The 88th Annual Meeting of the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) is currently being held in Anchorage, Alaska. From January 24^th to the 27^th, the six members of the IPHC and 250 delegates will meet to discuss the status of Pacific Halibut. Having already met at the interim meeting on December 2nd, the Commission has distributed a brief summary of stock assessment information and staff recommendations that the public has been invited to review. Proposals for 2012 catch limit changes and requests for regulatory changes (season length, clearance in Area 4, logbook reporting measures, etc.) or management actions had to be […]

Have you had a crispy fried fish or tangy sauced fish at a local restaurant or pub lately?

If you answered yes, you probably have already tasted Swai.  Swai was originally presented to the foodservice and restaurant industry as a versatile substitute for more expensive white fish.  Today it is more appreciated for its mild, sweet taste, year round availability, firm texture and ability to hold up to extended cooking and reheating.  Despite its popularity in the foodservice industry, Swai is still relatively unknown to the average consumer. 

Swai is farm raised in the rivers of Vietnam and Cambodia and suffers from […]

How to avoid becoming a “Seafood Has Been”
By Ruth Levy

I have realized after spending seven weeks oversees in the past three months that the US is moving to a ’seafood has been’ status.  In fact, if the data from the GAA conference in Malaysia and the Groundfish Forum in Auckland is to be believed, the USA by 2030 will comprise just 10% of the world’s middle class.  The East is rising and the economic ‘Center of Gravity’ continues to shift east.

With the meteoric rise of middle class in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) more money will be […]

What’s In a Name? The True Langoustine (aka Scampi)

By Robert Landy

What is Scampi? There’s shrimp scampi, which is shrimp cooked in garlic butter, but that’s not scampi. Scampi is a type of lobster and is one of the world’s finest delicacies. There are, however, other species frequently referred to as scampi. For example, in the Midwest region of the US freshwater shrimp (Macrobrachium Rosenbergii) are referred to as scampi. So again, what exactly is scampi?

Is scampi a crawfish? Is scampi a crayfish? No, scampi are small clawed lobsters that unfortunately look a little bit like a crawfish. But they definitely shouldn’t […]

Working Together to Drive Consumption

16.5 Pounds per capita represents all the seafood consumed in the US. Seafood falls above turkey (13.4) but below pork (47.8), chicken (59.2), and beef (62.9). I have been working in this industry for 26 years and in that time we have only been able to increase consumption by 3.2 pounds. During that same time frame, Chicken has increased by 30 pounds. Why the disparity?

Have we not spent the past quarter century working collectively to increase the consumption of seafood? To be honest, we have not. Yes there has been work done to increase consumer awareness about […]

Shrimp Expert

by Emily Stavis

A Seafood Expert by definition is a person who has a special skill or knowledge in some particular field. While I don’t think of myself as an “expert,” I do get to participate in, and learn about, the various Shrimp markets all over the world.  Many buyers in the seafood business do not monitor, purchase, or get involved in many different Shrimp markets. They may be a supplier in the Gulf who is selling only Domestic Brown and White Shrimp in various forms, or they may be a Shrimp producer in Bangladesh specifically concentrating on the farming, marketing, and supply […]