Seafood for Everyone: A Conversation with Janet Coit

Seafood for Everyone: A Conversation with Janet Coit

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0:00:01.3 John Sheehan: October is National Seafood Month, a wonderful time to celebrate the amazing, sustainable and diverse seafood of the United States.

0:00:08.2 Speaker 2: My favorite lobster roll.

0:00:10.1 Speaker 3: Giant king crab legs.

0:00:11.9 Speaker 4: The ultimate fried fish recipe.

0:00:13.2 Speaker 5: Well-flayed oysters.

0:00:14.1 Speaker 6: Jumbo shrimp.

0:00:15.3 Speaker 7: Fresh seafood for a lovely dinner.

0:00:16.8 John Sheehan: This is Dive In With NOAA Fisheries, I'm John Sheehan. And today, we're taking a look at the state of the US seafood industry, its opportunities for expansion as evidenced by Americans' growing demand for healthy local seafood, but also the challenges facing it, such as climate change and supply chains disrupted by the pandemic. My guest today is Janet Coit, NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator. Janet regularly criss-crosses the country and discusses these very issues with partners and members of the seafood community.

0:00:45.6 Janet Coit: Top of mind for the seafood community really everywhere I've gone across the country is pride in how well we manage our US fisheries, our strong environmental laws and how important it is to the economy of the US.

0:01:00.2 John Sheehan: Janet took some time to speak with me between trips. Janet Coit, welcome back to Dive In with NOAA Fisheries. Thanks so much.

0:01:06.4 Janet Coit: Thank you, John.

0:01:06.5 John Sheehan: So, Janet, you've been recently in several port communities. I'm wondering what concerns you're hearing about, whether it's infrastructure or working waterfronts?

0:01:17.5 Janet Coit: Working waterfronts and maintaining them is an issue that came up in every single regional council meeting we had, and it's come up every place that I've traveled. Gentrification or the loss of working waterfronts that are proximate to ports and population hubs is a real concern. Once you lose that infrastructure, you don't have a place to land a fish. I might add that recently on my visit at Dutch Harbor, which is probably our most difficult to reach fishing port, it's very far west in the Aleutian Chain, and a huge amount of fish are landed at that port. And it's very harsh conditions, it's not easy to fly in and fly out, building and maintaining infrastructure there is expensive. So if we wanna support our fisheries in the US, we definitely need to help support the infrastructure that's foundational to those businesses.

0:02:09.9 John Sheehan: Yeah, I don't think Americans remember necessarily that Dutch Harbor is... It's the biggest... The most fish landings occur there, I believe?

0:02:17.0 Janet Coit: Yes.

0:02:18.3 John Sheehan: It's hugely important to the economy.

0:02:19.9 Janet Coit: It is. The most landings by volume come in at Dutch Harbor, so it's a privilege in this job to get to see places like that, but even more so to meet the people who work there. And in each of the coastal communities, there's a lot of excitement about the science really that underpins our fisheries management, also a lot of concern about climate change.

0:02:40.6 John Sheehan: Sure. Absolutely. What other climate change concerns are you seeing?

0:02:44.5 Janet Coit: So the biggest concern in regard to climate change when I talk to people within the industry is really predicting the changes. There's a concern about obviously if a species like crab in Alaska is crashing, why is that happening. If fish aren't coming back, if salmon aren't coming back into a river, why is that happening? A lot of times, our scientists believe it's a combination of factors, but among them are warming waters or changes due to climate change. And for the people that are employed in the many, many businesses surrounding American seafood, they would like to have a better opportunity to predict and understand what's happening to make sure they're protecting their investment, and underneath all of that is protecting the natural resource that we depend upon.

0:03:30.5 John Sheehan: And along with the science that I think NOAA Fisheries is sort of well-known for its wild catch management, there's a lot more research and development going into aquaculture.

0:03:41.6 Janet Coit: Yes, there's a lot of excitement about the potential growth of aquaculture within NOAA Fisheries and in the communities that we visit. A majority of our seafood is imported, and a majority of that is farmed seafood. And I think America really needs to up its game when it comes to aquaculture and growing seafood. It's something that's happening within state waters, but we haven't done a lot at the federal level to really promote and support the growth of aquaculture. So I think at NOAA Fisheries, part of our seafood plan is to make it easier for people to site aquaculture projects and to encourage Americans to understand that when we farm fish in America, we're doing it sustainably in an environmentally sensitive way. Bottom line, we think there's great potential to increase aquaculture in the US, and that includes offshore aquaculture projects.

0:04:35.3 John Sheehan: Yeah. And in addition to challenges, I would like to touch on a few opportunities. And one of them you just mentioned, which is economic. United States is a huge market for seafood, and we import most of it. It seems like there's a real opportunity there to close that import-export gap.

0:04:53.6 Janet Coit: That is something that I think people at NOAA Fisheries and in the industry have been talking about for a long time. We wanna promote the benefits of seafood more generally. At the same time, we'd like to see Americans buy more US seafood. We import a majority of our seafood, and if we could change the trade balance, it would be good for American businesses, and it would be good for the economy. And more and more we look at local food infrastructure and think about if we can actually get our food closer to home and not have it travel halfway across the world, there's a lot of benefits there to just the local economy and the environmental footprint.

0:05:31.0 John Sheehan: So, Janet, let's look into the future a little bit. And speaking of opportunities, what would a stronger US seafood sector look like in 10 years?

0:05:39.4 Janet Coit: That's what we're really in this for. I think a stronger sector would have more young people involved in fishing. There's a phenomenon, the graying of the fleet, and we want to encourage and demonstrate that there's an opportunity for young people. We would see working waterfronts on every coast supporting all of the many businesses associated with fishing, the ice makers, the net makers, the folks that are repairing boats. We'd maintain those vital economic centers and infrastructure for fisheries, which can be very large or very small, but we don't wanna see them disappear across America. A future sector that we would maintain and grow the science that we base our fisheries management on and feel confident that even with ecosystem changes as a result of climate change, that we're sustainably managing our fisheries. And we'd see local seafood on more menus with an educated consumer that's asking for seafood. And I think that local food, local stories, the adventure of going out to sea, all of that would continue to be part of our culture in a way that supports a thriving seafood sector.

0:06:49.2 John Sheehan: Absolutely. And lastly, one additional benefit to a strengthened seafood sector would be a lot more local seafood on Americans' plates. Is there a seafood that you wish Americans would embrace maybe more than the shrimp and salmon that's so popular?

0:07:07.8 Janet Coit: First, I love seafood. There isn't a kind of seafood that I've tried that I don't find to be tasty and delicious. Perhaps because I'm from Rhode Island, what I love most are raw oysters. And they really carry with them the taste of the sea, the saltiness, the brininess, the succulence of a raw oyster is something beyond compare. So I would encourage anybody who has the opportunity to try those. I think there's seafood for everyone, and I think what we want people to do is learn more about seafood. And then try it, whether you have a chance to buy it at a farmer's market, your local supermarket or learn to fish.

0:07:44.5 John Sheehan: Janet Coit, thanks so much for talking with me.

0:07:46.8 Janet Coit: John Sheehan, my pleasure.

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0:07:50.2 John Sheehan: Janet Coit is NOAA Fisheries assistant administrator. You can learn more about all the issues we discussed today at fisheries.noaa.gov, or keep up with the latest stories by signing up for one of our newsletters. I'm John Sheehan, and this has been Dive In with NOAA Fisheries.