A study by the McDowell Group indicates that Alaska’s seafood industry lacks diversification, and that any drop-off in production of one particular species could deal a severe blow to the state’s economy.
The study also confirmed that pollock represents the lion’s share of Alaskan seafood with 78 percent of the tonnage and 53 percent of the value of seafood in the state.
In comparison, only 12 percent of the volume was represented by Pacific cod, and opilio and tanner crab contributed five percent of the total volume. Salmon – which accounted for only four percent of the state’s tonnage – king crab (one percent) and other species (two percent) accounted for the remainder.
The survey, prepared jointly for a number of Alaskan seafood companies – including Icicle Seafoods, Trident Seafoods, and Peter Pan Seafoods – comes at a time that stocks of halibut, cod, crab and salmon in the state are at historically low levels. Scientists fear that climate change is contributing to sinking seafood levels.
The study’s title, “Economic Impact of Inshore Seafood Processing in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Island Region” indicated that fishing communities included in the studies were Unalaska, Akutan, Saint Paul, King Cove, Sand Point and False Pass, although Bristol Bay and the Gulf of Alaska were not. As a result, salmon tonnage numbers were significantly smaller than they would be if Bristol Bay had been included in the survey. In 2016, the overall wholesale of seafood product value generated by the BSAI (Bering Sea/Aleutian Inland) inshore sector was USD 1.1 billion. (EUR 949 million).
The study also included the economic impact of Alaska’s seafood industry on local and state taxation and tangentially related industry such as airlines.
