This study
finds that 40–47% of the U.S. seafood supply is lost.
We detail the enormous nutritional implications of this loss, which
is particularly troubling in light of the 2010 USDA Dietary
Guidelines recommendation to more than double seafood intake.
The loss exacts
financial costs up and down the supply chain, and causes unnecessary losses to
fisheries and other parts of our
ecosystem needed for food security and our long-term survival. A
portion of the loss of seafood is unavoidable, especially because
seafood can spoil quickly compared to other foods, but continuing
to treat our aquatic resources as though they are limitless is
unsustainable and detrimental to the environment and public
health. Reducing loss of seafood will require complex and diverse
actions by many different participants in the supply chain, from
production to consumption, and future research can serve to
monitor and evaluate these efforts.