Where do most Alaska fishermen live? Which Alaska region is home to the most fishing boats?
The answers are in an economic report by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute for 2019/2020 that includes all regions from Ketchikan to Kotzebue.
Nearly 40% of Alaska’s more than 31,000 fishermen live in the Southcentral towns of Anchorage, Kenai, Cordova, Seward, Homer, Valdez and Whittier. They earn more than half of their paychecks from fisheries outside of the region, with the Bristol Bay driftnet fishery their main source of income.
Southeast’s 5,316 resident fishermen in nine communities own nearly one-third (2,655) of Alaska’s fishing fleet, more than any other region.
Overall, the industry includes 8,900 fishing vessels, with 5,417 measuring in the 23- to 49-foot range. The fishing boats harvested nearly 5.7 billion pounds of seafood in 2019, worth $2 billion.
Other snapshots: Alaska’s seafood industry is the largest private-sector employer in the state, and more than 62,200 workers were on the job in 2019. Almost two-thirds of the active permit owners and crew were Alaska residents.
Alaska’s processing sector employed 27,100 workers at 160 shore-based plants, aboard 52 catcher-processor vessels and about 30 floating processors. Seafood processing is the state’s largest manufacturing sector, accounting for 70% of manufacturing employment.
Alaska produces more seafood than all other U.S. states combined and provides two-thirds of the nation’s wild-caught fish and shellfish.
Alaska seafood is sold in 100 countries around the world and is the state’s top export by far, topping $3 billion annually.
Alaska provides 43% of the global supply of pollock, 13% of cod, 6% of crab. Alaska salmon provides 11% to the world, with farmed salmon production swamping wild fish at nearly 3 to 1.
In 2019, Alaska salmon accounted for 36% of the industry’s annual value and 15% of the volume. Pollock accounted for 24% of the value and 59% of volume.
The Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands region produced 55% of total seafood value and 79% of the volume. High-volume whitefish (pollock and cod), mostly harvested at that region and Kodiak, account for roughly 80% of harvest volume and nearly half of Alaska’s dockside value.
Commercial fishing and processing businesses paid more than $163 million in taxes, fees and self-assessments in Fiscal Year 2019.
COVID-driven impacts in 2020 caused widespread revenue declines across all species, with participation by fishermen dropping 12% for permit holders and 28% for crew (down by 1,058 skippers and 6,555 crew members). Catch payments to fishermen dropped 27%. Peak processing employment declined 21%.
Find the January ASMI report at http://www.alaskaseafood.org
Discards OK’d
The pre-approved 2022 bycatch numbers for the Bering Sea trawl fleet set by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council are as follows:
- Chinook salmon bycatch: 45,700 fish; there is no hard cap for chums or other salmon.
- Halibut bycatch: 5.48 million pounds.
- Herring bycatch: 6 million pounds.
- Snow crab (opilio): 5.99 million crab.
- Tanner crab (bairdi): 3.07 million crab.
- Red king crab: 80,160 crab (the fishery is closed to commercial crabbers for the first time in 25 years).
Federal relief funds
Several Alaska fisheries from 2018 to 2021 were declared disasters last week by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, making participants eligible for federal relief funds. The declaration came at the request of the governor and include:
- Upper Cook Inlet East Side setnet (2018) and Upper Cook Inlet salmon fisheries (2020).
- Copper River Chinook and sockeye salmon fisheries (2018).
- Prince William Sound salmon fisheries (2020).
- Copper River Chinook, sockeye and chum salmon fisheries (2020).
- Eastern Bering Sea Tanner crab (2019/2020).
- Pacific cod in the Gulf of Alaska (2020).
- Norton Sound, Yukon River, Chignik, Kuskokwim River and Southeast Alaska salmon fisheries (2020).
- Yukon River salmon fishery (2021)
Some fishery-related businesses may also be eligible for assistance from the U.S. Small Business Administration. The amount of funds to be distributed has yet to be determined.
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