Fish Radio
December 12, 2013
Fish votes!
This is Fish Radio. I’m Laine Welch — More Alaskans are taking to the fishing life. I’ll tell you more after this –
The At-sea Processors Association’s contributions to Alaskan universities represent the largest privately funded marine research program in Alaska’s history. Learn more at www.atsea.org
Federal grants are available to help “Made in America” companies compete with imports and save US jobs. Learn more at www.nwtaac.org.
The number of “boots on deck” has been on a slight uptick across Alaska for three years running. That’s according to the latest Economic Trends by the state Labor Department. The report also looks at how much time goes into gear work, and what jobs fishermen do during the off times.
Some highlights: Nearly 32,000 fishermen went to work on waters last year – or an average of nearly 8,200 per month. That’s an increase of 318 jobs since 2010. About 22,000 were crew with an average age of 34; permit holders – about a third (9,800) of the total fishermen, were older at 47 on average.
Most of Alaska’s harvesters were male at 86 percent; and 85 percent of permit holders were men .
Averaged over the year, fishing jobs were highest in Southeast Alaska (2,299); followed by the Aleutians (1,661); South-central (1,408); in Bristol Bay (1,365); Kodiak (881)and the Yukon Delta (372).
Over 56 percent of the monthly jobs was in salmon harvesting; groundfish and halibut fisheries followed at 15 and 12 percent. Statewide, 57 percent of harvesting jobs take place between June and August.
The report asked permit holders to estimate how much their crews spent on gear work and clean up – that added up to a monthly average of more 385 jobs. Finally, About a third of both halibut and salmon permit holders said they worked other jobs last year.
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.
http://labor.alaska.gov/trends/nov13.pdf
