SNP in Forbes: Seafood Should Be At The Top Of Your Menu

By Isidoro Rodriguez

People aren’t eating enough seafood in this country.

Internationally, seafood accounts for 17% of the world’s meat consumption. It provides 20% of the daily protein intake for 3.1 billion people, and some coastal communities depend on fish for upwards of 70% of their protein needs. USD Analytics forecasts the global Seafood Restaurants market size to increase from $168.8 billion in 2024 to $210.7 billion in 2032.

Despite these numbers, the United States’ seafood consumption has remained stagnant since 2000, with Americans generally eating more red meat than seafood products overall. In my experience, the reasons for this include people’s issues with sustainability, cost and a general lack of knowledge about what they’re buying.

Industry experts and chefs say that we all should be eating more seafood, not less, and that finding a sustainable, affordable, and quality product just requires an open mind.

“The overall seafood category has improved immensely in the last 20 years,” says Linda Cornish, president and founder of the Seafood Nutrition Partnership, a leading non-profit organization in the U.S. building awareness on the health and nutritional benefits of seafood, in a phone interview.

“Eighty to ninety percent of our seafood restaurants and grocery stores have a sustainable seafood policy in place, and the U.S. has one of the best fisheries management practices in the world.”

Organizations such as The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch, Practice Green Health, NOAA Fisheries, and the National Resources Defense Council have extensive, regularly updated lists of the best and safest seafood choices for consumers.

There are also certifications, specifically recognized by the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative, such as the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP), the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), Alaska Responsible Fisheries Management (RFM) and Fair Trade USA that track the supply chain and transparency of the companies that produce and sell seafood products to ensure their safe, healthy and accountable seafood supply.

“Seafood with these certifications comes with assurances, and the companies that supply them are cautious in their sourcing, which takes a lot of effort and diligence to do well,” says Alisha Lumea, VP of Marketing and Brand Strategy for Wulf’s Fish, a Boston-based national wholesale seafood and meat distributor, in a phone interview.

“The overarching problem for consumers is getting all the answers and even understanding the answers that you get.”

The key is transparency and knowledge, with companies like Lumea’s providing detailed info about their products on their websites, and even restaurants often listing on their menus where they source their seafood and what certifications it has received. Well-trained servers at quality establishments should be able to provide answers to any questions a guest may have about an item they’re selling or immediately relay them to the chef.

Tristan Wraight, chef-owner of Oakhart Social in Charlottesville, Virginia, says that diners asking questions and restaurants providing as much information as possible are key steps to ensuring they’re getting the best product available.

“The responsibility for finding quality is more on the chefs and restaurants than on the guests,” says Wraight, in a phone interview.

“But asking and learning about what’s on the menu can help guide what we choose to order in restaurants, which therefore can help guide what chefs and restaurants prepare and source.”

And if people want to enjoy seafood without breaking the bank, they need to start thinking outside the box.

The More Options, The Better

Seafood consumed in the U.S. is roughly 65% to 85% imported. The United States Department of Agriculture reports that, overall, food prices are predicted to rise 3.0 percent, faster than their 20-year historical average rate of price increase (2.9 percent).

According to a United Nations report released in June, due to President Donald Trump’s 10% tariffs on nearly all seafood and China’s 30% tariffs, fish product prices are likely to rise because of limited capacity to scale up local production.

In places like New York, North Carolina, and Texas, prices for seafood are already rising across the board, with chefs and purveyors there all warning that it is only going to get worse.

“Like everything else, the price of fish and seafood has gone up a great deal, costs are outrageous, and it’s sadly becoming an elite privilege to be able to go out and have a nice meal,” says Wraight.

“People in my position have to be creative to outsmart the economics so that it doesn’t become an entirely exclusive privilege.”

Finding new and different local seafood that is attractive to the average diner can be easier said than done. According to the latest report from the National Fisheries Institute, the top three consumed seafood species in the country are salmon, shrimp and canned tuna. That preference is steering us away from many delicious, sustainable and, more importantly, affordable varieties out there.

“We haven’t been as broad-minded about the number of fish that we want to eat, even though we have hundreds of species in our local waters that could help diversify the economy,” says Lumea.

“That’s something that chefs have worked really hard to change.”

Thanks to the efforts of chefs like Wraight, different fish like hake, monkfish, black sea bass, Acadian red fish and various kinds of flounder, all of which swim in our own waters, and some of which have been popular in Europe for centuries, are finding their way onto more and more menus. The European green crab, an invasive species causing significant environmental damage in North America and other continents, is popular in France for flavoring bouillabaisse and is also quickly gaining popularity in American fine dining circles.

“Up until the pandemic, getting fish that was less familiar to my guests was a tough sell,” says Wraight.

“But now it seems that we have a more open-minded or more adventurous clientele.”

Eat Everything On Your Plate

That open-mindedness is saving both chefs and diners money and promoting sustainability. Meanwhile, nose-to-tail eating is another significant step in the right direction.

Things like tuna or striped bass collars, cheeks and throats, salmon and striped bass bellies or swordfish chops are all different ways to appreciate fish that are usually only seen as filets that provide amazing textures and flavors, as well as cut down on waste.

“You can chop the heads, the tails, the fins, and skin off of a fish, and come down to just the filet, but you’re also throwing 30% to 60% of your product away,” says Wraight.

“We have to reinterpret, reimagine and restructure our relationship to our seafood, and pick some different parts that are also really delicious.”

In Spain’s Basque region, the meaty muscle in a hake’s lower jaw, called Kokotxa, is usually lightly fried with a few crushed cloves of garlic and olive oil. In Japan, Hamachi Kama Shioyaki, yellowtail fish collars, are often salted and then grilled or broiled. In Louisiana, “crawfish butter,” one of the debatably best parts of the crawfish used in Cajun-style crawfish boils, is literally sucked out of the crustacean’s head.

By embracing this kind of seafood diversity and enjoying every part of the product that we can, we not only expand our palates but also maintain biodiversity in marine ecosystems, promote food security and safeguard culinary traditions from diverse cultures around the world.

“Necessity informs appetite, and the more we accommodate and work with our natural world, the better,” says Wraight.

“Overall, it’s just environmentally healthier to take a little bit of everything versus trying to take as much as possible from just one species,” says Lumea.

Good, And Good For You

And, from a health standpoint, the more quality and sustainable seafood we eat, the better we all will feel both mentally and physically.

The human brain is primarily fat. Much of that fat comes from the omega-3s DHA (Docosahexaenoic Acid) and, to a lesser extent, EPA (Eicosapentaenoic Acid), which are primarily found in seafood and greatly benefit us. Consuming seafood improves cognitive function, has protective effects on both brain volume and brain structure, and has been linked to reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

“When moms eat seafood during pregnancy, their babies have higher IQ by anywhere from seven to nine points. People who have higher levels of the omega-3s in seafood experience lower anxiety and depression by about 20 percent,” says Linda Cornish.

Eating fish at least twice a week has also been shown to reduce the risks of sudden heart attack death by 50%, coronary heart disease by 22% and stroke by 40%. And a regular seafood diet is vital for eye health, playing a protective role in maintaining vision.

“Seafood is important for our overall wellness, a really great way to take a tour of our country and planet, and just a very delicious facet of our diets,” says Cornish.

“And when we manage our wild fisheries, support fisheries improvement projects around the world, and develop aquaculture here in the US, we can have more great seafood sustainably and affordably.”