The Winding Glass: Why Fish Markets Are a Mainstay of American Seafood

Want to know the bright spot in retail seafood? It’s your local fish store. 

For months we have chronicled the decline in overall U.S. retail seafood sales. Again in June, Circana data from US supermarkets and warehouse stores showed continuing problems.

Retail seafood experienced continuing deflation, led by frozen fish that was down -4.5% from a year ago. On the fresh side, everything but tilapia was lower priced than a year ago. And despite price decreases, dollar sales, unit sales, and volume continued to...

The Winding Glass: Everything You Want to Know About Cod and the Demise of Whitefish

As a New Englander cod is my iconic fish.  Just as in Newfoundland, where ‘fish’ means cod, so in New England we have Cape Cod.  The sacred cod hangs in the Massachusetts State House. Cod has fished here for more than 500 years, about a century before the first permanent European settlements.

Our old sea shanties reflect the dominance of cod.

Cape Cod Girls they have no combs,
(heave away, heave away)
they comb their hair with codfish bones,
we’re bound for Australia..

The Winding Glass: Lobster Prices are Exploding...Is that a Signal or Noise for the Crab Market?

[The Winding Glass is the Opinion and Commentary column by John Sackton, Founder of SeafoodNews]

Lobster prices have shot up, catching almost everyone off guard. Live lobster is not the issue. Live prices have jumped 33% since the Southwest Nova Scotia season opened on December 2. This is a normal winter pattern. For the past three years, wholesale live prices have generally risen 30% to 40% between December and February. 

Canadian Lobster landings in Southwest Nova Scotia have been steadily declining...

Bob Alverson Looks Back on 1975-76: Critical Years of IPHC and the Magnuson Stevens Act

Earlier this month, Bob Alverson, the Manager of the Fishing Vessel Owners Association (FVOA) and U.S. Commissioner on the International Pacific Halibut Commission, was asked to make comments for the IPHC’s 100th Anniversary celebration last week. He admitted at the time he “kind of went overboard” and subsequently abbreviated his public remarks at the ceremony last week.

His full account of global forces impacting IPHC during 1975-76, as he entered the dynamic world of fisheries management, follows. Only 50 years earlier, the IPHC ...

The Winding Glass: What the Decline of Red Lobster Means for the U.S. Seafood Industry

The possible bankruptcy of Red Lobster is a watershed moment for the seafood industry.

Last month Bloomberg reported that Red Lobster may file for bankruptcy. This follows the announcement in January that Thai Union was ending its losing investment in Red Lobster and taking a $530 million write down.

A Red Lobster bankruptcy and restructuring would be a watershed event. Red Lobster used to be a colossus. During its heyday of rapid expansion and increasing sales in...

OPINION: Industrial Trawling in a Climate-Impacted Arctic Undermines Resilience, Adds Needless Risk

The cold, productive waters of the northern Bering Sea are the traditional and contemporary homelands, and lifeblood of, coastal Yup’ik, St. Lawrence Yupik, Cup’ik and Inupiaq Peoples who have lived in reciprocal relationship with, and relied on, the abundance of marine life for thousands of years. 

This is a place unlike any other in the world where huge migrations of whales, seals, and walruses occur every spring taking advantage of the Arctic’s burst of productivity following the retreat of winter sea ice. Birds arrive from across the ...

OPINION: State of AK, NPFMC Oppose Revisions to Fishing Laws

“Fishing is the beating heart of Alaska…We must do all we can to sustain our great fisheries and ensure that our resources are managed to benefit Alaskans first and foremost,” Governor Mike Dunleavy said in January 2022, when amid much hope and hoopla, he accepted recommendations of the Alaska Bycatch Review Task Force that he created by Administrative Order in 2021. The hardworking group met 45 times over the course of a full year and produced a comprehensive product.

That was followed in 2023 by a...