standards in the world. As a result, they are sustainably supplying nearly 10 billion pounds of healthy protein! In many areas, these fisheries form the economic backbone of communities around the country. Domestic seafood supports more than 1.6 million jobs and generates $183 billion in sales across the broader economy. U.S. seafood truly is good for people, good for our economy, and good for the planet!

It’s important to recognize that this celebration comes at a difficult time in our seafood sector for many reasons. Coastal communities and the fishing industry are grappling with continuing fallout from the closure of critical fisheries and the devastation of natural disasters, including recent Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Not to mention other factors like COVID-related market hangovers, global trade issues and imbalance, concerns about bycatch, competing ocean uses, and marine heatwaves and other impacts from climate change.

read more at fisheries.noaa.gov.