America’s commercial fishers landed 7.7 billion pounds of seafood worth $4.9 billion in 2024 — and the story behind those two numbers is more interesting than either one alone. The catch fell sharply, yet fishers earned more for every pound they brought ashore. That is the headline from Fisheries of the United States 2024, NOAA Fisheries’ annual statistical yearbook, released on Friday, 30 October 2026 alongside two companion reports: the 2025 Status of Stocks report to Congress and Fisheries Economics of the United States 2024.
For fisheries students, researchers and seafood businesses, this is the single most-quoted dataset in American fisheries — the equivalent of CMFRI’s marine landings booklet for India. This post breaks down the full 2024 scorecard: what was caught, what it was worth, which ports and species led, how much Americans ate, and the $321 billion economy the whole sector supports.
America’s 2024 fisheries scorecard at a glance
| Indicator (2024) | Figure | Change vs 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial landings | 7.7 billion pounds (3.5 million metric tonnes) | Down 775.3 million pounds (−9.2%) |
| Landings value (ex-vessel) | $4.9 billion | Down $177.8 million (−3.6%) |
| Average price paid to fishers | 64 cents per pound | Up 4 cents (+6.7%) |
| Finfish share | 88% of landed weight, 45% of value | — |
| Seafood imports (edible) | 6.4 billion pounds, $25 billion | — |
| Seafood exports | 2.3 billion pounds, $4.4 billion | — |
| Per capita seafood consumption | 18.4 pounds per person | — |
| Share of seafood eaten that was imported | 82% | — |
| US aquaculture production | 561 million pounds, $1.3 billion | — |
| Recreational fishing trips | Nearly 194 million | — |
| Total industry sales impact | $321 billion; 1.7 million jobs | — |
Source: NOAA Fisheries, Fisheries of the United States 2024 (October 2026) and the 30 October 2026 NOAA release announcing the three reports. NOAA notes the figures are preliminary and subject to revision as more data arrives from regional partners.
Landings fell 9.2% — but fishers earned more per pound
The most important number in the report is not the headline total but the gap between the two declines. Landings by weight fell 9.2%, yet the value of the catch fell only 3.6%. The reason: the average ex-vessel price — what fishers are actually paid at the dock — rose to 64 cents per pound, 4 cents more than in 2023.
In other words, Americans bought less fish from their own waters in 2024, but paid more for each pound. That is a very different story from a collapsing fishery. It points to a mix of tighter supply, strong demand for high-value species, and the long-running pattern NOAA has tracked for decades: US capture production has stayed within a narrow band of roughly 86 to 94 million tonnes of aquatic animals globally since the late 1980s, and the American fleet’s volumes move within a similar plateau while prices do the adjusting.
Finfish still dominate the American catch by weight — 88% of all landings — but they account for only 45% of the value. The money, as the species table below shows, sits in shellfish: lobsters, crabs and scallops earn far more per pound than the big-volume whitefish.
Top species by value: lobster is king
| Rank by value | Species / group | 2024 landed value |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lobsters | $776.4 million |
| 2 | Crabs | $694.4 million |
| 3 | Alaska pollock | $432.5 million |
| 4 | Salmon | $394.1 million |
| 5 | Sea scallops | $332.0 million |
By volume the order flips. Alaska pollock is America’s largest commercial fishery: 3.1 billion pounds landed in 2024 — about 40% of the entire national catch by weight — followed by menhaden (1.2 billion pounds, mostly processed into fishmeal and fish oil rather than eaten directly), salmon (421.2 million pounds), Pacific cod (373.9 million pounds) and Pacific hake (316.5 million pounds).
The contrast between the two tables is the whole economics of American fishing in one picture. Pollock feeds the world — it is the fish in fish sticks, surimi and fast-food fillets, and it tops NOAA’s processed-products list too — while lobster and crab, caught in far smaller quantities, bring in the most money at the dock.
Two ports, two streaks that never break
Dutch Harbor, Alaska, kept its position as America’s leading port by seafood volume for the 26th consecutive year — a streak built on the Bering Sea pollock fleet. New Bedford, Massachusetts, ranked first in catch value for the 24th consecutive year, driven primarily by the sea scallop fishery. No other American port comes close to either record.
