Fish Radio
November 1, 2013
Akutan, AK
This is Fish Radio. I’m Laine Welch – Dutch Harbor does it again. More on top US ports, species and prices after this —
Federal grants are available to help “Made in America” companies compete with imports and save US jobs. Learn more at www.nwtaac.org.
Find out who’s catching all that seafood and their favorite recipes at a new micro site from the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute – find it at www.wildalaskaflavor.com
For the 16th year in a row, Dutch Harbor ranked as the nation’s top fishing port with 752 million pounds crossing those docks last year. That’s according to the annual Fisheries of the US report by NOAA Fisheries. The number two port for landings again was Empire-Venice, Louisiana. The Aleutian Islands jumped to third place, led by Akutan deliveries, and bumped Kodiak to number four. In all, 13 Alaska ports made the Top 50 list.
For value, New Bedford, Mass. retained the lead for the 13th year in a row, thanks to pricey scallops; Dutch ranked second, followed by Kodiak and the Aleutians.
In all, US seafood landings were 9.6 billion pounds valued at $5.1 billion, down 2.2 percent and 3.2 percent respectively.
Akutan Village, AK
Alaska topped all other states for total landings at 5.3 billion pounds and for overall value at $1.7 billion. In all, Alaska provided 55.5% of all seafood landed in the US last year.
The top five fish species landed by volume were pollock, menhaden, cod, flatfish and salmon.
For value, the “crabs” category ranked first followed by scallops shrimp, salmon and lobster. Pollock and cod were 6th and 7th for value. Overall, fish accounted for 86 percent of the total US landings, but only 47 percent of the value.
Shellfish prices dropped by 3 percent while industrial products, such as oils and feeds increased by 14 percent. Dockside prices increased for 18 out of 32 species groups being tracked and decreased for 14 species. The skipjack tuna price index had the largest gain, up 112 percent, while sockeye salmon showed the largest decrease at 17 percent.
The average dock price paid to fishermen in 2012 was 53 cents per pound compared to 54 cents the previous year.
Finally, Americans ate less seafood last year with at 14.4 pounds per person, compared to 15 pounds in 2011.
The US Fisheries report also includes recreational fishing data.
Check out the line up at Pacific Marine Expo– new mid-week dates: November 20-22 in Seattle. www.pacificmarineexpo.com
Fish Radio is also brought to you by Ocean Beauty Seafoods. Ocean Beauty has contributed over 10 million meals to the U.S. Food Bank network, and is committed to ending hunger in America. www.oceanbeauty.com
