Canada’s fishing and seafood industry is economically significant and export-oriented, but its status is mixed: strong reported trade and substantial processing revenue coexist with uneven fish-stock health, uncertain stock assessments and exposure to changing market conditions. The latest national production figures located are for 2024, while export figures extend through 2025. Those economic measures do not establish that fish populations are uniformly healthy or that every part of the industry is growing.
How large is Canada’s fishing and seafood industry?
Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Canada’s Fisheries 2025: Fast Facts, published in 2026, reports these separate 2024 measures of activity:
| Measure | 2024 reported value | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial sea and freshwater landings | CAD $4,096,733,000 | Gross output value of commercial fishery landings |
| Commercial seafisheries landed value | CAD $4,009,150,000 | Value of landings from commercial marine fisheries |
| Aquaculture production | CAD $1,364,858,000 | Production value; Statistics Canada data cited by Fisheries and Oceans Canada |
| Seafood preparation and packaging | CAD $7,789,366,000 | Industry revenues from processing-related activity; Statistics Canada data cited by Fisheries and Oceans Canada |
These values describe different stages of the supply chain. Landings, farm production and processing revenue are not interchangeable measures, and adding them together would risk counting seafood at more than one stage.
Wild capture varies by region and catch
Commercial seafisheries landed 626,225 metric tonnes in 2024, worth CAD $4,009,150,000. The Atlantic accounted for CAD $3,623,920,000 of that sea-landings value and the Pacific for CAD $385,230,000. Shellfish contributed the largest listed value group, at CAD $3,510,582,000; groundfish were CAD $352,401,000 and pelagics CAD $144,647,000.
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Commercial freshwater fisheries reported 24,888 tonnes valued at CAD $87,583,000 in 2024. These national totals do not mean that every region, species or fishing business experienced the same conditions.
What do export and import figures show?
Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s 2026 update, based on Statistics Canada international trade data, puts Canadian fish and seafood exports at CAD $8,148,950,000 in 2024 and CAD $8,469,225,000 in 2025. The 2025 figures also report imports of CAD $5,262,780,000 and a trade balance of CAD $3,206,445,000.
Export value rose between those reported years, but export weight fell from 518,106 tonnes in 2024 to 512,618 tonnes in 2025. Value and volume therefore tell different parts of the story; rising export value alone does not show that Canada shipped more seafood by weight. The United States is the largest export destination, making access to that market both an opportunity and a source of exposure.
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Trade access remains a moving factor
A 2026 federal tariff briefing says Canadian fish and seafood that meet CUSMA rules of origin remain tariff-free in the United States under the agreement. The briefing also reports that China removed tariffs on Canadian lobster and crab from March 1 through the end of 2026, while tariffs continued to apply to some other Canadian seafood products. These arrangements are time-limited or conditional, not a guarantee of unchanged access for every product.
In its 2026–27 plan, Fisheries and Oceans Canada identifies tariff impacts and market uncertainty as risks and sets out priorities including export expansion, value-added production and market diversification. Those are announced priorities, not evidence that the intended outcomes have already occurred.
Are Canada’s fish stocks healthy?
Economic activity does not answer the sustainability question. Environment and Climate Change Canada’s 2024 indicator assessed 198 selected key fish stocks, including stocks used by commercial, recreational and Indigenous fisheries. The results were:
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| 2024 status zone | Number of assessed key stocks | Share of the 198 assessed stocks |
|---|---|---|
| Healthy | 72 | 36% |
| Cautious | 21 | 11% |
| Critical | 32 | 16% |
| Uncertain | 73 | 37% |
Healthy and cautious stocks together made up 47% of the assessed set, below the federal 2026 target of at least 55%. The 73 uncertain stocks should not all be described as data-less or depleted: the indicator classified three as at levels where serious harm was likely, 27 where serious harm was possible and 43 where serious harm was unlikely.
What the national stock figures can—and cannot—tell you
- The assessment covers selected key stocks, not every fish population in Canada.
- The key-stock list can change from year to year, so comparisons across years require care.