That scallop connection matters for readers following NOAA’s current consultations: the New Bedford fleet’s economics are exactly why the agency’s proposal to let two scallop permits stack on a single vessel — now in public consultation — is so closely watched. We covered that proposal and its 4 January 2027 comment deadline in detail: 2 Scallop Permits on 1 Boat? NOAA Wants Your Say.
Recreational fishing: 194 million trips, 1 billion fish
The commercial numbers are only half the report. In 2024, American anglers took nearly 194 million saltwater fishing trips, caught an estimated 1 billion fish and released 68% of them. Striped bass was the top harvested species by weight, spotted seatrout the top by number of fish, and spot the top species by total catch including released fish.
The recreational sector’s economic footprint is enormous: 685,000 jobs, $146 billion in sales impacts and $78.9 billion in value-added impacts in 2024. Put together with the commercial side, NOAA puts the combined footprint of US commercial fishing, seafood and recreational fishing at $321 billion in sales and 1.7 million jobs.
Aquaculture: small volume, outsized value
US fish farmers produced 561 million pounds of farmed seafood valued at $1.3 billion in 2024. That is only about 7% of the wild-catch volume, but because American aquaculture focuses on high-value products — oysters, clams, Atlantic salmon, shrimp and mussels lead the farmed list — it represents 26% of the value of US seafood products.
The gap with the rest of the world is stark. Globally, aquaculture passed 100 million tonnes of aquatic animals for the first time in 2024, at 103 million tonnes, and now supplies 53% of all aquatic animal production. The United States, by contrast, still catches far more than it farms — one reason NOAA’s release frames aquaculture as “poised as a key driver to increase American seafood competitiveness”.
Trade: America imports $25 billion, exports $4.4 billion
The United States imported 6.4 billion pounds of edible seafood products worth $25 billion in 2024 and exported 2.3 billion pounds worth $4.4 billion. The deficit is structural: Americans ate 18.4 pounds of seafood each, and NOAA estimates 82% of the seafood Americans ate in 2024 came from foreign imports.
The top import partners were Canada, Chile, India, Indonesia and Vietnam; the top export markets were Canada, China, Japan, the Netherlands and South Korea. India’s place on that import list is the direct stake for Indian exporters in these numbers: the US is one of the biggest buyers of Indian shrimp, and every shift in American landings, prices and import appetite feeds straight back into Indian farm-gate prices. For the Indian side of the trade, see our coverage of India’s seafood exports — Tamil Nadu Tops, Gujarat Slips: 3.57M-Tonne Catch — and the global picture in EU Catches Hit New Low: 3.3M Tonnes in 2025.
On the processing side, US domestic production of edible fishery products was valued at $10.8 billion in 2024, with industrial products (fishmeal, fish oil and other non-food uses) at $721.5 million. The highest-value processed species were Pacific pollock, sockeye salmon, shrimp, tuna and cod.
The $321 billion economy, broken down
| Sector (2024) | Jobs supported | Sales impacts | Income / value-added |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial fisheries | 1 million | $175 billion | $44 billion income; $70 billion value-added |
| Recreational fishing | 685,000 | $146 billion | $78.9 billion value-added |
| Combined | 1.7 million | $321 billion | — |
These are the figures from Fisheries Economics of the United States 2024, the second of the three reports released on 30 October. They are the numbers NOAA itself uses when it argues for domestic seafood production: the sector is not a niche coastal trade but an industry comparable in scale to major manufacturing segments.
Sustainability: overfishing list at a record low
The third report, Status of Stocks 2025, is the encouraging one. NOAA tracks 522 stocks or stock complexes and conducted 173 stock assessments in fiscal year 2025. The number of stocks subject to overfishing fell from 23 to 15 — the lowest level ever recorded. Of the 372 stocks with a known overfishing status, 96% are not subject to overfishing. The overfished list held steady at 42 stocks, with 84% of the 265 stocks with a known overfished status not overfished. Another stock joined the rebuilt list, bringing the total rebuilt since 2000 to 52 — including Atlantic blue marlin, removed from the overfishing list for the first time since 1998, and Quillback rockfish off California.
