New Data Released About the Seafood Industry in Bristol Bay

The value of the seafood from Alaska in 2011 was well over $6-billion dollars according to a new report from the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. The report includes some detailed information about the size and scope of the seafood industry in Bristol Bay. The report is titled the “Economic Value of the Alaska Seafood Industry” and it was prepared for ASMI by the McDowell Group. It’s the first time such a report was put together that considers all of the direct, indirect, and other economic effects of the Alaska seafood industry. The report shows that in the Bristol Bay region the seafood industry directly employed about 13.2-thousand people in 2011 and the new report shows that about 49-percent of all working age adults in the region directly participated in the seafood industry. About 7.5-thousand fishermen participated in the Bristol Bay fisheries in 2011 and 1,655 of those fishermen were Bristol Bay residents. The new report indicates that about 5.5-thousand seafood processors worked in the region in 2011 and they earned about $44-million dollars. Only 290 of those processing workers were area residents. The new report suggests that when multiplier effects are included the commercial seafood industry created seasonal jobs for nearly 15-thousand workers in 2011 and they earned about $176-million dollars in income in the Bristol Bay region. The new report can be found on the ASMI website at www.alaskaseafood.org.