The State of Seafood: Globalization and Alternative Seafood Networks

Depending on where in the world one lives, seafood can be anything from a once-in-a-while luxury to a common household staple with meals. From finfish to crustaceans to shellfish, from freshwater to the open oceans, these aquatic organisms transform into widely loved, culturally valued, and nutritionally significant foods when presented on a plate. Global demand for seafood is only rising: in 2018, the production of seafood from both wild capture fisheries and aquaculture was 178.5 million metric tons, about 88% of which was used specifically for human consumption. This is an increase in production of about 75% from 1986, with a projection to reach 200 million tons by the end of the decade.

In the United States, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimates that 70-85% of seafood found in stores is imported into our country. Imported seafood can either mean it was harvested from global waters, or caught in the U.S., but exported to other countries for processing before returning to the U.S. These extended, international supply chains encompass the various processes that transform live fish into the products found in stores, and play a significant role in keeping seafood prices low in the U.S. Despite the economic incentives, dependence on seafood importation leaves our seafood supply vulnerable to external shocks, which are incidents that threaten the availability of a good or the ability for it to be safely traded on a global scale. Shocks to food production and distribution are diverse, including everything from climate to geopolitical events, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Global Fishing Watch reported significant declines in fishing activities in early 2020, when the World Health Organization first declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Some of the top fishing nations in the world such as China and the United Kingdom saw decreases in total fishing hours of about 13.5-16.5% within the first few months. Many other countries, including the U.S., South Korea, and Japan, experienced sustained decreases in active fishing vessels over 2020. In addition to fisheries and aquaculture production, the pandemic impacted the supply chains themselves through new sanitation regulations on fishing vessels or in processing plants, in addition to restrictions in international trade due to port and border closures.  Just as the markets supplying seafood were forced to adapt, so too did the demand for seafood change. Lockdowns closed down restaurants, leading to many consumers opting to eat at home. This led to an increase in demand for prepacked, frozen, or canned products and a significant decrease in demand for fresh seafood. As the markets adapted to meet these demands, availability of fresh, imported seafood dwindled, and consumers began to seek alternative sources for fresh fish and fish products.

As the global seafood trade was negatively affected, there were a few notable areas of growth, particularly alternative seafood networks (ASNs). ASNs are a range of different direct-to-consumer economic models, which evolved in response to issues in the global seafood system. These issues include everything from environmental concerns, like aquatic habitat degradation and overfishing, to socio-economic concerns, like the supply chain shortages due to COVID-19. ASNs supply local or regional seafood options, keeping seafood domestic. This benefits seafood producers within the United States and provides a degree of resilience to the external shocks imported seafood’s supply chains create susceptibility to.  ASNs provide significant benefits to consumers, producers, and the environment alike, and the demand for them during COVID and beyond only continues to grow.

What are Community-Supported Fisheries

Community-supported fisheries (CSFs) are one of the most popular types of alternative seafood network.They adopt a well-known model used by terrestrial farm systems known as community-supported agriculture (CSA). CSAs are an economic model by which patrons pay an upfront fee, either as a lump sum or in small installments, to purchase a share of the farm’s harvest. As shareholders of CSAs, members receive regular orders of farm products, such as fresh produce like herbs, fruits, vegetables, cut flowers, meat, or other animal by-products like honey or dairy. CSA models allow members to access healthy, locally grown and produced food with the comfort of knowing that they are directly supporting farmers. The CSA model similarly benefits the producers themselves. The upfront funding generated by these shares provides a financial cushion at the beginning of the growing season, a time when investments need to be made such as seeds, fertilizer, and pest control before the harvests can turn a profit. Upfront funding from CSAs is especially beneficial for small-scale farms or new agricultural start-ups, which require more financial support than large-scale, commercial operations.

CSFs operate on a similar model. Through this alternative business program, patrons can pay a pre-paid membership fee for weekly shares of fresh seafood from local producers. This financial support paid in advance enables fishers to invest in their operations ahead of and throughout the season, providing vital funding and security to an unpredictable and sometimes perilous industry. In addition, shareholders of CSFs benefit from access to locally caught seafood options, which includes the valuable knowledge of what effort went into catching their food and the opportunity to connect with local fishing communities and ecosystems. Finally, by investing in small-scale domestic fishery operations, more sustainable fishery practices can be promoted. Because CSF producers sell directly to their consumers, there is greater transparency in how the seafood was caught, leading to shareholders having more power in holding the fisheries accountable to environmentally-sound practices. Connecting consumers to local ecosystems and increasing their awareness of how their seafood was caught further incentivizes less intensive catching methods.

Despite large similarities across community-supported fisheries in the United States, they are not always the same. In fact, organizations that offer programs under the label of CSF often vary widely in their structures, operations, and goals. Through analysis of a number of CSFs in the United States, researchers Bolton et al. defined a number of characteristics that unify these programs. They found that CSFs tend to prioritize: a shortened supply chain (either directly boat-to-fork or through as few intermediaries as possible); transparency and accountability in seafood production; and strong communication between business and consumers, leading to more informed seafood buying decisions and higher general awareness about the domestic seafood industry. Different groups tend to organize CSFs around guiding principles, with specific considerations for CSF members, fishers, and the environment, demonstrating how varied these alternative seafood networks can be while still rallying around certain inviolable core values.

Community-supported Fisheries: Past, Present, and Future

 Despite only recently catching on nationally, some of the first CSFs have already stood the test of time. Many name the 2005 advent of Carteret Catch in Carteret County, North Carolina as one of the earliest examples of a direct-to-consumer seafood business. Community volunteers from the seafood industry, academia, local businesses, and the general public convened to form a collective centered around the rising demand for local seafood in a commercial market dominated by low-cost, imported options. This partnership’s goal was to identify ways local seafood can adapt to an increasingly globalized marketplace. Their work turned into the Carteret Catch brand, which became a distinct and well-known symbol of local restaurants, markets, and wholesale distributors committed to providing local seafood fresh from Carteret County fisheries. In 2007, the same market dominance of imported seafood drove the fishing industry in Port Clyde, Maine nearly to the brink of collapse. The remaining ground-fishing fleet began a similar process of pooling its resources to adapt to the global market. The resulting Port Clyde Fresh Catch program, developed by the Midcoast Fishermen’s Cooperative to preserve their livelihood, became the first official CSF in the country and is still in operation to this day.

Today, people interested in investing in local seafood can find environmentally sustainable and ethical options through networks like the Local Catch Network. The network is made up of over 500 members, with more than 200 of them representing domestic seafood businesses. Associations such as this one make discovering and accessing CSFs easy, regardless of location. By bringing a number of seafood businesses across the country into one network, consumers can easily find the most local seafood options available in their region. In addition, consumers can have peace of mind that the seafood was sustainably caught via the best fishing practices. Especially as the pandemic continues in our country, interest in supporting CSFs is on the rise. And shocks to food systems, especially ones with extended supply chains, are not likely to abate anytime soon. There is no time like the present to switch from imported seafood to what might be in season where you live.

Contact Currents’ Editor-in-Chief for access to:

Bolton, A. E., Dubik, B. A., Stoll, J. S., & Basurto, X. (2016). Describing the diversity of community supported fishery programs in North America. Marine Policy, 66, 21–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2016.01.007

Cottrell, R. S., Nash, K. L., Halpern, B. S., Remenyi, T. A., Corney, S. P., Fleming, A., Fulton, E. A., Hornborg, S., Johne, A., Watson, R. A., & Blanchard, J. L. (2019). Food production shocks across land and sea. Nature Sustainability, 2(2), 130–137. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0210-1