Seafood by the numbers

Local seafood by the numbers:

• In 2017, the latest year stats are available, BC harvested and grew 279.4 million kilograms of seafood.

• BC produces enough fish and shellfish for every person in BC to eat about 56 kilograms (123 pounds) of seafood per year.

• Canadians actually eat about 8 kilograms (18 pounds) of seafood per year - and much of that is imported. We eat more than three times more chicken, beef and pork. Where is the rest of that seafood going?

• Nationally, $6.9 billion in seafood value was exported in 2018.

• Canada’s top seafood exports are lobster, Atlantic salmon, crab & shrimp.

• Canada’s biggest seafood imports are shrimp, salmon, lobster, tuna and crab.

• Nationally, $4 billion in seafood value was imported.

• In BC, 1.3 billion of seafood was exported in 2017. Due to how seafood numbers are reported, it’s difficult to assess exactly how much of BC’s total seafood is exported.

• Most of BC’s exports go to the US, China, Japan, Hong Kong and Ukraine.

• Of the salmon farmed in BC, 72 percent is exported. Of the 3.5 million wild-caught salmon, “the vast bulk” is exported.

• $49.5 million in chinook was exported in 2017.

• Four percent of British Columbians bought a recreational fishing license for the ocean in 2015 - a percentage that has remained steady since 2000. Their top three catches were shrimp, crab and chinook.

• 177,000 British Columbians fished in the ocean in 2015; 70,600 nonresidents fished in BC waters.

Sources are Canada’s Fisheries Fast Facts 2018; BC Seafood Industry Year in Review 2017; 2017 BC Agrifood & Seafood Int. Export Highlights; and Statistics Canada’s food availability survey.