U.S. seafood consumption has changed dramatically in recent decades and has become increasingly dominated by the consumption of a limited number of species that are primarily imported and predominantly sourced from aquaculture fisheries. In getting to this point, the U.S. has been, and still is, at the forefront of some of the most important trends in global seafood markets. Hence, identifying the factors influencing US seafood consumption patterns is an interesting and informative endeavor, and will most likely also have strong predictive power for the continued development of seafood markets in the U.S. and beyond. In this paper we will discuss the transitions in the U.S. seafood market, primarily focusing on the period from 1990 to the present, highlighting the main factors that facilitated this development. We will provide a brief overview of U.S. landings, aquaculture production, exports and imports. We will also explore contributing trends in global export and import markets. This will be followed by a discussion of U.S. per capita consumption patterns and an examination of the consolidation of species consumed over time. Finally, we will discuss the implications for future trends in seafood consumption and production.

Recently, the aquaculture industry has expanded to meet growing global seafood demand through increased investment in technological innovations; one of which being the development of genetically modified (GM) fish. One GM fish has been approved for human consumption in the U.S. but has been halted from reaching the market until a GM labeling standard is set. The National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard (NBFDS) was signed into law in July 2016 and set to be implemented in January 2020. Under the NBFDS, foods containing any of the commercially available GM foods and/or derivatives will require mandatory disclosure. Considering these developments, it is only a matter of time before consumers and the seafood supply chain are faced with decisions involving GM seafood. We investigate consumer preferences for GM seafood using an online choice experiment to determine willingness to pay for Atlantic Salmon fillets with labels denoting the presence or absence of GM technology. We test the impact of additional market information on demand for labeled products. We find participants are willing to pay a premium for fillets that are labeled as certified non-GM, organic, or GM-fed, and require a discount for fillets labeled GM. Our results confirm previous conjectures that market information about biotechnology has a polarizing effect on demand. We highlight the marketing challenges faced by producers of GM seafood and opportunities for improved science communication about novel food technologies.

Salmons popularity with seafood consumers across the U.S. is evidenced by the $3.4 billion in salmon imports in 2018, the second largest imported seafood group (second only to shrimp products, 2018 imports were $5.1 billion). Approximately two-thirds of these imports are farmed salmon products. Despite the wide availability of farmed salmon products, wild Pacific salmon products continue to be viable due in part to the increased sensitivity of seafood consumers to product attributes such as mode of production (wild or farmed) and specific salmon species (e.g., Chinook or Sockeye). Seafood consumers, and particularly California seafood consumers, may be more sensitive to these attributes given Pacific salmons economic and cultural status along the U.S. Pacific Coast(Alaska to California).Though in its early stages, this research seeks to better understand California salmon consumers by first investigating a fresh salmon dataset (2010 - 2016) that includes scanner data from grocery retailers. These data include information on total annual sales (volume, dollars) at the county level, and label information such as wild vs. farmed, salmon species, and place/country of origin. Whether California fresh seafood consumers appear to be motivated by seafood label attributes and whether fresh salmon sales show sensitivity to county-level demographic trends will be discussed.