- Stock status reflects harvest levels as well as reproductive success, environmental and ecosystem conditions, and predation. The national figures do not show that fishing alone caused a stock’s status.
- Management objectives differ by zone: maintain healthy stocks, promote rebuilding for cautious stocks, keep removals as low as possible for critical stocks, and account for uncertainty when making harvest decisions.
Regional patterns also differ. Atlantic had the largest number of assessed key stocks and the most stocks in the critical zone. Pacific had the highest proportion in the healthy zone, while the Arctic had many uncertain classifications. None of these regional summaries establishes that every fishery within a region has the same status.
How is aquaculture doing?
Aquaculture is a separate part of the seafood economy from wild capture. Canada commercially cultivates 45 species of finfish, shellfish and marine algae; finfish, mainly salmon, account for most production. Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s 2026 aquaculture briefing reports 122,280 tonnes of farmed finfish production in 2024, up 12% from 2023, and total aquaculture production value of about CAD $1.36 billion. The department nevertheless describes production as trending down over the longer term, so the one-year increase is not evidence of a sustained reversal.
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The same briefing reports CAD $1.1 billion in aquaculture export value, with 94% of aquaculture exports destined for the United States. Farmed Atlantic salmon was the largest aquaculture export commodity at CAD $945 million. The concentration of exports in one destination connects aquaculture’s prospects to access and demand in that market.
British Columbia open-net-pen policy is planned, not completed
The federal 2025–26 Departmental Plan said Fisheries and Oceans Canada would work with First Nations, workers, coastal communities, British Columbia and federal partners on a transition plan, and begin regulatory work to implement a ban on open-net-pen salmon aquaculture in coastal British Columbia waters by 2029. The 2026–27 plan continues to describe policy work and sector priorities. These documents describe planned future action, not a ban already in effect.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What does the industry mean for jobs and communities?
Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s 2024 employment estimates distinguish direct jobs from wider modeled effects:
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| Activity | Direct employment, 2024 | Employment including indirect and induced effects, 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial fishing | 9,403 | 18,941 |
| Aquaculture | 2,807 | 9,025 |
| Fish processing | 19,732 | 38,425 |
The larger figures include modeled jobs in other industries attributable to direct marine-sector activity; they are not direct employment totals for fishing, aquaculture or processing. Fisheries and Oceans Canada identifies economic development in rural, coastal and Indigenous communities as an opportunity in its 2026–27 plan, but that policy framing does not demonstrate that benefits are evenly shared.
What does the Northern cod fishery illustrate?
Northern cod is one example of why an industry-wide summary needs fishery-level context. Fisheries and Oceans Canada reports 2025 landings of 32,700 tonnes, with a landed value of CAD $75 million. About 1,175 fishing enterprises participated, and 34 licensed processing facilities produced cod products for global markets.
The department also reports that Newfoundland and Labrador cod-product exports were almost 8,200 tonnes worth about CAD $80 million in 2025, compared with about 3,800 tonnes and nearly CAD $40 million in 2024. These are cod-product export figures, distinct from the fishery’s landed value.
For 2026–27, the department expects a Canadian total allowable catch of 59,000 tonnes. Its estimate that landed value could reach approximately CAD $200 million is conditional on favourable market conditions. It is an official outlook, not a realized value or a guaranteed recovery.
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The figures support a mixed assessment rather than a simple boom-or-collapse verdict. Canada reported billions of dollars in seafood exports and substantial activity in capture fisheries, aquaculture and processing. At the same time, the 2024 key-stock indicator placed 32 assessed stocks in the critical zone and 73 in the uncertain category, while aquaculture’s annual production increase sits alongside a reported longer-term decline. Trade access, market conditions, individual fishery results and future policy implementation can all affect the outlook.
The 2026–27 Departmental Plan quotes the Minister of Fisheries describing the sector as having “an exceptional global reputation for quality, safety, and sustainability.” That is the minister’s characterization, not an independent ranking or an audited finding about every fishery.
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