NOAA Says Seafood Consumption Heading in Right Direction in US, as 2015 Per Capita Number Jumps NOAA released its annual Fisheries of the US report, which reported a near one pound rise in per capita seafood consumption in 2015. The reported estimated U.S. per capita consumption of fish and shellfish at 15.5 pounds of edible meat last year. NOAA makes clear in their report that they use a disappearance model, in which they assume all seafood produced in a given year is consumed that same year. However, it is a very positive sign for the US seafood industry since it points to rising consumption and value of seafood in general. Despite Alaska’s fiscal crisis, a disastrous pink salmon season, problems with pollock fillet prices, and a strong dollar that makes exports of Alaska’s seafood painful at best, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) remains positive reports Peggy Parker from ASMI's All Hands Meeting, which is underway this week in Anchorage. The group's Executive Director Alexa Tonkovich acknowledged challenges beyond ASMI’s influence: the Russian import ban, Brexit, climate change, and eNGO pressures, but said they were able to turn the upheaval into marketing opportunities. The meeting will continue through Thursday, when initiatives for the coming year, including an already pared down operations and programs budget, and new committee and board appointments will be announced. In other news, daily landing rates for Japan's fall chum fishery in Hokkaido are now falling quickly, and fishing sources do not expect a rebound in the next couple of weeks. This means that the final landed volume this season will likely remain below 80,000 tons, and possibly be just over 70,000 tons. If this forecast is correct, it will mean the lowest harvest in the fall chum fishery in 24 years. Meanwhile, the upcoming Dungeness crab season in California appears to be headed in a good direction but officials are still not sure if the season will start as scheduled on November 15. Domoic acid testing results are producing favorable results so far according to California Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Jordan Traverso. Finally, Chinese e-commerce giant JD Fresh has signed an agreement with Ocean Family, and the government of Zhoushan city, to promote online sales of premium quality, traceable seafood to Chinese consumers. Ocean Family is the top seafood distributor in the prefecture-level city of Zhoushan, which is located in the northeastern Zhejiang province. This partnership represents the latest push by online retailers in China to sell more fresh seafood into the domestic market. Chinese consumers have recently reported spoiled seafood orders from online delivery services. JD Fresh said it plans to work closely with the Zhoushan government and Ocean Family to make sure the cold seafood supply chain is capable of delivering fresh seafood to customers. Remember to check out our latest Weekly Seafood News Video Recap, which can be viewed by clicking on the thumbnail in today's newsletter. Alternatively, the video can be viewed directly on our homepage through the embedded playlist. You can also listen to Seafood News content through our podcast channels available to iPhone and Andriod users through iTunes, Google Play or SoundCloud.