Newk’s Eatery got its seafood promotions off to an early start with a line of crawfish items introduced at the beginning of the year and available through April 10, including crawfish pizza with Cajun rémoulade and two mac-and-cheese varieties — one with pimiento cheese and one without — with crawfish mixed in. The 97-unit chain has augmented those offerings with a new ahi tuna sandwich, available Feb. 15 to May 5, with seared tuna, baby arugula and dill sauce on toasted French bread.

Golden Corral has introduced a Premium Weekend promotion that will be available through the end of March at its 484 restaurants. The promotion is available on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights for a $2 premium to its regular buffet, which is priced around $11.99, depending on the market. Although not promoted as a specific Lenten offering, the highlighted items are mostly seafood, including jumbo butterfly shrimp and honey teriyaki glazed salmon.

Long John Silver’s is offering a combo of battered Alaska cod with fries and hushpuppies for $5.99. It is also launching a sweepstakes promotion called “Fish You Were Here,” in which customers can win one of three cruises. The chain is additionally delivering coupon books and family-meal flyers to local churches and businesses.

Lent, the 40-day period before Easter, starts on Feb. 10, and with it comes a burst of seafood offerings. Although those menu items are often marketed to the roughly 20 percent of Americans who are Roman Catholic, most of whom avoid eating meat on Fridays during this season of abstinence and repentance, seafood sales spike across the board this time of year as advertising for retail and restaurant promotions stimulate consumers’ appetite.

Quick-service seafood chain Long John Silver’s reported that it typically sees a 75-percent increase in sales on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, and will sell more than 20 million pieces of fish before Easter at its more than 1,100 restaurants.

Take a look at more limited-time offerings of the season.

Chicken chain El Pollo Loco introduced a line of chile-lime shrimp items to its menu for most of Lent — through March 11 — at its 415 locations. The shrimp is tossed in a chile-lime glaze and is available in a taco, a bowl, a burrito or a tostada.

Back Yard Burgers is offering a salmon burger for Lent this year at its 61 locations. The burger is made with ground keta salmon from Alaska topped with a premium sauce — a citrus-herb mojo mayonnaise, along with lettuce and tomato, on a brioche-style bun. CEO David McDougall said the chain launched the burger two weeks ago, “just to get us into a stride so when we hit the official start of Lent we’ve got a good two-plus weeks of operations with the product under out belt.” The burger was originally tested in one market last year.

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen is promoting its annual Seafood Mardi Gras at its more than 1,800 locations, which includes its Butterfly Shrimp Tackle Box (pictured), which features marinated shrimp that is breaded, fried and served with Cajun fries, a biscuit and cocktail sauce. Also on the menu is Cajun Catfish and popcorn shrimp.

Church’s Chicken is offering two items for Lent: Lemon-Seasoned Butterfly Shrimp and Crispy Fish, at its more than 1,100 locations. Both are battered, fried and finished with a lemon-herb seasoning.

Lent also coincides with 678-unit Red Lobster’s annual Lobsterfest, which this year includes such new items as Chilled Lobster and Shrimp Cocktail (pictured), Dueling Lobster Tails (Maine lobster tail topped with langostino mac and cheese, alongside two lobster tail medallions with lobster-and-seafood stuffing), and langostino-topped tilapia with mushroom cream sauce.

Del Taco has introduced fried beer-battered shrimp during Lent at its nearly 550 locations. The shrimp is available in a taco, with or without spicy “Del Fuego” sauce. For those not observing Lent, or not eating at Del Taco on Fridays, the shrimp is also available as part of the chain’s Epic Surf & Turf Burrito, which also has 1.5 ounces of carne asada steak.

Many chains offer seafood specials as premium items at this time of year, “which really leaves the door wide open for us to offer Lenten deals for value-conscious consumers,” said Ryan Joy, senior director of research and development for Checkers and Rally’s.

The sister chains, which have a total of 830 locations, offer a $2 Crispy Fish meal with two beer-battered pieces of Alaska pollock, seasoned fries and a dill tartar sauce. Joy said the offer has seen solid sales growth during Lent for the past five years, adding that the low prices drive traffic and provide the opportunity to upsell for higher priced items, such as the Deep Sea Double, which offers a double portion of fish on one sandwich at a price of two for $5. 

Buffalo Wings & Rings is offering a tilapia fish sandwich with Sriracha tartar sauce, lettuce, tomato and fried pickles at its 60 locations, along with a blackened shrimp flatbread with spinach and artichoke, and a fried shrimp basket with garlic butter sauce.

“Our seafood sales spike through the roof during Lent,” corporate chef Elliot Jablonsky said. “The dominant portion of that is Fridays, so the old religious traditions really do shine through.”