July 8, 2024 — Mike Dunleavy, the governor of the U.S. state of Alaska, has once again vetoed a bill funding the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI).
ASMI, which works to promote Alaska seafood, is supported by state funding, but Dunleavy used a line-item veto in the state’s 2025 budget bill to deny it USD 10 million (EUR 9.2 million) on 4 July. Dunleavy indicated he may seek to restore the funding via a supplemental budget bill if ASMI submits a detailed spending plan.
May 8, 2024 — The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) commissioned the McKinley Research Group to compose a research report on Alaska’s seafood industry. The report was titled The Economic Value of Alaska’s Seafood Industry. This report is the latest in the series commissioned by ASMI.
The total economic value of the Alaska seafood industry in 2021 and 2022 was a staggering $6 billion, a figure that underscores the industry’s substantial contribution to the state’s economy. This is a significant increase from the $5.6 billion recorded in 2019, the last full year before the COVID-19 pandemic. The report, as highlighted by Alaska Public Media, provides a stark warning about the industry’s economic future, making it a crucial read for all industry stakeholders.
The report stated that “a price collapse in 2023 bodes ill for the industry.” The dollar and employment totals didn’t use the 2023 data. However, the report included specific information about one of the leading fisheries affected- sockeye salmon.
The prices paid to commercial fishermen were, on average, less than half of what they were paid in 2022. This ex-vessel price, on average, was 65 cents, the lowest nominal price since 2004. The report stated, “among the lowest prices on record when adjusted for inflation.”
The report stated the reasons for the collapse, claiming that because of inflation, consumer demand plummeted in the United States. A strong dollar and weak yen made Alaska’s seafood prices less competitive in Japan, a crucial market for the state’s seafood. The report also shared that a significant amount of 2022 harvested fish was left in inventory, which made wholesalers and retailers less inclined to buy fish in 2023. The global supply of critical species such as pink salmon and pollock increased dramatically, notably from Russia but also in AK.
Based on the data from 2021 and 2022, the state supplied 60% of U.S.-produced seafood. If AK were ranked as an independent nation, it would rank as No. 9 as a global supplier of wild seafood. However, AK provided only 1.8% of the global supply during those years. Wild salmon and crab are considered premium products from the state but only accounted for 9% of the world salmon market and 9% of the world crab market. According to the report, farmed and wild Russian salmon dominate the market. King crab from Russia and snow crab from Canada dominate the world crab market. The closure of Alaskan crab affected the global market.
January 25, 2022 — Where do most Alaska fishermen live? Which Alaska region is home to the most fishing boats?
The answers can be found in an easy to read, colorful economic report by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute for 2019-20 that includes all regions from Ketchikan to Kotzebue.
Many will be surprised to learn that nearly 40% of Alaska’s more than 31,000 fishermen live in the Southcentral towns of Anchorage, Kenai, Cordova, Seward, Homer, Valdez and Whittier. They earn more than half of their paychecks from fisheries outside of the region, with the Bristol Bay driftnet fishery being the main source of income.
Southeast’s 5,316 resident fishermen in nine communities own nearly one-third (2,655) of Alaska’s fishing fleet, more than any other region.
Overall, the industry includes 8,900 fishing vessels with 5,417 (61%) measuring in the 23-49 foot range. Each is a small (or big) business and if all the vessels were lined up bow to stern, they would stretch nearly 63 miles! The fishing boats harvested nearly 5.7 billion pounds of seafood in 2019, worth $2 billion.
July 21, 2021 — Alaska’s salmon harvest has continued to pick up steam, including the season’s largest weekly harvest.
A bump in pink salmon landings was driven by the Prince William Sound region, where pink hauls are up 21 percent over the pace set in 2019. In other regions of the state, harvests are currently well behind the 2019 pace for pinks, which typically produce big returns in alternating years. The harvest also tends to peak later in the summer.
July 16, 2021 — It’s catch as catch can in Alaska salmon fisheries with five of six species still lagging behind normal across the region. Bristol Bay and the rest of Southwest Alaska continue to be a bright spot for the second year running, but not across all species.
As of mid-July, 72 percent of the state’s projected sockeye harvest had been caught, while just 23 percent of the projected overall salmon harvest of 190 million fish has crossed the docks, according to McKinley Research Group’s weekly report for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.
Bristol Bay’s Nushagak District topped 1 million fish per day for seven consecutive days and edged the 2 million mark several times, and the boom harvest has since spread out to other rivers across the bay. The only damper on yet another year with strong sockeye returns is a smaller average fish size at 4.5 pounds, compared with 5.1 last year.
