Loopholes Put Illegally Caught Seafood on Americans' Plates - Oceana USA

Report | February, 2022

Loopholes Put Illegally Caught Seafood on Americans’ Plates

 

Oceana released a report showing that the illegal seafood trade, fueled in part by U.S. demand, is hurting local fishing communities around the world. The United States imported an estimated $2.4 billion worth of seafood derived from IUU fishing in 2019 alone. Oceana says this demonstrates the need to expand traceability and transparency requirements for all seafood imports. The United States is the world’s largest seafood importing country, yet around 60% of imported seafood products are not covered by the U.S. Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP), which requires catch documentation and traceability requirements for some imports. Currently, the program only applies to 13 species and species groups at risk of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and seafood fraud. Read the report here and take action here.