The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries has released its annual report of commercial fish landings in 2013. The report outlines the top 50 ports by pounds of fish landed and value of fish landed.
Nine of the top 20 major U.S. ports by millions of pounds of fish landed were in Alaskan communities, with Dutch Harbor ranking as the largest U.S. port with some 753 million fish landed in 2013 worth $197 million.
Three Southeast towns ranked in the top 20 for 2013 including Ketchikan, ranked 12th with 144 million pounds landed; Sitka, ranked 16th with 126 million pounds landed; and Petersburg, ranked 17th with 123 million pounds landed.
While nationwide trends held steady for all fish types, Alaska’s salmon-fishing fleet put up big numbers in 2013, a record-breaking year for salmon. “The report shows that while national total of fish and shellfish landings remained about the same, total landings of wild salmon topped one billion pounds setting a new record, up 68 percent from 2012,” according to NOAA Fisheries.
The largest grossing U.S. port was New Bedford, Mass., whose 130 million pounds of fish were valued at $379 million dollars. According to the report, “Sea scallops accounted for more than 81 percent of the value of New Bedford landings.” The Port of New Bedford website says fisherman there haul in some 50 million pounds of scallops each year.
In all U.S. fisherman landed 9.9 billion pounds of fish and shellfish valued at $5.5 billion dollars. Both pounds of fish landed and the value of those fish were up from 2012 when 9.65 billion pounds of fish brought in just over $5.1 million.
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