Identifying Opportunities for Aligning Production and Consumption in the U.S. Fisheries by Considering Seasonality

Figures & data

Figure 1. Map of state and regional domestic fisheries landings data (closed circles), retail sale data (open circles), or both (half-filled circles). Regions defined by NOAA Fisheries. See Table 1 for more information on data sources.

Table 1. Description of study datasets.

Type	Retail sales	Domestic landings	Imports
Data sources	Nielsen xAOC	State, regional, tribal agencies	USA trade
Data availability	Private, ∼$20,000	Public data request, may require a processing fee	Public and freely downloadable
Time period	Monthly	Monthly	Monthly
Geographic coverage	State, total US^a	State, total US^a	Total US
Product types	Fresh, frozen, shelf-stable	Landed product	Fresh, frozen, prepared or preserved, other
Production method	Not reported	Capture fisheries^b	Not reported
Units	kg (retail wt), $, unit price ($/kg)	kg (landed wt), $ not consistently reported	kg (mixed product forms), $, unit price ($/kg)

a See Figure 1.

b Some states mis-report farmed molluskan shellfish as fisheries landings.

Table 2. Commercial landings by month versus year, average 2017–2019 (1,000 metric tonnes).

NMFS region	Sum of monthly landings^a	Annual landings^b	Difference (100% − [annual/monthly])
Great Lakes	2.7	0.1	96%
Gulf of Mexico^c	138	166	−20%
Middle Atlantic	301	286	5%
New England	226	255	−13%
North Pacific (Alaska)	1,590	2,577	−62%
Pacific Coast	495	499	−1%
South Atlantic^c	61	53	12%
West Pacific (Hawaii)	17	16	3%
Total	2,830	3,852	−36%
Total minus North Pacific	1,240	1,275	−3%

a Monthly data collected via public data requests to states, tribes, and federal agencies.

b Annual data from (NOAA Fisheries 2022b).

c For the analysis all monthly landings in Florida were assigned to the Gulf of Mexico region, but in this table Florida monthly landings are split proportionally by region to allow for comparison with annual regional landings.

Figure 2. Monthly United States retail seafood sales A) volume, B) revenue, and C) unit price for three product categories (fresh, frozen, shelf-stable), average 2017-2019. The y-axis is normalized by dividing the monthly values by the maximum monthly value.

Figure 3. Monthly U.S. retail sales of A) seafood and B) fresh meat (2017-2019). Red = 2017, green = 2018, blue = 2019. Lent is observed during the 40-day period before Easter and varies based on a Lunar calendar. The Lent period was March 1 to April 13 in 2017, February 14 to March 29 in 2018, and March 6 to April 18 in 2019.

Figure 4. Monthly seafood imports to the United States by A) volume and B) revenue for three product categories (fresh, frozen, preserved), average 2017-2019. The y-axis is normalized by dividing the monthly values by the maximum monthly value. Unit price not plotted. Preserved includes prepared and preserved products.

Figure 5. Monthly United States commercial fisheries landings by volume and revenue, average 2017–2019. The y-axis is normalized by dividing the monthly values by the maximum monthly value.

Figure 6. Monthly regional fresh (red line) and frozen (teal line) retail seafood sales by volume and revenue, average 2017–2019. The y-axis is normalized by dividing the monthly values by the maximum monthly value. Acronyms: N.Eng = New England; M. Atl = Middle Atlantic; S. Atl = South Atlantic; Pac = Pacific; G. Lake = Great Lakes; Gulf = Gulf; S. Inl = South Inland; MW. Inl = Midwest Inland; W. Inl = West Inland, US avg = total US average (Regions mapped in Figure 1).

Figure 7. Monthly regional commercial fisheries landings by volume, average 2017–2019. The y-axis is normalized by dividing the monthly values by the maximum monthly value.

Figure 8. Regional markets for domestic fisheries products showing species groups that are well aligned between regional landings and fresh retail sales. Significant cross correlation coefficients (rho) cutoff ≥0.6. Rho values presented by species group in Figure 9. Regions provided in Figure 1.

Figure 9. Regional fresh retail seafood sales (teal) versus regional domestic fisheries landings (red). Species groups with correlation coefficients (rho) ≥60 are plotted. Rho values reported in the subtitle. The y-axis is normalized by dividing the monthly values by the maximum monthly value.

Figure 10. Monthly retail sales, domestic landings, and imports for four example species A) bluefish, B) swordfish, C) halibut, and D) salmon, average 2017–2019. The y-axis is normalized by dividing the monthly values by the maximum monthly value. No imports of bluefish.

NOAA Fisheries. 2022b. Commercial Fisheries Landings.

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Data availability

Data are available upon request. Nielsen is a proprietary dataset and cannot be shared.