Author: Mildred Bell

For a few years now, a decent deli’s canned fish area has been subtly becoming more fascinating. What was once a functional shelf has evolved into something more like to a specialty area, with premium Spanish conservas, Portuguese sardines in olive oil, and properly labeled smoked oysters. The seafood charcuterie board, or seacuterie if you’re willing to use the term in public, was a logical development for home entertainers who wanted something that felt more thoughtful than a typical appetizer spread because of this change in perceptions of canned and smoked seafood. The flavor landscape is different from that of…

The distinction between farming and fishing in federal policy was so obvious for the majority of the previous century that it was hardly necessary to explain it. Farmers cultivated crops on land. On the water, fishermen labored. The Commerce Department and NOAA were for one, and the USDA was for the other. Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina is the sponsor of two amendments to the 2026 Farm Bill that would start redrawing that jurisdictional line. These amendments would be discreetly added by voice vote to one of the biggest agricultural bills that Congress has produced in a long time.…

No one plans a fishing vacation to Iceland with the expectation that it will transform them. The pitch isn’t like that. There are basalt canyons, salmon in gin-clear water, a cabin with a sauna, and a respectable wine list. Realistic. Gorgeous. A pleasant week off. However, the unique circumstances of fly fishing in Iceland—the beat system, the quiet, the enduring light—tend to have an impact on people that is more difficult to characterize than the scenery. It includes the beat system. Iceland controls its rivers so that a single angler or small group can only use a specific area of…

Huynh Chanh Thi, a Vietnamese fisherman, informed a state newspaper at the beginning of December 2025 that January will be different. The restriction that had prohibited him from landing the majority of his catch would no longer be in effect for the first time in months as the peak skipjack season approached. “Everyone will take their boats out to sea,” he stated, “instead of abandoning them like in the past.” There is genuine relief in that quote. The previous year had been extremely challenging for coastal fishing towns along Vietnam’s south-central coast; this wasn’t because the fish weren’t there, but…

As you go along Louisiana Highway 56 in the direction of the Gulf, you will come to a place where the road begins to seem uncertain. This is where the land narrows, the marsh approaches from both sides, and the number of boats parked in yards begins to surpass that of cars. The shrimp boat is a family asset in a town like Chauvin or Dulac that falls into the same category as the house: it is something that is passed down, maintained at actual cost, and essential to people’s understanding of what they do. Additionally, it’s becoming more and…

Early in the evening, the train departs Moscow’s Yaroslavsky Station, and by the time the station lights disappear behind you and the city vanishes into birch woodland, you begin to realize that the next six days will be unlike any other type of travel. Meals are served when the train stops, people converse in the hallways, and the outside world primarily appears as a series of platform stops where, if you know to look, ladies in winter coats sell fish from baskets. The Trans-Siberian Railway is a journey that operates on its own schedule. Before leaving, the fish-only restriction seemed…

This meal has been prepared in Sicilian households for so long that no one can fully recall when it first appeared. Without much fanfare, it appears on tables in Palermo and Catania as a weekday dinner, a cupboard cleanout, or something a grandma prepares in the time it takes to boil a pot of water. Pasta con le Sarde is one of those dishes that shows how much can be made from practically nothing: two tins of sardines, a fennel bulb, a handful of raisins and pine nuts, and a teaspoon of saffron that gives the entire dish an unexpected…

The supply chain for seafood that relies on paper has long been recognized as an issue. A box of shrimp may be transferred five times between a Mexican ship and an import facility in Nevada, and the paperwork at each point—a packing slip here, an invoice there—was frequently produced on various systems by various individuals using various formats. It could take days for the FDA to track down the source of a contamination event. FSMA Section 204 was created to address this issue, and it has been gradually approaching enforceability for years. The requirements of the rule are specific. Companies…

A little fishing boat is pulling anchovies from the Pacific somewhere off the coast of Peru. Those fish will have traveled through at least three jurisdictions, changed hands many times, and gone through more paperwork than most people sign in a year by the time they arrive at a European aquafeed facility and ultimately wind up as farmed salmon on a London restaurant plate. The question that is currently keeping compliance teams, investors, and supermarket buyers up at night is whether any of that paperwork truly reflects what actually happened—where the fish came from, who caught it, and under what…

A morning at Toyosu market, a few counter seats at a sushi bar in Ginza or Shinjuku, and perhaps a kaiseki dinner somewhere close to Gion are the typical routes taken by most food visits to Japan. Without a doubt, it’s all worthwhile. The issue with organizing a trip that revolves solely around Tokyo and Kyoto, however, is that Japan’s truly remarkable seafood culture is found mostly elsewhere: in northern islands where sea urchins feed on kelp so rich that it tastes entirely different from anything served in a city restaurant; in morning markets where fishermen are still washing down…