Global Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Seafood Industry

For nearly two years, local, regional, and global fisheries and seafood supply chains have been forced to adjust and adapt to the unprecedented conditions brought on by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Across the diverse landscape that makes up the global seafood sector, fishers, communities, industry, and governments have developed an array of strategies, innovations, and coping mechanisms to ensure survival— of their families, communities, and businesses. Some of these responses have been more successful than others; some worked well at the beginning of the crisis but are now perhaps no longer as effective. Within this dynamic and rapidly evolving frontier, both vulnerabilities and opportunities have emerged. This study seeks to synthesize the complex conditions and ou comes to date, and provide an overview of the current landscape of change. Within that landscape we explore which trends or pa terns emerged simply as stop gaps in a moment of crisis, and which shifts are likely to last in the long-term.