July 1, 2021 — The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) will receive USD 3 million (EUR 2.5 million) in CARES Act funding to help cover additional costs precipitated by COVID-19, money that should help the organization rework pandemic-era marketing strategies.
Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy recently announced the allocation to ASMI, Alaska’s largest marketing association for seafood.
June 24, 2021 — A new report sponsored by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) showed that at-home seafood consumption has risen during the COVID-19 pandemic, with many consumers intentionally moving away from red meat to seafood as a healthier form a protein.
The report – put together by Datassential for ASMI – found that 26 percent of consumers bought seafood for the first time during the pandemic, while 35 percent are cooking more seafood than they did previous to the pandemic, with around 60 of general consumers maintaining their pre-pandemic levels of seafood consumption.
June 8, 2021 — Buyers are awaiting Alaska salmon from fisheries that are opening almost daily across the state, and it’s easy to track catches and market trends for every region.
Fishery managers forecast a statewide catch topping 190 million salmon this year, 61% higher than the 2020 take of just over 118 million. But globally, the supply of wild salmon is expected to be down amid increased demand.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Run Forecasts and Harvest Projections for 2021 Alaska Salmon Fisheries and Review of the 2020 Season provides breakdowns for all species by region.
And salmon catches are updated daily at Fish and Game’s Blue Sheet, found at its commercial fisheries web page. They also post weekly summaries of harvests broken out by every region along with comparisons to past years.
Predictions for the 2021 mix of fish call for a catch of 269,000 Chinook salmon, up slightly from 2020 but 25% below the 10-year average.
The projected sockeye harvest of 46.6 million will help replenish low inventories that saw strong export prices in early 2021 and “a continued promising market,” said Dan Lesh, a fisheries economist with the McKinley Research Group who compiles weekly updates during the season for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.
June 7, 2021 — America’s largest seafood producing state kept working through the covid-19 pandemic, but under difficult and constantly changing conditions. Seafood consumers were unable to eat out but became hungrier than ever for everything from king crab to Alaska pollock fish sticks to canned salmon. For at least nine months retail seafood sales were up 20-30 percent above pre-pandemic levels — a higher sales bump than all other parts of the grocery store. Those increases tell the story of high demand, but also of the hard work and sacrifice that kept boats fishing, processing lines operating, and shippers moving products to where they were needed.
To better understand how covid-19 is affecting the industry, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute commissioned McKinley Research Group (formerly known as McDowell Group) to produce a series of surveys and briefing papers.
Mitigation and Response Costs
Fortunately, Alaska’s winter/spring Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands fisheries were already underway when covid hit in early 2020, limiting initial impacts in those massive fisheries. Heading into the peak summer salmon season, processors and harvesters scrambled to set up new protocols and spent heavily to protect workers and communities. Sporadic outbreaks occurred, but fisheries that were once in question were widely heralded as successful.
Our research indicates that Alaska seafood processors spent roughly $70 million in 2020 to mitigate the spread of the virus through quarantines, chartered travel, and other measures. Seafood harvesters who responded to a separate ASMI survey reported spending an average of $9,350 per vessel on covid mitigation in 2020, while 82 percent said they expect covid-19 costs to be the same or higher in 2021. Uncertainty also resulted in fewer fishermen on the water. Crew license sales data from Alaska Department of Fish and Game show a 31 percent drop in commercial crew license sales from 2019.
Unfortunately, covid-19 cases exploded across the country at the end of 2020, just before the start of the 2021 winter/spring fisheries. Despite extensive precautions including prework quarantines, chartered travel and regular testing, several of Alaska’s largest seafood processors experienced outbreaks. Rapid responses and expanded vaccine distribution contained and mitigated the spread of the outbreaks. However, because of the high costs of bringing thousands of workers for these winter fisheries, as well as the response costs associated with outbreaks and mitigation measures that will continue throughout the year, the mitigation price tag for processors in 2021 is expected to exceed $100 million.
May 18, 2021 — Alaska’s lone seafood marketing arm gets zero budget from the state and to date has received no pandemic funds.
The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute is hoping to get a breather from the more than $1 billion coming to Alaska in the latest round of federal relief dollars under the American Rescue Plan (ARP).
The influx also provides $518 million of nondiscretionary funds to Alaska and $220 million for public health and safety, workforce development, education, transportation and emergency management.
ASMI put in a $20 million request two months ago, but Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy made no mention of it in mid-April when he released his proposals for the ARP money nor anything since.
Dunleavy did include $150 million for Alaska Tourism Revitalization, citing the need for “industry relief to promote tourism and adapt services for potential loss of cruise ship season.”