AK jig fleets grows 224%
Credit: akmarine.org
Fish Radio
Jig fleet surges – fleet profiles update
August 8, 2014
This is Fish Radio. I’m Laine Welch – Who fishes where – for what and where they call home. Alaska fishing fleet updates name names after this –
Northrim Bank has money to loan and experts to help. Visit www.northrim.com. Northrim Bank, Member FDIC, Equal Opportunity Lender
Alaska Seafood U is the new school of fish! The online program offers Alaska seafood training for employees of retail groceries and restaurants. Learn more at www.alaskaseafood.org
Alaska’s jig fleet, which fishes primarily for P-cod, now numbers 244 boats – a nearly 220 percent increase through 2012. The jig influx is mainly from Southeast based boats in what’s been a Kodiak dominated fishery. … The Bering Sea crab fleet totals 83 boats – the bulk of those call the state of Washington home. Those are just a few of the fishing facts in updated fleet profiles through 2012. The user friendly booklet is from the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, the overseers of federal water fisheries, which produce nearly 85 percent of Alaska’s fish harvests. Hundreds of other Alaska vessels fish for salmon, herring and crab in state waters, out to three miles, which are not included.
The fleet profiles show that 1,462 fishing vessels plied the waters of the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. It includesthe names of every boat by gear type, average lengths and the year built, what they fish for and hailing ports. Two hundred fifty one of the boats are trawlers – 130 vessels make up the groundfish pot fleet. The halibut IFQ fleet at 991 boats was down by about 100; 382 boats fished for IFQ sablefish.
Most of Alaska’s fishing fleet built was the 1970s and 80s and while most people imagine huge vessels in the further away federal fisheries, 80 percent are less than 60 feet. As to where the fleets call home – most of the crabbers and large catcher processors report Seattle as their homeport, while most of the fishing boats hail from Alaska.
Find links to the Fleet Profiles at www.alaskafishradio.com
Fish Radio is also brought to you by Ocean Beauty Seafoods – who salutes and says thanks to the men and women fishing across Alaska for their hard work and dedication. (www.oceanbeauty.com) In Kodiak, I’m Laine Welch.
