WASHINGTON — Americans are eating slightly less seafood, despite continuing reports of its health benefits.
Seafood consumption totaled 4.908 billion pounds in 2007, down from 4.944 billion a year earlier, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Thursday.
That translates to 16.3 pounds of fish and shellfish per person, down from 16.5 pounds, the agency said.
Americans’ favorite seafood remains shrimp at 4.1 pounds per person, down 0.3 pounds from 2006. Canned seafood, mainly tuna, held steady at 3.9 pounds per person.
Overall the United States imports about 84 percent of its seafood, a steadily increasing proportion.
Other findings reported by the agency:
Dutch Harbor-Unalaska, Alaska, remains the nation’s top fishing port for the 19th year with landings of 777.2 million pounds of fish. The total was down from 911.3 million in 2006.
New Bedford, Mass., is tops in value of landings, primarily due to sea scallops, bringing in $268 million in 2007. It was New Bedford’s eighth year as champ even though it was down from $281.4 million a year earlier.
Ocean recreational anglers caught more than 468 million fish in 2007. That was down slightly from 2006’s record high of 475 million fish, but still the second highest recreational catch total in the last 10 years.
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