Statistics About Alaska Commerical Salmon Fishery
In Alaska, salmon come first. Alaska has a long and successful track record of handling and preserving its abounding salmon resources. Record salmon runs with an average annual catch of 165 million salmon is the explanation of this successful approach.
Nearly 95% of all commercially caught salmon in the US are harvested in Alaska. Alaska is the top producer of wild, high-value salmon, producing nearly 80 % of the planet supply of king, sockeye, and coho. Alaska’s commercial salmon fishery is vital to the Alaskan economy and the Alaskan way of life.
Each year, the salmon industry provides thousands of jobs and many millions of millions of dollars to the state’s economy. Commercial fishing is urgent to communities and fishing
families throughout the state.
Alaska’s fishing industry leads the state in providing 47% of private sector jobs, and is second only to the oil industry in providing income to the state. In 2002, the exvessel worth for combined fisheries totaled $955 million with $162 million from salmon.
Salmon fishing permits are issued to people, not firms, thru the “limited entry permit system”. The total number of available permits for each fishery is precisely limited. Fishermen may not own more than one salmon permit for the same gear type and area. This creates a fishery made of many people and families.
Three main gear types catch Alaska salmon: trolling, gillnetting, and purse seining. All commercial salmon fishing boats are relatively small vessels; averaging thirty to fifty feet.
Trollers use long trolling poles to tug or troll 2 to 4 deep weighted lines thru the water, each with 8 - twelve leaders attached. At the end of each leader there’s a lure or baited hook. Ship size varies from tiny skiffs to vessels of fifty feet or more with most ranging between 25 to 40 feet.
Trollers primarily target king, coho, and pink salmon as they enter Alaskan waters on their way to the spawning grounds. Trollers catch a comparatively low volume of high-quality fish. The fish they catch are bright and powerful from fresh sea waters. They are often
sold dressed, or filleted in the fresh or fresh frozen market.
Gillnetters set curtain-like nets in the water postponed from a float line at the surface and a weighted lead line along the submerged lower edge. Nets change in length from 9 hundred to 1800 feet long. The net’s mesh openings are just huge sufficient to permit an adult fish head to get thru and become trapped at the gills.
There are two types of gillnets; driftnets that are free floating from boats, and setnets that have one end attached to the shoreline. Boat size is restricted to 32 feet or less in Bristol Bay; otherwise, the average range is thirty to forty feet. Gillnetters basically crop sockeye, chum and coho.
Purse Seiners employ a large floating net, pulled and set in circle by a power skiff, to surround schooling salmon. The weighted “purse line” at bottom of the net is drawn closed to contain the fish. The net full of fish is then gathered to the boat through a highpowered hydraulic block.
Purse seiners are not allowed north of the Alaska Peninsula; boat size is restricted to 58 feet. Purse Seiners harvest mainly pink salmon near the shoreline and close to fresh water spawning grounds where runs are highly concentrated.
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