Rhode Island player in worldwide seafood industry

In southern New England, most of the seafood you see and eat comes from halfway around the world. Unless you pay close attention to where your fish is coming from, it is likely that it is from China or Canada, and the same can be said throughout the country.
According to a September 2011 National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration report, about 86 percent of the seafood consumed in the United States is imported, and almost half of it is from aquaculture, farmed seafood. Conversely, the U.S. exports 63 percent of its domestically produced seafood.
A 2011 Cornell University study of the Rhode Island commercial fishing industry confirmed that the main imported species include butterfish, squid, mackerel and the American lobster. The main species exported included Illex squid, mackerel, and herring. Unfortunately, it states that there’s no readily available data directly tracking state seafood exports and imports.
But what numbers are available suggest a thriving industry. According to the U.S. Department. of Commerce, in 2008, the state was the 12th-largest seafood exporter in the country, with total exports exceeding $30 million. Little Rhody was the second-largest exporter of squid, accounting for nearly 20 percent of total U.S. exports.
According to the Cornell study, the total value of sales of fish in Rhode Island in 2010 was $201 million, a figure that includes sales associated with fish landed by Rhode Island vessels, and transactions for dealers, processors, wholesalers, distributors, restaurants and grocers.
The sales associated with imports in 2010 totaled $562.3 million, and the fishing industry as a whole employed about 7,000.
Seafreeze Ltd., of North Kingstown, is the largest producer of sea-frozen fish on the U.S. East Coast. Their expertise is in international shipping and receiving of frozen fish. Exported species commonly include squid and mackerel and the company supplies a worldwide range of markets. They export frozen fish across the globe, much of it caught off the Rhode Island shore, where it is processed and frozen offshore, at sea.
The Providence Bay Fish Co., of South Kingstown, has been exporting fish for 21 years. Managing Director Martin Vincent said the firm is a brokerage, arranging whole lines of seafood to be sold for overseas use. “We export frozen fish to central Europe, such as Germany, France and the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands. In Asia we supply China, Hong Kong and South Korea, with a little to Australia, the Philippines and New Zealand,” Vincent said. Species they supply include lobster, snow crab, monkfish, dogfish, squid, sea cucumbers, and a variety of others. Generally, the monkfish and scallops originate from New Bedford; the bulk of the remainder comes from Canada. “I learned my trade here, from local seafood exporters in Rhode Island,” he said. But those exporters had relationships with local fishermen, as well as established overseas connections. When Canada enacted a cod moratorium in the early 1990s that closed the fishery, processors up North were forced to focus on other species to survive but were ill-prepared to do so. Vincent showed plants in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and the Canadian Maritimes how to process skate, monkfish and dogfish and his business took off. About 10 years ago they became involved in hake and dogfish from British Columbia.
The company also imports lobster into the U.S. as well as several species used as bait, accounting for less than 10 percent of their business. “About 60 percent of our business is sending Canadian seafood overseas,” Vincent said.
The arrangement is not unusual. Seasource Imports Ltd. of East Providence is a seafood importer. According to partner Michael Burke the company brings in lobster and scallops from Canada, and langostinos, crawfish and scallops from China. Only 5 percent, however, remains in New England; the remainder is sent to the West Coast and Florida.
At Sea-Trek Enterprises Inc. in East Greenwich, the biggest imported product is Canadian snow crab. “The bulk of the people we sell to are the casino businesses and buffet lines across the country,” said Kenneth Sullivan, a sales representative.
Another big import is sea scallops from Japan.
The Town Dock in Narragansett is the largest wholesale purchaser of squid on the East Coast. The processor has been located on the dock in Galilee for 30 years, providing fishermen an outlet for their sales for a generation.
Because of processors such as The Town Dock and Seafreeze, the Cornell study estimated total 2010 income associated with fish landed Rhode Island home-ported vessels was $150 million. &#8226

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