The statewide commercial fishing umbrella association United Fishermen of Alaska has released its updated set of fishing data sheets for major Alaska communities and boroughs. UFA is seeking to provide UFA groups, members, and the public with economic information about the seafood industry to illustrate the industry’s significance in their communities. New with this year’s edition are summary fact sheets for Alaska statewide and Washington State.
“Alaska’s commercial fisheries bring millions in fishing and processing revenue and employ thousands in the major fishing ports every year. But Alaska’s seafood industry is also a significant contributor for tax revenues and indirect jobs in support industries for 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 impacts 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, Juneau, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Kenai, Ketchikan, Kodiak, Lake and Peninsula Borough, Matanuska – Susitna Borough, Petersburg, Prince of Wales – Outer Ketchikan Census Area, Seward, Sitka, Skagway – Angoon – Hoonah Census Area, Unalaska – Dutch Harbor, Valdez, Wrangell, Yakutat, and the Yukon Koyukuk Census Area.
The fact sheets were released at the Pacific Marine Expo trade show in Seattle and are posted on the UFA website at http://www.ufa-fish.org/cff.htm.
UFA represents 36 Alaska commercial fishing associations from fisheries throughout the state and federal offshore waters. UFA can be found online at www.ufa-fish.org .
Additional information on data sources used by UFA for the Fishing Fact Sheets:
Due to common confusion and varying numbers available among the numerous agencies and organizations that gather and report on fisheries, UFA has used state and federal government sources and has footnoted each statistic with online sources. Commercial fishing permit activity, estimated earnings by permit holders, and vessel homeports are from AK Commercial Fishery Entry Commission (CFEC). Crew numbers have been obtained from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game 2012 Crew license list, and is the number of purchasers of full year crew licenses who list their address in a given city. 2012 population estimates used to calculate percentage of resident skippers and crew who fished is from the Alaska DCCED Alaska community information online database. Processor employment and wages data is from the Alaska Department of Labor, and processor first wholesale value by census area is provided by Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. Revenue figures are from 2012 Alaska Dept of Revenue Shared Taxes Report. National rank and NOAA total landings and value for selected ports are from the NOAA Fisheries Office of Science & Technology.