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Swordfish
Demand for swordfish plateaus, while landings and
imports decline
By James Wright
November 01, 2006
Fall is prime time in the Northeast for fresh swordfish -
big ones with peak fat content after a summer of gorging on
smaller fish on the Grand Banks. This is when buyers look to
Boston and pay top dollar for the swordfish fleet's
harvest.
This seasonal buying practice is routine for small
wholesalers and independent restaurant owners, while
large-scale distributors rely mostly on imports. That's partly
because today the sword market in New England bears scant
resemblance to its salad days two decades ago.
There's a good chance that even the fish available from
Boston purveyors is imported.
"A lot of it's from Canada," says Darryl Parker, owner of
Cherry Street Fish Market in Danvers, Mass. He buys five or six
fish per week from suppliers in Boston. His retail price in
early October was $9.99 per pound.
"If you have the right sources, you can get a heads up on
who's got good fish coming in," says Parker. "But the whole
market's been narrowed down to a handful of dealers."
Massachusetts, which once led the nation in the swordfish
harvest back in the 1980s with annual landings nearing 3
million pounds, now struggles to reel in what was once a
signature species. The state's catch in 2004, according to the
most recent statistics available from the National Marine
Fisheries Service, was a mere 278,461 pounds, a 73 percent drop
from the year before.
The domestic catch is now fronted by California, which
caught 2.6 million pounds of Pacific swordfish in 2004. In
total, U.S. swordfish landings in 2004 were the lowest since
the 1970s - just 6 million pounds, down a third from the
previous year.
Imports are in a decline as well. Through July of this year,
imports were down 3 percent from last year at the same time. In
2005, 22.4 million pounds were imported, a 35 percent decline
from 2002. Still, importers say supplies will be ample.
"[Supply has] been great. The last couple of months it's
been too good, because the price is in the gutter," says Tim
Lycke, GM of seafood importer Incredible Fresh in Miami.
Swordfish production in Central and South America was "red hot"
in early October, Lycke says, with prices in the low-$3
range.
Demand for swordfish is down, perhaps because the public
image of swordfish is still in repair mode. The effects of the
well-publicized chef boycott, "Give Swordfish a Break,"
spearheaded by SeaWeb in 1998, are a matter of debate, but its
impact was certainly felt.
Additionally, in 2004 swordfish was included on the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration's list of seafood species to avoid
because of elevated methylmercury levels.
Most swordfish dealers agree that the boycott had more
impact than the federal government's warning, because since it
was lifted in 2000 the species has been on the comeback trail
in foodservice operations and high-end retailers.
Despite the negative press, swordfish is a steady market,
according to Phil Walsh of Alfa Gamma Seafood Group of Miami,
which sources markers (100 pounds and up) mainly from Panama
and Ecuador.
Walsh says swordfish may have "topped off" in recent years,
but because of its relatively high price and esteem, the fish
remains in the good graces of white-tablecloth restaurants and
savvy consumers who know what they're looking for in the
seafood case.
"Good sword is expensive," says Walsh. "But, honestly,
that's what people want when they buy sword. There's no middle
ground.
"It's a steady business because it's a wonderful fish, but
at $14 or $16 a pound, you just don't get the same kind of
volume that you get with $6.99."
In early October, swordfish from Central and South America
was priced in the mid-$3 range for fish 50 to 99 pounds each
and around $4 for markers, according to Urner Barry data.
Domestic fish were priced a bit higher for larger fish.
Gauging quality
A reliable quality barometer for swordfish is the bloodline,
the area of red muscle that surrounds two blood vessels than
run the length of the fish, very close to its skin.
Swordfish constantly adjust the amount of blood flowing
through these vessels by constricting or expanding the muscle
area to help regulate body temperature as they migrate.
In a cross-section of swordfish, also known as a "wheel
cut," check the color and shape. Typically, the redder and
tighter the spiral pattern, the better.
Avoid fish with a brown bloodline. But bloodline is not the
sole indicator of quality; look at the meat color, too. It
should be a nice white or pink color, not a dark
gray-brown.
Some swordfish take on an orange hue and are known as
"pumpkins." Their value is typically higher.
November is when the best buys for sword can be found,
especially from California as the fishery peaks and prices drop
for whole fish. High-production season for South American
fisheries is from March to October.
Supply outlook
Massachusetts is not the only state where landings have
plummeted. California and Hawaii's harvests have been severely
limited by longline fishing restrictions and remain hampered by
pressure to keep fishing activity to a minimum.
Further, the International Commission for the Conservation
of Atlantic Tunas, which regulates the number of swordfish
caught in the Atlantic Ocean, is expected to set the quota this
month for each country that hunts swordfish.
The United States has not reached its quota since 1992, when
more than 21 million pounds of sword were harvested.
Therefore, it is expected that ICCAT will cut the U.S. quota
and give the balance to other countries, of which there are
many. The United States imported sword, harvested in temperate
zones around the world, from 37 different nations in 2005.
U.S. imports of fresh swordfish are led by Canada and
Panama, respectively. Combined, the two countries account for
about 40 percent of all swordfish exported to the United
States.
Singapore is far and away the leading supplier of frozen
swordfish. The 5.6 million pounds imported from Singapore in
2005 represented 87 percent of the frozen fillet market.
Regardless of which country will be harvesting the most
swordfish,
expect supply to be adequate, if not abundant.
"There'll be no oversupply," says Walsh. "But we'll never
not have it."
Assistant Editor James Wright can be
e-mailed at
jwright@divcom.com