We may not think of seafood as being seasonal, like peaches, but much of it is. Some types of seafood, such as soft-shell crabs and crawfish, are naturally seasonal, tied to conditions such as temperature. Others, such as halibut, have commercial fishing seasons that are regulated much as hunting seasons are, to avoid overfishing, ensure adequate reproduction and protect fishermen from dangerous weather conditions. Seasons don’t apply to most farmed seafood, of course, including mollusks such as mussels, and farmed fish such as salmon, trout and catfish.
First, know that these seasons aren’t exact. Crawfish, for example, bury themselves in the mud in the cold months until it’s warm enough to come out, and they’re fickle. One cold wind and they’ll go back into the mud. With most of the regulatory seasons, such as the Alaskan salmon season, the numbers of fish are monitored to determine opening dates, and fishermen are issued quotas mandating how many fish they can take during the season. The salmon are caught when they have the most fat, just before they migrate from the ocean upriver to spawn, so they are at their peak of flavor. A certain number of salmon must be allowed upstream to spawn, and if those levels drop too low, the season will be closed. When quotas are reduced, prices tend to be higher.
Then there’s the seafood that is generally available year-round but is at its peak during certain months. Oysters, for example, are at their best in terms of flavor and texture during the winter, when their meat is crisper, cleaner.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | June | July | Aug | Sept | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
| Bluefish | Late summer | |||||||||||
| Clams | Available year round | |||||||||||
| Cod | January thru March | |||||||||||
| Crab, Dungeness | December until June, although much of the harvest comes in the first few months | |||||||||||
| Crab, Alaskan King | Oct 15th - Jan. from Alaska | |||||||||||
| Crab, Snow | Winter - months? | |||||||||||
| Crabs, soft-shell | April - May | August - Sept | ||||||||||
| Stone crab claws | Mid-October thru mid-May | |||||||||||
| Crawfish | Peak mid-Mar thru May | Late winter thru summer | ||||||||||
| Flounder, Gulf | September thru March | |||||||||||
| Halibut, Wild Alaskan | Mid-March thru October; Prices tend to start out high, level off and then climb again in the fall | |||||||||||
| Lobster, American (Maine) | Bulk of the lobster harvest takes place from May to October, the “summer trade” runs June to September, the best buys are usually found in May and September. | |||||||||||
| Mahi-mahi | Fished year-round | |||||||||||
| Mussels | Year-round, but meat yields and harvests decline after spawning. Blue mussels spawn in summer. Yield 20 - 35%. 15-20 mussels per pound. | |||||||||||
| Oysters | Peak quality, Dec thru April | |||||||||||
| Red Snapper | Fished year-round | |||||||||||
| Salmon, Atlantic | Year-round, most is farmed | |||||||||||
| Salmon, Wild Pacific | Mid-May thru summer - the Copper River season is the first to open, in Alaska. |
|||||||||||
| Scallops, Bay | April thru May | October thru January | ||||||||||
| Scallops, Sea & Nantucket Bay | November thru March | |||||||||||
| Sole | January thru March | |||||||||||
| Steelhead Trout | ||||||||||||
| Swordfish | Fished year-round | |||||||||||
| Tuna | Fished year-round | |||||||||||
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | June | July | Aug | Sept | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
