Marine Foods

Marine food is any sea animal or plant that is served as food and eaten by humans. Marine foods include seawater animals, such as fish and shellfish. The harvesting of wild seafood is known as fishing and the cultivation and farming of seafood is known as aquaculture, mariculture, or in the case of fish, fish farming. Seafood is distinguished from meat, although it is still animal and many vegetarians consider it to be meat. Seafood is an important source of protein in many diets around the world, especially in coastal areas.

There are over 27,000 species of fish, making them the most diverse group of vertebrates. However, only a small number of the total species are considered marine food and are commonly eaten. Some common marine food fish species are anchovy, carp, catfish, cod, eel, haddock herring, mackerel, patagonian toothfish, salmon, sardine, scad, snapper, tilapia, trout, and tuna. The flesh of many fish is primarily valued as marine food and there are many edible species of fish. Today, fisheries are estimated to provide 16% of the world population's protein and that figure is considerably elevated in some developing nations and in regions that depend heavily on the sea. Other marine life taken as food includes shellfish, crustaceans, sea cucumber, and jellyfish. Roe are also harvested.

Edible seaweeds are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world. There are distinctive varieties and types of sea vegetables that are coming to markets all over and people are finally able to enjoy the wonderful and exotic tastes of sea vegetables. They act as a kind of reservoir that holds minerals that the body requires. Sea vegetables typically contain large quantities of calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iodine, iron and sodium among many other nutrients and minerals that our bodies' need and that we usually can only get from a combination of other foods.