November 3, 2014 — Alaska landed an all time record wild salmon catch last year as the state's biggest fishing ports headed up the national top three.
Alaskan salmon topped one billion pounds at 95 per cent of US production, up 70 per cent on 2012.
That’s according to the annual Fisheries of the US report for 2013, just released by NOAA Fisheries.
Dutch Harbor topped the list for landings for the 17th year running with 753 million pounds of fish crossing the docks last year, valued at nearly $200 million. The Aleutian Islands region ranked second for landings, thanks to the big Trident plant at Akutan; Kodiak ranked third for both seafood landings and value.
For the 14th year in a row, New Bedford, Massachusetts had the highest valued catch at $380 million. That’s due mostly to pricey sea scallops which accounted for more than 80 per cent of New Bedford’s 130 million pound landings.
In all, 14 Alaska ports made the top 50 list: the Alaska Peninsula (8), Cordova (9), Ketchikan (10), Sitka (15), Petersburg (16), Seward (20), Naknek (21), Valdez (24), Bristol Bay (26), Kenai (38) and Juneau (41). Most ports showed huge increases in fish landings and values, meaning a nice return in local and state tax dollars.
Overall, fishermen were paid less for their catches. The average dock price for salmon (all species) was 67 cents a pound, down a nickel from 2012. For halibut, the average price of $3.89 was a drop of 58 cents. (All but 76,000 pounds of the nation’s halibut came from the Pacific fishery.) The average king crab price of $5.37/lb was a decrease of 18 cents.