Globalization of wild capture and farmed aquatic foods

Aquatic foods are highly traded foods, with nearly 60 million tonnes exported in 2020, representing 11% of global agriculture trade by value1 21 . Despite the vast scale, basic 22 characteristics of aquatic food trade, including species, origin, and farmed versus wild 23 sourcing, are largely unknown. Consequently, we have a coarse picture of aquatic food consumption patterns2 24 . Here, we present results from a new database of species trade 25 and compute consumption for all farmed and wild aquatic foods from 1996-2020. Over 26 this period, aquatic foods became increasingly globalized, with the share of production 27 exported increasing 40%. Importantly, trends differ across aquatic food sectors. Global 28 consumption also increased 33% despite declining marine capture consumption and 29 some regions became increasingly reliant on foreign-sourced aquatic foods. As we look 30 for sustainable diet opportunities among aquatic foods, our findings and underlying 31 database enable greater understanding of the role of trade in rapidly evolving aquatic 32 food systems.