Seafood Handbook

The Seafood Handbook is the most comprehensive seafood directory available online. Featuring more than 100 of the most common types of fish and other seafood 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. 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. 

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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. The most popular and common… Read More
More than 20 different species within the Engraulidae family are marketed under the name anchovy. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Fish List recognizes five genus groups: Anchoa, Anchoviella, Cetengraulis, Engraulis and Stolephorus. The anchovy best known in culinary circles is Engraulis… Read More
Arctic char is a member of the trout and salmon family, and it physically resembles the salmon. Its silvery skin is dappled with pink along the lateral line, and the fish sports green and blue coloration on its back and upper sides. Arctic char is also anadromous like salmon, migrating from… Read More
The Pacific, or California, barracuda is one of about 20 species of predatory fish in the family Sphyraenidae. It is found from Baja, California, to Kodiak Island, Alaska, but is most prevalent from Baja to Southern California. The great, or Atlantic, barracuda (S. barracuda) is also a commercial… Read More
A relative newcomer to the U.S. seafood market, barramundi is finding a place both at high-end restaurants and mid-scale retailers, where its versatility and eco-friendly reputation have earned it a following. Australia’s Aborigines dubbed this species barramundi, meaning river fish with large… Read More
When trade with Vietnam resumed in 1994, U.S. seafood importers started shipping fillets from a Vietnamese catfish called basa, or bocourti. But most of what’s sold in the market today as basa isn’t basa. Real basa, P. bocourti, is one of 21 species in the Pagasiidae family of catfish found… Read More
Black sea bass, a small, plump fish related to grouper, is one of the most important commercial bass species. These bass begin life as males and become females between the ages of 2 and 5. Attractive fish, they lend themselves to display in live tanks. Mature animals have an even pattern of white… Read More
Chilean sea bass are not really bass but Patagonian toothfish, a large, slow-growing species first harvested in the early 1980s by Chilean longliners working the continental shelf in depths of 5,000 to 6,000 feet. Chilean sea bass is a member of the Nototheniidae family. In Chile, the fish is also… Read More
Sea bass, often marketed by U.S. chefs under the Italian name branzino, is a prized fish in Europe, where it is largely a recreational catch. Small commercial fisheries exist in the Mediterranean. The gear used to catch these bass includes beach and purse seines, trawl nets, trammel nets, longlines… Read More
After the wild striped bass stocks nearly collapsed, the aquaculture industry responded by engineering this hybrid. The new species was established in 1967 by crossing the anadromous wild striper (Morone saxatilus) with white bass (M. chrysops), a fish that lives in both estuarine and fresh water.… Read More