Seafood Protectionism: Catfish and Salmon

Protectionism is defined as:  “actions and/or policies that are intended to shield domestic production from foreign competition.”

Protectionist acts can be quite discreet or blantantly obvious, and when it comes to seafood, there seems to be no rules to the game.

We have covered this story in this blog before. For example, Monterey Bay Aquarium’s  Seafood Watch program is a good example of a “buyers guide’ which seems to be more focused on protecting a domestic market – specifically Alaska – than protecting our oceans. It certainly isn’t about “buying local” because the last time we looked at a map Alaska was further away from the core of America than two neighboring (gasp…foreign!)countries.

It seems as though the Catfish Farmers of America have taken a page from

Protectionism 101

Monterey Bay Aquarium’s game book. They have long been threatened by imported and affordable catchfish (aka pangasius). They’ve tried to change the name of imported catfish (tra, basa and pangasius) to attempt to confuse the consumer. When that didn’t work, U.S. catfish farmers tried changing the name of their domestic catfish to sexy names such as ‘Delecata’.

Well now they are resorting to a known winner, perhaps taken from the playbook of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute: demarketing. It’s simple; say bad things about your competition, back these “facts” up with some seemingly credible report and pump out a video or two showing just how evil your competitors are. Even better if you can ’encourage’ an environmental group or a wealthy philanthropist to do it for you.

But please don’t lose faith! There are some organizations out there that still follow an ethical path. The National Fisheries Institute ignores political borders and is therefore able to properly follow its mandate – provide American families with the variety of sustainable seafood essential to a healthy diet. To do this, they use things called “facts” and “science”. Weird huh?

The National Fisheries Institute can see right through the attacks from the Catfish Farmers of America on their foreign competitors;

“This campaign is more of the same from a group that does not mind abusing public trust in an effort to wipe out its competition.” – National Fisheries Institute.

Oh, one more thing. It’s not a surprise that the Catfish Farmers of America are happy to reserve 25% of its home page to…guess who…The Monterey Bay Aquarium. 

And what is the Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program’s stance on farmed catfish?

We recommend you look for the country-of-origin label to ensure you’re purchasing U.S. farm-raised catfish instead of imported catfish, like basa and swai, which are sometimes also sold simply as “catfish.”

Surprised? We’re not.