"Fisheries of the United States" Report Released

The seafood landed in Bristol Bay last year was valued at over $150-million dollars according to the annual “Fisheries of the United States” report. Last year Dutch Harbor was once again the leading port for seafood landings nationwide. It’s the 16th straight year that Dutch Harbor led the nation in seafood landings. Over 752-million pounds of seafood was delivered to Dutch Harbor and that seafood was valued at over $214-million dollars. Naknek was 14th on the list with 87-million pounds of seafood landed. That’s down from the 99-million pounds landed in 2011. The value of the seafood landed in Naknek was $78-million dollars, which is down from the $100-million dollar value placed on the seafood landed in 2011. NOAA confirms that some Alaskan ports are grouped together to protect confidential information. That’s why there is port labeled Bristol Bay (other) that would include the seafood landed at places like Dillingham, Togiak, Egegik and other ports. The new report shows that 55-million pounds of seafood was landed in the Bay at those port and that seafood was valued at $79-million dollars. That down from the $86-million dollar value placed on the seafood landed back in 2011. Other Alaska ports to make the list are Kodiak, Cordova, Ketchikan, Sitka, Seward, Kenai, Juneau and the Aleutian Island ports other than Dutch Harbor. The other Aleutian Island ports posted landings of 456-million pounds worth over $119-million dollars. Last year the Alaska Peninsula ports posted landings of 191-million pounds worth over $99-million dollars. Over 393-million pounds of seafood was landed in Kodiak last year worth over $170-million dollars. Last year 9.6-billion pounds of seafood was landed in the U.S. valued at just over $5-billion dollars. The report shows that the average American ate 14.4 pounds of fish and shellfish last year, which is down 4-percent compared to the 15-pounds of seafood consumed on average per person in 2011. In total, it’s estimated that Americans ate over 4.5-billion pounds of seafood last year. The new report shows that last year over 212.8-million pounds of sockeye salmon was harvested in the U.S. with the vast majority of that sockeye coming from Alaska. Last year’s sockeye harvest was valued at nearly $210-million dollars. The new report shows that last year’s U.S. pack of canned salmon was 120-million pounds and that canned salmon was worth over $410-million dollars. Over 1-million standard cases of sockeye cans were produced last year worth over $220-million dollars. Nearly 98-million pounds of salmon fillets were produced last year valued at over $446-million dollars. You can find the latest “Fisheries of the United States” report for 2012 on the NOAA website at www.noaa.gov.