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.

Items found: 38

Abalone Pic

Abalone

Wild abalone populations on the U.S. West Coast and worldwide have been decimated by predation, disease, loss of habitat and overfishing. However, farmed supply is alleviating the harvest shortfall; worldwide, more than 15 abalone species are commercially cultivated.
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Clam, geoduck pic

Clam, Geoduck

The geoduck (pronounced “gooey duck”) is the largest burrowing clam in the world and one of the longest-lived animals, sometimes living more than 100 years. Its name reportedly comes from the Nisqually Indian term “gwe-duk,” which means “dig deep.”
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Clam, hardshell

Clam, Hardshell

These clams are rarely sold by the name “hardshell” or “quahog,” but instead are sold by names reflecting size (1 1/2 to 5 inches), from littlenecks to cherrystones, topnecks and chowders. On the West Coast, Manila clams and Washington steamer clams are sometimes called littlenecks, though they aren’t in this hardshell family.
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Clam, Softshell pic

Clam, Softshell

Softshell is actually a misnomer for this clam, whose oval-shaped shell is actually thin and very brittle. Softshell clams average 1 1/2 to 3 inches in length.
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Clam, surf pic

Clam, Surf

Surf clams are often the “fried clams” featured on menus across the country. This is the most important clam species, by volume, in the United States. Surf clams average 4 1/2 to 8 inches across.
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Cockle Pic

Cockle

Although there are more than 200 species of bivalve mollusks worldwide described as cockles, only a half dozen are harvested on a significant scale as seafood. Once used widely as bait, cockles are now found at high-end restaurants.
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Conch Pic

Conch

Don’t confuse this large, warmwater gastropod with the East Coast whelk, also colloquially called conch. From the family Strombidae, the queen conch (pronounced “conk”) is found primarily in the Caribbean, where it uses a muscular foot to drag itself along the ocean floor.
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Crab, blue pic

Crab, Blue

Blue tinges on dark shells and blue patches on the legs give the crab its name. Males have blue claws; females’ claws are orange-tipped. Blue crabs average 4 to 6 inches across.
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Crab, Dungeness

Crab, Dungeness

The Dungeness crab reportedly takes its name from a small fishing village on the Strait of Juan de Fuca in Washington state. It’s also known as “San Francisco Crab,” since the species has been harvested off that city since 1848.
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Crab, Jonah pic

Crab, Jonah

Not long ago, Jonah crabs were considered little more than a nuisance by lobstermen off New England and the Canadian Maritimes, who routinely tossed the crustaceans back when they came up in lobster traps. But in the 1990s, as demand for an alternative to established and costly crab species grew, fishermen found they could make extra money selling Jonah crabs to interested processors.
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