Alaska global leader in commercial fisheries: study

[Bud Man]

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 industry is not only a national but also a global juggernaut in sustainable commercial fisheries. The seafood industry’s local and statewide impact is huge: the fisheries in Alaskan and federal waters off the state’s coast provide work to more than 80,800 people and yield more than USD 3.3 billion in wholesale value every year.
Alaska fisheries. (Photo:PSPA)

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

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

This year’s executive summary update informed that Alaska ranked first of all 50 states in both volume and value of commercial fisheries landings in 2009 with 1.84 tonnes worth USD 1.3 billion. The nationwide harvest volume was 3.6 million tonnes, informed the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).
Real Wholesale Value by Species, 2003-2009. (Source: Hiatt, 2007 and Hiatt, 2010b -marineconservationalliance)




Alaska’s seafood industry contributed USD 4.6 billion to its economic output in 2009.

Other points made in the study regarding the importance of Alaska to the global seafood market include:

* If Alaska were a country of its own, it would have come 14th among seafood producing countries in 2008, according to NMFS and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
* The state’s landings of global groundfish species groups -- such as cod, pollock, hake and haddock – and flatfish made up 18 per cent of the global harvest of these species in 2008.
* That same 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), among other destinations.
* That same year, Alaskan fish and fisheries products were exported mainly to Japan followed by China, South Korea, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

[Bud Man]

Heres some things, I found that disturbed me:

In Alaska, catch shares are not so new. There, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council — which then included Fuglvog — divided the Alaska crab fishery in Alaska into "individual fishing quotas" three years ago.

The approach gave enormous wealth and value to fish processors and iced out the non-equity-owning crews of the crab boats. The fishing competition was winnowed down dramatically and hundreds were put out of work and without a cut of the pie for solace.

In a pivotal reconsideration, the North Pacific council just this week "rejected a narrowly crafted package of updates to the crab program in favor of a sweeping motion to re-examine the entire issue of processor quota, and determine if it should be extinguished either entirely, or just to a limited extent, with or without compensation," according to a report in the Anchorage Daily News by John Sackton, editor of the industry report, seafood.com.



So than I went to Alaska fish and game and fishing regulations. To see what I can and can't catch in Alaska when I finally get to go there.
Well you may need a law degree to figure this all out.

its broken into many zones:
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm....ayk_sportfish

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm...s.bb_sportfish

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm...s.ko_sportfish

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm...s.sc_sportfish

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm...s.se_sportfish


Alaska is huge and has a great resource but my questions and concerns are:
Has this resource been managed to make a few very rich?

Has it been managed as a public resource, with recreational fishing as a primary or secondary concern.

I guess my point is, Catch shares have been touted as a success based on some things that have happened in Alaska.

I read one recreational regulation about Dungenous crabs you are allowed 6 crabs in daily or 12 in possession. I enjoy catching and eating blue crabs, current limit is a bushel and I can only use 2 pots, hand lines and lift traps, my opinion is thats way more than enough, but a limited number of comm liscence holders can catch unlimited and as many pots as they can set in a day. so if catch shares come will they make so I can only keep a dz 2 dz and make me buy in so i can get a catch share?

Granted Alaska most people that live there, work in or depend on commercial fishing, But in the rest of the country, we don't.

So are catch shares going to be commercially biased?

There are a lot of questions and little answers to something that feels like it will be shoved down our throats.

I don't claim to know anything
just alot of questions?