09/07/2026
WHY CAN’T I COOK MAHI FOR YOU?
People ask us constantly why High Country Seafood hasn’t had a good supply of local mahi this year.
Under the federal management system, 93% of the South Atlantic mahi annual catch limit is allocated to recreational harvest. Only 7% is allocated to commercial harvest.
In North Carolina during 2025, recreational fishermen landed an estimated 2,453,025 pounds of mahi, while commercial fishermen landed only 12,186 pounds.
That means approximately 99.5% of North Carolina’s mahi harvest was recreational. Less than one half of one percent entered the legal commercial seafood supply.
Recreationally caught mahi cannot be sold to a seafood market or restaurant. A charter boat cannot sell fish caught while operating as a recreational charter. Commercial fishermen must hold the required state licenses and federal commercial permit and comply with reporting requirements.
The federal permit is open access and costs $25. The commercial quota is not causing the shortage, either. According to the latest 2026 federal report, only 72,494 pounds of the 1.72 million pound commercial limit had been landed across the South Atlantic.
That is just 4.2%, and the commercial fishery remains open.
Fisheries managers do not fully know why commercial landings are so low. The cost of fuel, labor, bait and ice may also make targeting them commercially unprofitable.
Meanwhile, the United States imports tens of millions of pounds of foreign mahi. Approximately 18.5 million pounds had already been imported during the current supply season by March 2026.
A North Carolina family with an offshore boat can catch mahi for personal use. Everyone else may have to pay around $2,200 plus a mate’s tip for a private offshore charter, with no guarantee of catching fish.
Most families can’t afford boats and charters and they depend on commercial fishermen, seafood markets and restaurants for access to local seafood.
The mahi were caught off North Carolina. The commercial quota remains almost untouched. What is missing is a commercial supply that allows the rest of the public to buy them.
We will not purchase imported mahi and present it as local. If legally harvested North Carolina mahi reaches our doors, we will proudly sell it at high country seafood and cook it.
The water holds the fish. The commercial seafood industry gives the public access to them.
