China's Demand for Salmon Grows

During the first nine months of 2008, China's global seafood imports increased 50% to total over one million tons of fish. Recently I ate at a Chinese buffet where I saw customers going for bowl after bowl of Shark Fin Soup and the Sushi chef worked hard to keep enough salmon on the serving tray.  No sooner had he thinly sliced a long fillet and set the red meat out, then the first two customers would take the entire platter between them.   As I stood in line I began to wonder what a increasingly affluent population of 1.3 billion seafood consumers mean for today's salmon population and fisherman.  

In 2006, the USDA reported that China was the second largest single country to consume US salmon products, after Japan. Between 2005 and 2006 US salmon exports to China grew 25% to reach 36,000 tonnes, worth nearly $110 million USD.   During the same period the US imported 22,000 tonnes of salmon from China at a value of $80 million. Evidently salmon is one commodity that the U.S. enjoys a favorable balance of trade with China.   But is this sustainable?  In California officials have cancelled the Chinook Salmon fishing season because of low fish populations caused by over fishing and environmental impacts from dams, pesticides and pollutants from cities.   The message is clear, China's growing consumer purchasing power will continue to grow demand for salmon imports and other seafood.  However as California has demonstrated, nature is increasingly unable to sustain the market's demand for salmon.    Please click this link for a useful Sustainable Seafood Guide from the Monterrey Bay Aquarium to learn how you can help conserve dwindling fish populations.