--- title: Food Waste: Americans Throw Away Half of Seafood Supply description: Nearly half of the edible seafood in the United States goes to waste as result of inefficiencies and consumer refuse, according to new research. canonical: https://time.com/4046295/seafood-waste/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-23T16:04:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:57:42.110Z article:section: Health og:title: Food Waste: Americans Throw Away Half of Seafood Supply og:description: Nearly half of the edible seafood in the United States goes to waste as result of inefficiencies and consumer refuse, according to new research. og:url: https://time.com/4046295/seafood-waste/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b0399d200ffc986/69886501cf40a8204bc3fd7a/gettyimages-523418309.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4912 og:image:height: 2763 og:image:alt: 523418309 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Food Waste: Americans Throw Away Half of Seafood Supply twitter:description: Nearly half of the edible seafood in the United States goes to waste as result of inefficiencies and consumer refuse, according to new research. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b0399d200ffc986/69886501cf40a8204bc3fd7a/gettyimages-523418309.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Half of Edible Seafood Is Wasted > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Should I Eat Tilapia? [Watch (HLS stream): Should I Eat Tilapia?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/skJVWWc5.m3u8) (1:22)  _Published 2015-06-03. Tilapia is a fine fish to put on your dish, say all five of our experts._  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Sep 23, 2015 4:04 PM UTC  Raw Oysters Raw OystersGetty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Sep 23, 2015 4:04 PM UTC Almost half of the edible seafood in the United States goes to waste as result of inefficiencies and consumer refuse, according to new [research](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378015300340). The study, published in the journal _Global Environmental Change_, suggests that consumers discard 1.3 billion pounds annually, fishers throw away 570 million pounds when they catch the wrong species and 330 pounds are lost during distribution. The total edible seafood supply is about 4.7 billion pounds per year. U.S. [dietary guidelines](http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/sites/default/files/dietary%5Fguidelines%5Ffor%5Famericans/PolicyDoc.pdf) recommend that most Americans increase their seafood intake. The wasted fish contains enough protein to meet the requirements of more than 10 million people each year, according to the study. “If we’re told to eat significantly more seafood but the supply is severely threatened, it is critical and urgent to reduce waste of seafood,” study leader David Love, a Johns Hopkins University researcher, said in a statement. The news follows recent attention by the public and policymakers to the scale of food waste in the U.S. Last week, the federal government [announced plans](http://time.com/4037087/food-waste-united-states/) to cut food waste in half by 2030. “Let’s feed people, not landfills,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said in a statement. **Read More:** [Should I Eat Salmon?](http://time.com/3984098/salmon-omega/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4046295/seafood-waste/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4046295/seafood-waste/"},"headline":"Why Half of Edible Seafood Is Wasted","datePublished":"2015-09-23T16:04:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:57:42.110Z","description":"The total edible seafood supply is about 4.7 billion pounds per year","url":"https://time.com/4046295/seafood-waste/","keywords":["diet"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b0399d200ffc986/69886501cf40a8204bc3fd7a/gettyimages-523418309.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b0399d200ffc986/69886501cf40a8204bc3fd7a/gettyimages-523418309.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"523418309","caption":"523418309","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/diet/","name":"diet"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4046295/seafood-waste/","name":"Why Half of Edible Seafood Is Wasted"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Should I Eat Tilapia?","description":"Tilapia is a fine fish to put on your dish, say all five of our experts.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/skJVWWc5/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-06-03T23:08:26.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/skJVWWc5.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4046295/seafood-waste/","duration":"PT1M22S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4046295/seafood-waste/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```