We reported the stocks story in full when it was released: US Overfishing Falls to Record Low: Just 15 Stocks. The FUS 2024 landings data and the Status of Stocks findings belong together: the catch fell in 2024 while the share of stocks fished sustainably rose — the pattern managers aim for, even when it means fewer pounds at the dock in the short term.
How to read the reports yourself
All three reports are free and public. If you are a student, researcher or seafood professional, here is the fastest way to use them:
- Start with the NOAA release — “NOAA Fisheries releases reports on status and trends of U.S. fisheries and economic impacts” (30 October 2026) — for the headline numbers and the links to all three reports: fisheries.noaa.gov.
- Open the Fisheries of the United States 2024 highlights page for the landings, ports, species, trade and consumption tables in one place: fisheries.noaa.gov — Fisheries of the United States.
- Download the full FUS 2024 PDF (NOAA Current Fishery Statistics No. 2024, October 2026) for the detailed tables, including the year-on-year supply table and the species-by-species breakdowns: fus-2024-final.pdf.
- Query the raw data in NOAA’s Fisheries One Stop Shop (FOSS) portal if you need a specific species, state or year — the reports themselves warn that the published figures are preliminary and subject to revision as regional partners send updates.
- For funding, not just data: NOAA’s Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program is taking full proposals until 22 January 2027 — see NOAA’s $4.6M Bycatch Fund: Full Proposals Due Jan 22.
What this means for Indian readers
Three takeaways. First, the United States is a high-price, high-value market that still imports 82% of what it eats — and India is already one of its top five suppliers, so American price signals matter directly to Indian shrimp and fish exporters. Second, the American experience shows that a catch can fall 9% in a year while the industry stays healthy, because price, species mix and sustainability status matter as much as tonnage — a useful counterweight to the tonnage-first way Indian landings are usually reported. Third, for exam aspirants, the FUS yearbook is a standard source for questions on world fisheries: the 7.7-billion-pound / $4.9-billion pair, the Dutch Harbor and New Bedford streaks, and the 15-stock overfishing low are all quotable facts, and the report’s October 2026 release date makes them current for 2026–27 exams. India, for scale, remains the world’s second-largest producer of aquatic animals with about 9% of global output, according to FAO’s State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2026.
Frequently asked questions
How much seafood did the US land in 2024?
7.7 billion pounds (3.5 million metric tonnes) of commercial landings, valued at $4.9 billion, according to NOAA’s Fisheries of the United States 2024.
Did US landings rise or fall in 2024?
They fell — down 775.3 million pounds (−9.2%) in weight and $177.8 million (−3.6%) in value compared with 2023. But the average dockside price rose 4 cents to 64 cents per pound, so the value fell much less than the volume.
Which species earned the most?
Lobsters ($776.4 million), followed by crabs ($694.4 million), Alaska pollock ($432.5 million), salmon ($394.1 million) and sea scallops ($332.0 million).
Which US port lands the most fish?
Dutch Harbor, Alaska, by volume — for the 26th consecutive year. New Bedford, Massachusetts, leads by value — for the 24th consecutive year, on the strength of the sea scallop fishery.
How much seafood do Americans eat?
18.4 pounds per person in 2024, and about 82% of it was imported. The US imported $25 billion of edible seafood and exported $4.4 billion.
Where can I download the full report?
From NOAA Fisheries: the Fisheries of the United States 2024 PDF (Current Fishery Statistics No. 2024) and the report highlights page at fisheries.noaa.gov, with the underlying data in the Fisheries One Stop Shop (FOSS) portal.
Sources: NOAA Fisheries, “NOAA Fisheries releases reports on status and trends of U.S. fisheries and economic impacts” (published 30 October 2026, read live 14 November 2026); NOAA Fisheries, Fisheries of the United States 2024 highlights page (read live 14 November 2026); NOAA Fisheries, Fisheries of the United States 2024, Current Fishery Statistics No. 2024 (October 2026) — landings, species and price figures; FAO, The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2026 — India as second-largest producer, ~9% of global aquatic animal production. All figures in this post were checked against those official sources on 14 November 2026. Images in this post are illustrations created for Fisheries India.