In a recent episode of Food Talk — Food Tank’s podcast hosted by Dani Nierenberg — NAMA Coordinating Director Niaz Dorry discussed the growing consolidation of seafood systems and the importance of rebuilding regional fisheries. She also highlighted how diversifying the seafood we eat could help support fishing communities and healthier ocean ecosystems.

During the conversation, Niaz examined how policies like catch shares have driven consolidation in fisheries in the U.S. and globally, pushing many small-scale fishermen out of the industry while concentrating fishing rights into fewer hands. She also warned that industrial aquaculture is heading down a similar path and drew parallels between industrial fish farming and land-based factory farms.

“The question is whether you want a food system that prioritizes high volume, low value operations, or you want a food system that prioritizes low volume, high value operations,” she said.

Niaz also spoke about the need to move beyond a narrow seafood market dominated by only a handful of species: “When it comes to the seafood system, we’re stuck with shrimp and salmon and cod and haddock and now tilapia. The ocean is a very diverse environment. Here in the Northeast, fishermen catch over 60 different varieties of fish. Unfortunately, only about a dozen of them are considered valuable in the traditional market. [But] it doesn’t have to be that way.”

Main photo by Shley Suarez-Burgos