For Immediate Release: January 27, 2017
Contact: Jerry McCune, UFA President (907) 200-0240
Mark Vinsel, Administrator (907) 586-2820
UFA Publishes Updated Alaska Community Fishing Fact Sheets to Promote Seafood Industry Awareness
The statewide commercial fishing umbrella association United Fishermen of Alaska has released its updated set of fishing data sheets for major Alaska communities, boroughs and census areas. UFA is seeking to provide comprehensive information and statistics to help raise awareness of the importance of the commercial fishing and seafood processing industry to the state and Alaska communities.
Statistics are from calendar and fiscal year 2015, the most recent for which complete data is available. Sources include state and federal agencies including Alaska Departments of Revenue, Fish and Game, Labor, and Commerce; Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, Commercial Fishery Entry Commission, and NOAA Fisheries, with footnotes including links to the source data online.
“Alaska’s commercial fisheries bring millions in fishing and processing revenue and employ many thousands in the major fishing ports every year, Alaska’s seafood industry is also a significant contributor for tax revenues and indirect jobs or virtually all Alaska communities”, said UFA President Jerry McCune. “Due to the wide range of state and federal agencies involved in fisheries, it is challenging to understand the many different positive benefits that Alaska’s fisheries provide throughout the state and beyond. UFA community fact sheets help consolidate this information and make it easy to understand.”
The community profiles include Aleutians East Borough, Aleutians West Census Area, Anchorage, Bethel Census Area, Bristol Bay Borough, Cordova, Dillingham Census Area, Haines Borough, Homer, Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, Juneau, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Kenai, Ketchikan, Kodiak, Kusilvak Census Area, Lake and Peninsula Borough, Matanuska – Susitna Borough, Nome Census Area, Petersburg, Prince of Wales – Outer Ketchikan Census Area, Seward, Sitka, Unalaska – Dutch Harbor, Valdez, Wrangell, Yakutat, the Yukon- Koyukuk Census Area, as well as Washington State, Oregon and California.
The fact sheets are posted on the UFA website at https://www.ufafish.org/fishing-facts/.
UFA represents 33 Alaska commercial fishing associations from fisheries throughout Alaska and federal offshore waters, and is online at www.ufafish.org .