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Alaska's Fishing Industry
Background
With over 3 million lakes, 3,000 rivers and 34,000 miles of coastline, Alaska is one of the most bountiful fishing regions in the world, producing a wide variety of seafood. All five species of Pacific salmon, four species of crab, many kinds of groundfish, shrimp, herring, sablefish and Pacific halibut are all harvested from Alaska. The fisheries of Alaska are recognized as some of the best-managed fisheries in the world, providing thousands of jobs and a vital, long term economic engine for Alaska communities and the state. The Alaskan Pollock fishery is the largest fishery in the world, harvesting upwards of 1,252,000 million metric tons, which equals 2.7 billion pounds annually. The Alaska salmon fishery is the largest salmon fishery in the world and the largest to be certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council.
Alaska is the only state to have coastlines on three different seas: Arctic Ocean, Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. Over half of the nation’s commercially harvested fish come from Alaska, nearly four times more than the next largest seafood producing state. Eight of Alaska's ports consistently rate in the top 30 U.S. ports in terms of volume or value of seafood delivered. City of Unalaska – Port of Dutch Harbor has consistently ranked as the top port in the nation for 21 years in terms of seafood pounds harvested, landing 506 million pounds in 2009 and was second in the nation in terms of value at $160 million.
Seafood has been and remains one of Alaska’s top export commodities. In 2009, the value of the state’s seafood exports was $1.6 billion, a 9.8 percent decrease from the previous year. This amounted to approximately 50 percent of the state’s total exports. Japan continues to be Alaska’s largest customer of seafood, with exports to China, Korea, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada following.
The vast fishery resources of Alaska are of tremendous importance to the economies of the state and the nation. These resources are self-renewing if properly managed, and it is the mission of both state and federal fishery management agencies to sustainably manage and maximize the economic benefits from these resources for generations to come.
Facts & Economic Impact
- Almost 4.1 billion pounds of fish and shellfish worth over $1.3 billion were harvested in Alaska waters in 2009, putting Alaska in first place for value of landings.
- Preliminary estimates for 2010 indicate commercial fishermen harvested 168 million salmon, which had an estimated total value of $533.9 million, the largest exvessel value in 18 years.
- The preliminary statewide harvest in 2010 is the 11th largest since statehood, with an estimated 168.6 million salmon, 5.6 million more than 2009. It was about 1.1 million more than the 10 year average harvest of 167.5 million fish, and valued at almost $535 million.
- Bristol Bay’s 2010 sockeye salmon harvest of 28.6 million fish was the 11th largest since 1959. The preliminary exvessel value of $148.7 million was higher than the final 2009 Bristol Bay sockeye value by $4.5 million.
- The statewide 2010 pink salmon harvest of 105 million fish, had an exvessel value of $139.7 million.
- In terms of value of landings in 2009, Alaska led with $1.3 billion, distantly followed by Massachusetts with $400 million.
- Fishing is the core economy for much of coastal Alaska where fish harvesting and processing often provide the only significant opportunities for private sector employment and where fisheries support sector businesses provide property and sales taxes as the largest source of local government revenues. Seafood harvesting and processing jobs provide more than 50 percent of the private sector employment in coastal Alaska.
- All geographic areas of the state benefit greatly from the fact the seafood industry provides an important “back haul” for shippers that otherwise primarily bring goods and supplies north to Alaska. One major shipping company estimates freight rates to Alaska would be 10 percent higher without the back haul of seafood shipped out of Alaska.
- Salmon generate more harvesting jobs than any other fishery, but in terms of value and volume of the catch, the state’s largest fishery is groundfish where a relatively smaller number of boats catch an enormous amount of fish, predominantly Pollock.
- Seafood processing in Alaska accounts for 71 percent of Alaska's manufacturing jobs. Fish harvesting and processing combined accounted for six percent of all jobs in Alaska.
- In recent years, the fishing industry generated nearly 54,000 jobs. However, many of these jobs were of short seasonal duration, ranging from one week to several months. On a monthly average adjusted basis, there were 7,087 direct fulltime equivalent jobs in Alaska attributed to the fishing industry in 2009.
- Revenues generated by the fishing industry in FY09 totaled almost $79 million to the State of Alaska, a $3 million increase from FY08. These revenues ranged from fish processing and corporate taxes to fishery resource landing taxes, license fees, and seafood marketing assessments.
- At the end of 2009, Alaska residents held more than 11,000 permanent limited entry permits to fish in Alaska fisheries. More than half of those were held by rural Alaskans. More than 10,000 commercial fishing crew licenses were also held by rural Alaskans in 2009. At least 2,800 Alaska fishing permit holders also held Alaska wage and salary employment during at least part of 2009.
- The Community Development Quota (CDQ) is a unique fishery management system that allocates a portion of the total allowable catch for all federally-managed Aleutian Island and Bering Sea fishery species to eligible communities in Western Alaska for use in community development. Since its 1992 inception, CDQ has injected over $500 million into Western Alaska and generated over $110 million in wages, education and training benefits.
- The CDQ program has allowed development of processing facilities in some villages in the six CDQ regions, and the revenue generated from the program has allowed some CDQ groups to invest and take ownership positions in many major seafood companies in the North Pacific as well as ownership in many harvesting and processing vessels, that work the various fisheries in the North Pacific. The CDQ groups are now major players in all fishery activity that accrues in the North Pacific.
- Alaska’s state fish, the King salmon, can weigh up to 100 pounds.
Web Links
Sources
- Alaska Department of Fish & Game
- Alaska Department of Labor
- Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute
- World Trade Center Alaska
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