Seafood Handbook

The Seafood Handbook is the most comprehensive seafood directory available online. Featuring more than 100 of the most common seafood species in the U.S. market, the Seafood Handbook is the ultimate guide to seafood sourcing and preparation, brought to you by the editors of SeaFood Business magazine. And it’s free!

Search by finfish or shellfish, or by geographic region. For each type of seafood species, there is a comprehensive overview of the item, its origin, history, availability, product attributes, nutritional value and cooking tips, along with an original hand-drawn depiction.

Type:

Global Supply:

Items found: 111

Crawfish

Crawfish are freshwater crustaceans that resemble miniature lobsters, ranging in size from 3 1/2 to 7 inches. Over 400 species are found worldwide, 250 of which are in North America, living in rivers, lakes, swamps, canals, wetlands and irrigation ditches.

Croaker

The Atlantic croaker is the smallest member of the Sciaenidae family of drums. The species gets its name from the croaking sound it makes from the voluntary contraction of muscles attached to the air bladder, which acts like a resonance chamber.

Cusk

Though regarded as a substitute for cod, many chefs, including James Beard, have argued that “cusk ought to be more popular in its own right.” A member of the Gadidae family, along with cod, haddock and pollock, cusk resembles its relatives through the head, but the rest of its body looks as if it was crossed with an eel.

Cuttlefish

A10-armed mollusk related to octopus and squid, the cuttlefish sports a flat, oblong body and narrow fins. The body is larger and fatter than a squid, making it meatier, and the ink sac is larger than that of the squid or octopus, with darker ink.

Dogfish

This bone-free shark possesses many of the attributes U.S. consumers are looking for. Promoters hope to find greater acceptance for the dogfish by marketing it under a Food-and-Drug-Administration-approved alternative name: “Cape shark.”

Dory

The prized species that shares the dory name is the John Dory (Zeus faber), but only a small volume of this excellent and expensive fish is available in the United States. Two related species from New Zealand, black and smooth oreo dories, are more common to the U.S. market.

Drum

Dozens of drum species are found in tropical waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and in the Gulf Mexico. Of greatest value in a niche U.S. market are the red drum and black drum, named for the loud drumming noise they make by contracting muscles connected to their air bladders.

Eel

American eels are one of 15 related, snakelike fish species that include the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) and eels in tropical or subtropical rivers entering the Pacific or Indian oceans. Eels are catadromous, meaning that they spawn in the ocean but mature in fresh water.

Escolar

Though two fish species are marketed as escolar, L. flavobrunneum is considered the true escolar internationally, and the lesser-valued Ruvettus pretiosus is more widely known as oilfish or castor oil fish. Though considered a succulent species by those familiar with it, escolar’s association with oilfish has tainted its reputation.

Flounder

Around 540 flatfish species belong to the taxonomic order Pleuronectiformes, meaning “sideswimmer.” Flatfish are found throughout the world, though the most commercially important family, Plueronectidae, is concentrated in northern waters.

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