OVERVIEW

The major types of fish and shellfish harvested from North American waters and used for food include the following:

• Groundfish (haddock, cod, whiting, flounder, and ocean perch), lobster, clams, scallops, snow crab, shrimp, capelin, herring, and sardines from New England and Atlantic Canada

• Oysters, clams, scallops, striped bass, and blue crab from the Middle and South Atlantic

• Shrimp, oysters, red snapper, clams, and mullet from the Gulf Coast

• Lake herring, chubs, carp, buffalofish, catfish, yellow perch, and yellow pike from the Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes

• Alaska pollock, Pacific pollock, tuna, halibut, salmon, Pacific cod, various species of flatfish, king and snow crab ( Chinoecetes opelio; about 200,000,000 lb annually), dungeness crab, scallops, shrimp, and oysters from the Pacific Coast and Alaska

• Catfish, salmon, trout, oysters, and mussels from aquaculture operations in various locations

Fish harvested from tropical waters are reported to have a substantially longer shelf life than fish harvested from cold waters, possibly because of the bacterial flora naturally associated with the fish. Bacteria associated with fish from tropical waters are mainly gram-negative mesophiles, whereas those that cause spoilage of fish during refrigerated storage are usually gram-negative psychrophiles. The time required for this bacterial population shift (from mesophiles to psychrophiles) after refrigeration may account for the increased shelf life.

The major industrial fish used for fish meal and oil is menhaden from the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Also, fish parts not used for human consumption are often used to manufacture fish meal and oil.

Fish meal...