Muntin Open Data · Explorer CC0 raw CC-BY derived

The Domestic Catch

The seafood America eats most of is the seafood it lands least of. Twenty seafood groups, ranked by the seam between what US boats land wild and what the same food's imports are worth — from clams (America lands essentially all it eats) to trout (the domestic wild catch is a rounding error). A nominal value-to-value ratio across different chain points — ex-vessel landings value vs. import CIF value. An apparent-reliance proxy, never a volume share, never a delivered price, never a forecast.

The seam ladder

One rung per group, sorted by the import-to-wild-landings value ratio. Left of the gold pivot: America lands its own. Right of it: the plate lives abroad. Each rung pairs two bars on a shared log-dollar axis — ▲ teal wild-caught domestic value and ● rust import value — so the seam is the gap you read across. The log axis is the honest choice: no linear scale survives a 0.02× to 420× spread.

The seam ladder: twenty US seafood groups ranked by import-to-wild-landings value ratio. Each group is a rung with a teal bar for wild-caught domestic landings value and a rust bar for the same food's import value, on a shared logarithmic dollar axis. A gold pivot line marks the 1.0× crossover where imports equal domestic landings. Clams and scallops sit far left, landing far more than the US imports; shrimp, salmon, octopus, sardine and trout sit far right, where imports dwarf the domestic wild catch. This is a nominal value-to-value ratio across different points in the supply chain, an apparent-reliance proxy, not a consumption share.
Bars use a log dollar scale; the gap between the teal and rust tip is the seam. Confidential state-species rows are withheld by NOAA and lower each domestic sum by absence, never zero-filled — the wild bar is a floor, not a ceiling.

Shrimp and salmon — the two Americans buy hardest — sit deep on the import side. Clams and scallops, which almost nobody thinks about, are the ones the country actually catches. And every group NOAA flags as a negligible US wild fishery lands on the far right: those rungs were never a domestic plate to begin with.

Where the value lands · 2024

New England (34%) and Alaska (23%) carry 57% of the national landed value. Select a region to filter the ladder to the groups it lands, or pick a group above to see its regional split. Lobster is New England; salmon is Alaska.

2024 US commercial landed value by NOAA region. 2024 landed value by region: New England 33.9%, Alaska 23%, Pacific Coast 16.6%, Gulf 13.8%, Middle Atlantic 6.3%, South Atlantic 3.4%, Hawaii 3%. New England and Alaska together carry 57 percent. Share of nominal ex-vessel landed value, computed from the raw CC0 rows; not a forecast.
Share of 2024 ex-vessel landed value across NOAA regions, computed from the raw CC0 rows. Region segments are buttons that filter the ladder above.

The record goes dark · 1950–2024

One thin column per year, shaded by the share of species-state rows NOAA withholds for confidentiality. Near-white across five decades, then it abruptly darkens to roughly 30% from about 2007 on — the dataset measurably withholding itself, co-occurring with fleet consolidation. This is the site's "null degrades by absence" rule made literal (co-occurrence, never cause).

Share of species-state landing rows withheld for confidentiality, by year, 1950 to 2024. Confidentiality suppression share by year. Zero percent of rows were withheld from 1950 through about 2005, then the share jumps and holds near 30 percent from about 2007 onward. In 2024, about 30.9 percent of species-state rows are withheld to protect fisheries with too few operations to report. Absence, stated as co-occurrence with fleet consolidation, never cause. Not a forecast.
Suppression share = null-dollar rows ÷ all rows that year. A withheld row protects fisheries with too few operations to report without disclosing a business; it is absence, never a zero. Consolidation is stated as co-occurrence, not cause.

Every rung, as data

This table is the source of record — it works with no JavaScript, and the ladder above is an enhancement of it. Column headers sort; the group name opens its walk-through.

US commercial wild landings vs. import value, 20 seafood groups. Wild = nominal ex-vessel landings value (round weight); Import = CIF import value of the same food; Ratio = import ÷ wild. Latest year 2024; value series 1950–2024. Groups flagged min have a negligible US wild fishery (NOAA domestic_wild_minimal).
min$124K$52.1M420× 4%$0.77
min$973K$217.9M224× 5%$0.26
min$689K$41.2M60× 21%$0.07
min$309K$15.8M51× 35%$0.63
min$2.7M$43.2M16× 33%$4.16
$9.7M$144.3M15× 42%$1.34
min$3.0M$19.6M6.49× 24%$0.45
$394.1M$2.46B6.25× 43%$0.94
$312.0M$1.62B5.18× 41%$1.35
$109.3M$437.4M4.00× 35%$0.29
$59.7M$205.6M3.44× 100%$5.14
$134.2M$435.9M3.25× 60%$3.37
$22.7M$62.0M2.73× 71%$6.19
$102.4M$257.8M2.52× 86%$4.03
$106.4M$243.7M2.29× 69%$0.65
$694.4M$1.55B2.24× 74%$3.16
$85.5M$173.9M2.04× 38%$3.78
$776.4M$641.6M0.83× 79%$6.52
$334.0M$21.5M0.06× 50%$15.66
$171.5M$2.6M0.01× 71%$5.40

Ratio pairs a wild-catch domestic figure against a largely-farmed import stream — never a like-for-like apparent-consumption share. Value is nominal ex-vessel dollars, never a delivered price; $/lb is round weight, never edible yield, and exists only at the 2024 edge because the file carries a 75-year value spine but a single latest-year pounds figure.

75-year landings value · nominal ex-vessel dollars

Where this group lands · 2024 by region

Share of this group's 2024 landed value by NOAA region, from the raw CC0 rows.

Species roster

The two-license seam