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Abstract The Anthropocene has brought substantial change to ocean ecosystems, but whether this age will bring more or less marine disease is unknown. In recent years, the accelerating tempo of epizootic and zoonotic disease events has made it seem as if disease is on the rise. Is this apparent increase in disease due to increased observation and sampling effort, or to an actual rise in the abundance of parasites and pathogens? We examined the literature to track long‐term change in the abundance of two parasitic nematode genera with zoonotic potential:Anisakisspp. andPseudoterranovaspp. These anisakid nematodes cause the disease anisakidosis and are transmitted to humans in undercooked and raw marine seafood. A total of 123 papers published between 1967 and 2017 met our criteria for inclusion, from which we extracted 755 host–parasite–location–year combinations. Of these, 69.7% concernedAnisakisspp. and 30.3% focused onPseudoterranovaspp. Meta‐regression revealed an increase inAnisakisspp. abundance (average number of worms/fish) over a 53 year period from 1962 to 2015 and no significant change inPseudoterranovaspp. abundance over a 37 year period from 1978 to 2015. Standardizing changes to the period of 1978–2015, so that results are comparable between genera, we detected a significant 283‐fold increase inAnisakisspp. abundance and no change in the abundance ofPseudoterranovaspp. This increase inAnisakisspp. abundance may have implications for human health, marine mammal health, and fisheries profitability.