Clarke Canfield

The federal government doesn't track smoked seafood consumption, but sales at 18,000 supermarkets, mass merchandisers and club chains jumped 17 percent last year, 12 percent in 2011 and 4 percent in 2010.

The U.S. seafood catch reached a 17-year high in 2011, with all regions of the country showing increases in both the volume and value of their harvests. Alaska led all states in catch volume.

Tensions between lobstermen in Maine and Canada are boiling over in a dispute caused not by too few lobsters, but by too many.