Half of America’s Seafood Goes To Waste

Seafood is healthy, delicious, and plentiful, or so we are told. Yet every year, 2.3 billion pounds of edible seafood go to waste—approximately half of the total US seafood supply, which is estimated at 4.7 billion pounds.

According to new research from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF), consumers are the main culprits behind this mass food waste. While 330 million pounds get lost in distribution and 573 million pounds get discarded by commercial fisheries who catch the wrong species, a "staggering" 1.3 billion pounds of seafood are lost every year at the consumer level, the CLF team estimated.

To put these absurd numbers in perspective, the Empire State Building weighs about 730 million pounds (365,000 tons), and is made out of concrete and steel. The Johns Hopkins researchers estimate that the amount of edible seafood squandered every year could provide enough protein for 10 million men or 12 million women.

And to add insult to injury, their report suggests that Americans aren't even eating nearly enough seafood to begin with. US Dietary guidelines have recommended consumption of eight ounces of different seafoods per person per week. Hitting that target would require doubling the American seafood supply but the amount being thrown out could make up for 36 percent of the gap between current and recommended amounts.

Not surprisingly, all of this has the perverse effect of unduly affecting marine life. "Waste reduction has the potential to support increased seafood consumption without further stressing aquatic resources," Roni Neff, director of the Food System Sustainability & Public Health Program at CLF said in a press statement.

For Roni and her team, the secret lies in prevention. "It would generally be preferable for the fish that becomes bycatch to be left alive in the water rather than eaten, and due to seafood's short shelf life, it may be particularly challenging compared to other food items to get the remaining seafood eaten or frozen before it decays."

They concluded their study with recommendations on how to cut down on these astronomically high numbers. Suggestions include limiting the amount the commercial fisheries can catch, smaller portion sizes in packaging plants, and encouraging consumers to purchase frozen seafood.

Though the researchers added that "some loss is unavoidable," shrimp is not endless, no matter what Red Lobster says.