Alaska global leader in commercial fisheries: study

Thursday, February 24, 2011, 00:40 (GMT + 9)

A new study by Alaska-based Northern Economics shows that the state’s seafood sector is not only a national but also a international juggernaut in sustainable commercial fisheries. The seafood industry’s nearby and statewide influence is large: the fisheries in Alaskan and federal waters off the state’s coast present operate to far more than 80,800 individuals and yield much more than USD 3.three billion in wholesale value every single year.
Alaska fisheries. (Photo:PSPA)

The Marine Conservation Alliance- (MCA) funded study — “Seafood Sector in Alaska’s Economy” — constitutes an update of the 2009 report by the same name and is available on the web on the MCA site.

“The seafood industry operates in dozens of communities along Alaska’s total coastline,” remarked MCA President Frank Kelty. “We produce loved ones-wage jobs where no other opportunities exist, and we bring significant new cash into the state.”

This year’s executive summary update informed that Alaska ranked 1st of all 50 states in both volume and value of commercial fisheries landings in 2009 with 1.84 tonnes worth USD 1.three billion. The nationwide harvest volume was 3.6 million tonnes, informed the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).
Genuine Wholesale Worth by Species, 2003-2009. (Supply: Hiatt, 2007 and Hiatt, 2010b -marineconservationalliance)

Alaska’s seafood industry contributed USD four.6 billion to its financial output in 2009.

Other points produced in the study concerning the value of Alaska to the international seafood market place include:

* If Alaska had been a country of its personal, it would have come 14th amongst seafood creating countries in 2008, according to NMFS and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
* The state’s landings of international groundfish species groups — such as cod, pollock, hake and haddock – and flatfish produced up 18 per cent of the global harvest of these species in 2008.
* That identical year, some 35 per cent of the world’s capture production of species in the salmon, trout and smelt group happened in Alaska’s waters.
* Alaska was responsible for 95 per cent of the US’s Pacific salmon landings in 2009.
* In 2009, Alaska exported USD 1.6 billion worth of seafood directly to Japan, China, South Korea, Canada and the European Union (EU), amongst other destinations.
* That exact same year, Alaskan fish and fisheries goods were exported mostly to Japan followed by China, South Korea, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).