October is National Seafood Month!

October is National Seafood Month! The American seafood industry has been honored by Congress with this distinction for the past 30 years. It has operated for much longer of course, with both Native Americans and early settlers taking advantage of abundant fishing along the East Coast. 🦀🐟🦪🍤

Did you know? Though we view lobster as a fancy meal today, in colonial America it was overabundant and commonly fed to prisoners and indentured servants. Indentured servants in colonial Massachusetts were so tired of the crustacean that they added clauses to their contracts limiting how many meals could consist of lobster. 🦞🦞🦞

Still life with a cat, Alexandre-François Desportes, 1705

-Written by Anna Zemaitaitis, Media and Digital Content Associate