Washington Post
21 April 2014
The seafood on your dinner plate is starting to look a little fishy.
A new study that examined illegal and unreported marine harvests brought into the United States found that some fish shouldn’t be on U.S. tables. Up to 32 percent of imported wild shrimp, crab, salmon, pollock, tuna and other catch is poached, according to the study.
Scientists are concerned about illegal fishing because the world’s oceans can barely sustain legal seafood harvests. Eighty-five percent of the world’s commercial seafood grounds “are fished up to their biological limits or beyond,” the study said.
Earlier studies have shown that illegal and underreported fishing accounts for up to 31 percent of the world’s catch, but this study is the first to examine how much of it slips past the better-inspected ports of the United States.