UFA Released Updated "Community Fishing Fact Sheets"

The United Fishermen of Alaska has updated their “Community Fishing Fact Sheets” to include data from 2012. The fact sheets cover specific areas that are generally either municipalities or census areas. The updated fact sheet for the Dillingham Census Area shows that there were 613 CFEC commercial fishing permit holders in the area last year that owned a total of 780 permits. The data indicates that just 411 of those permit holders actually fished in 2012. When you include the 697 licensed crew members, the number of those who actually fished in 2012 was just over 1.1-thousand. The data shows that just over 22-percent of the local population in the Dillingham Census Area fished commercially last year. The 2012 ex-vessel income by Dillingham Census Area based fishermen was over $11.6-million dollars. The fact sheets also includes data on the seafood processing sector. The updated fact sheet shows that there were 892 seafood processing jobs last year, with 178 of those jobs held by Alaska residents. The total wages for the processing workers came in at over $5.6-million dollars last year. The updated fact sheet shows that about 49.4-million pounds of seafood was landed last year with an estimated value of $75.5-million dollars. One of the major benefits of the massive commercial salmon fishery in the region are the taxes collected by the local municipalities and the state of Alaska. The updated fact sheet shows that the Fiscal Year 2012 taxes received by the communities in the Dillingham Census Area totaled over $494.2-thousand dollars. The updated fact sheet for the Lake and Peninsula Borough shows that there were 141 permit holders in the Borough last year who owned a total of 181 permits. However, only 113 of those permit holders actually fished last year. The estimated 2012 ex-vessel income by Lake and Peninsula Borough based fishermen was $12.1-million dollars. There were apparently 324 seafood processing jobs in the Borough last year that earned over $3.1-million dollars in wages. The Borough and communities in the Borough shared over $674.8-thousand dollars in tax revenue last year. In the Bristol Bay Borough, the newly updated fact sheet shows there were 156 local permit holders last year who owned 171 permits. However, the new data sheet indicates that only 127 of those permit holders fished last year. Apparently, nearly 29-percent of the local population fished commercially last year. The estimated ex-vessel income by Bristol Bay Borough based fishermen was $5.2-million dollars. The Bristol Bay Borough is home to the vast majority of the seafood processing capacity in the region and last year there were over 2.8-thousand seafood processing jobs in the Borough that earned total wages of over $17.1-million dollars. The fisheries business and landing taxes paid to the Borough last year totaled over $2.1-million dollars. The updated community fact sheets cover 27 area of Alaska and something new for this year is a fact sheet for the State of Washington. That fact sheet shows that over 1.5-thousand Washington state residents held CFEC permits in Alaska last year with another 5.1-thousand Washington residents holding crewmember licenses. Apparently there were over 1.8-thousand commercial fishing vessels licensed in Alaska last year that were owned by Washington state residents. The new data sheet for Washington shows that resident permit holders earned an estimated $706-million dollars last year and they harvested nearly 3-billion pounds of seafood. The updated community fishing fact sheets were put together by United Fishermen of Alaska, which is a commercial fishing umbrella association that represents 36 different commercial fishing associations. The new fact sheets can be found on the UFA website at www.ufa-fish.org.