BOSTON (AP) 鈥� The future of fish is looking a lot like鈥� salami? And meatballs. And fried chicken. And breakfast sausage. And, of course, spareribs and burgers. This is America, after all.
Welcome to the era of surreptitious seafood, an industry gamble that overcoming Americans鈥� in the meat of the sea is all a matter of making fish look and taste less like, well, fish.
鈥淥ur Taiwanese magic is making tuna taste like fried chicken,鈥� said Jack Chi, a spokesman for Tuna Fresh, a Taiwan-based company that sells tuna as fried 鈥渘uggets鈥� and breaded chicken-tender-like strips. 鈥淲e wanted to be able to engage in the U.S. market, and we found that fried foods are the way.鈥�
Chi鈥檚 company was one of hundreds showcasing their products at the recent Seafood Expo North America in Boston. And among the sea of smoked salmons, scallops and all manner of crustaceans, one trend stood out: The seafood being pitched to the American market is looking less and less like seafood.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been a big trend for the last couple of years,鈥� said Justin Rogers, a sales manager with SK Food Brands in Los Angeles. Among his company鈥檚 recent offerings: shrimp burgers, both slider-size and Whopper-worthy. 鈥淚t makes it more palatable to people who aren鈥檛 big seafood fans. Especially with things like these sliders, it gives them an entry point.鈥�
The fish-skeptical American palate
Americans have a notoriously limited appetite for seafood, consuming just about 19 pounds a year — a number that has in a century — most of it as shrimp and salmon. The global average is 45 pounds, while some European countries clock in closer to 90 pounds. Iceland leads everyone with around 200 pounds per year.
Disguising seafood to appeal to Americans isn鈥檛 entirely new. After all, frozen fish sticks and McDonald鈥檚 Filet-O-Fish hardly scream catch of the day. But many of the newer products are an entirely different species. Or rather, are trying to be.
鈥淚t looks like a Slim Jim by design,鈥� Harbor Bell Seafoods spokeswoman Holly Phillips said of the Seattle company鈥檚 salmon snack strips, available in smoked, lemon-pepper, mango and — curiously — original. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 smell fishy. It doesn鈥檛 taste fishy.鈥�
If an 鈥渙riginal鈥� salmon snack stick doesn鈥檛 taste fishy, what DOES it taste like? After a couple chewy bites, let鈥檚 go with Slim Jim adjacent and move on.
Let fish be fish?
Not everyone thinks covert crustaceans are a good thing.
鈥淓at fish that looks like fish!鈥� says Niaz Dorry, coordinating director of the North American Marine Alliance, an advocacy group for practices. 鈥淭he likelihood that that fish came from a community-based, scale-appropriate entity is much higher if that fish still looks like what it was when it was swimming in the water. Factory scale and fake are the two F-words I tell everybody to avoid.鈥�
The pivot to stealthy seafood comes at a critical time for the industry. The only real growth in sales has come from the sushi counter (looking at you, Gen Z) and price hikes (not exactly helping the cause). The $24 billion market otherwise has been flat for years, with just 10% of shoppers accounting for nearly half of sales (seafood, apparently, is an all-in sort of thing).
Taking a lesson from sushi
Part of sushi鈥檚 appeal is its blend of convenience and novelty, said Steve Markenson, vice president of research and insights for consumer marketing firm FMI. Some of the newer products may offer similar appeal, but he鈥檚 not convinced it will be enough.
鈥淭he non-seafood folks 鈥� which is about 40% of the population 鈥� I don鈥檛 know that this is really going to be appealing to them,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e not looking to necessarily add seafood into their diet.鈥�
Seafood lovers aren鈥檛 a sure bet, either. That 10% of dedicated seafood shoppers want it for what it is, not cleverly disguised. 鈥淭hey love what they love about it,鈥� Markenson said. 鈥淭hey might want it seasoned up a little, but they want that full-blown salmon.鈥�
Oddly, the most likely audience may well be the one typically most averse to seafood — the very young, said Joshua Bickert, a seafood market reporter and analyst for Expana. 鈥淚f you package it like hot dogs and hamburgers and chicken tenders, you maybe change that mindset at a younger age.鈥�
For Mike Simon, owner of Hialeah, Florida-based Surfsnax, it鈥檚 a matter of making the foreign feel familiar. 鈥淲e want to put it in a format that people are used to eating,鈥� he said as he sliced off a round of his company鈥檚 salmon salami. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 not hiding that it鈥檚 salmon.鈥�
Not so sure about that. After being cured, shaped and served like a traditional salami, his product hardly looked seaworthy. But it was tasty.
Meaty spareribs, only made of fish
The most audacious offering was fish spareribs from the Amazon. Brazilian tambaqui is a beefy freshwater fish that just happens to have a physique perfect for slicing into meaty, pork-like ribs. Friocenter Pescados spokesman Danillo Souza Alves was quick to point out that tambaqui sports a far higher meat-to-bone ratio on its ribs than pork. And truthfully, they do taste pretty meaty.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a finger food. You can easily eat it in stadiums for football, baseball and hockey,鈥� he said.
Well, let鈥檚 not go crazy.
Americans do love a chip, however. And all manner of seafood are being turned into crackers, chips and crunchy sticks. Ina Park, a spokeswoman for the expo鈥檚 Korean pavilion, was eager to introduce Balance Grow鈥檚 Fried Calamari Snack, which looked like slightly malformed Utz Potato Stix. Park had other ideas.
鈥淭hey taste like Cheetos,鈥� she said.
___
J.M. Hirsch is a food and travel journalist, and the former food editor for The Associated Press.
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
