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What Is This Indicator, and Why Is It Important?
This indicator reports the weight of fish, shellfish, and
other products taken from U.S. waters. Landings, plus certain
aquaculture harvests, are shown for five regions that cover
all waters out to the 200-mile territorial limit. The amount
of fish and shellfish caught for food, meal, and oil is a
measure of society’s reliance on the seas for these products.
Of total landings, about 70% is for human consumption, about
20% is for meal, oil, and other industrial purposes, and the
remainder is used for bait and animal feed.
What Do the Data Show?Since the late 1970s, yearly landings of fish and shellfish from U.S. waters have averaged nearly 5 million tons decreasing after a peak in 1994. In the late 1970s, the United States established a Fishery Conservation Zone (FCZ), covering hundreds of thousands of square miles of formerly international waters. Foreign fishing in these waters was eliminated, except in Alaska, where it was phased out, ending completely in 1991. The total foreign catch in the FCZ is uncertain, as indicated by the dotted line on the graph, and pre-1963 estimates are not available. Except for Alaska and the region including the West Coast and Hawaii, landings by U.S. vessels have decreased over the past 30 years. In Alaska, an expanding fleet has substantially increased U.S. landings.
Discussion This indicator does not provide
information on the condition of fish stocks (see Status
of Commercially Important Fish Stocks). Furthermore, these
aggregate landing figures do not reveal that, over the years,
fishing efforts have repeatedly shifted from species that
have been depleted or overfished to others that have been
relatively unexploited.
In 2004, about 87% of the landings were fish, about 12% shellfish, and about 1% other products, including sea urchins and worms.
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