U.S. fishermen at ports in the 50 states landed 8.4 billion pounds valued at $4.7 billion in 2020, according to Fisheries of the United States, 2020. These numbers indicate decreases in landings and value compared to 2019.
U.S. Seafood Landings – Volume and Value
U.S. landings decreased by about 10% with the overall value down 15% compared with 2019. Finfish accounted for 87 percent of the total landings and 44 percent of the value.
Alaska led all states in volume with 800 million pounds landed. Alaska led all states in value of landings with $1.8 billion of seafood landed.
Dutch Harbor, Alaska, was the leading U.S. port in quantity of commercial fishery landings, due mainly to landings of Alaska Pollock.
New Bedford, Massachusetts was the leading U.S. port in terms of value. Sea scallops were the most valuable seafood landed in New Bedford.
The five highest value commercial species categories included crabs ($584 million), lobsters ($563 million), scallops ($488 million), salmon ($478 million), shrimp ($435 million), and Alaska (walleye) pollock ($420 million).
Landings of walleye pollock, the nation’s largest commercial fishery, totaled 3.2 billion pounds valued at $420 million.
Tuna landings by U.S.-flag vessels at ports outside the continental United States amounted to 417.6 million pounds.
U.S. Aquaculture Production (2019)
In 2019, estimated freshwater plus marine U.S. aquaculture production was 658 million pounds with a value of $1.5 billion, a decrease of 22.5 million pounds in volume from the previous year.
Atlantic salmon was the leading species for marine finfish aquaculture, with an estimated 31.9 million pounds produced.
Oysters had the highest volume for marine shellfish production with 42.3 million pounds produced.
Fisheries of the United States Reports
Fisheries of the United States is the annual National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) yearbook of fishery statistics for the United States for 2020. The report has been produced in its various forms for more than 100 years.
The report provides data on U.S. recreational catch and commercial fisheries landings and value as well as other aspects of U.S. commercial fishing.
In addition, data are reported on U.S. aquaculture production, the U.S. fishery processing industry, imports and exports of fishery-related products, and domestic supply and per capita consumption of fishery products.
The focus is not on economic analysis, although value of landings, processed products, and foreign trade are included.
Fisheries of the United States reports can be found at:
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/sustainable-fisheries/fisheries-united-states
source: Fisheries of the United States, 2020