Catching seafood dollars in Alaska.

• Author: Tremaine, Richard

AH, THE FISHERIES SURROUNDING Alaska, source of immense wealth and a major cause of statehood. In 1988, more than 5.5 billion pounds of seafood bringing $1.5 billion to fishermen was taken from the waters off Alaska.

One of every eight Alaskan jobs in the private sector is involved directly in fisheries. In 1987, 45,000 Alaskans either commercially fished or worked for a seafood processor, and combined payroll accounted for one-sixth of the state's total private-sector economic base.

With this type of payroll and employment, it would be difficult to imagine that any of the New Forty-Niners are not involved. What is surprising is that only three, Sealaska, All Alaskan Seafoods, and Alaska Joint Venture Seafoods, are major seafood companies. Several others, however, garner a significant portion of their revenues from the seafood cornucopia.

The fisheries in and off Alaska always have been dominated by Outside interests, either from the Lower 48 or foreign countries. The early salmon canneries came from Washington. The businesses would sail up in the spring with workers, cans and all the supplies they needed. Later, some canneries became the nucleus for scores of towns along the coast.

Statehood was designed, in part, to increase local participation and management of the fisheries resources and affected communities. Throughout the early years of salmon management by the state, the introduction of limited entry fishing privileges and crab booms and busts, the seafood industry persisted and grew. Over time, Alaskans started to participate more, although not many were major corporate players.

Bottomfish or groundfish, the hot fishery of the eighties, began with virtually no U.S. participation, and nonAlaskan interests continue to dominate the major corporations. With few exceptions, fishing-only companies are small and processors typically are owned by foreigners or based in Seattle. But Alaskan companies are represented and are growing in number and size.

It's difficult to determine how many major seafood companies are Alaskan owned. Unlike retail industries, seafood companies do not need publicity to generate sales, and some firms are hesitant to discuss the scope of their operations and sacrifice the anonymity they enjoy. The Right Ingredients. Three of the most important items for the growth of a successful seafood business are stable fisheries resources, reliable markets and sufficient financing. It is the location of marketing channels and financing that have proven the greatest hindrance to building large Alaskan-owned and Alaska-based seafood companies.

The 49th state offers a broad fisheries resource base, but it is not stable. Shrimp stocks around Kodiak declined in the 1970s and have never recovered. King crab stocks around the state have peaked and waned with no good longterm prospects, but Bering Sea Tanner crab stocks are now at high levels.

Salmon harvests have increased in the recent past, although they vary year to year and area by area. Such factors as survival of the young, high-seas drift net interception and the vicissitudes of nature all affect salmon returns. Bottomfish stocks are healthy although the numbers of pollock in the Gulf of Alaska have declined dramatically and halibut numbers are decreasing.

Fishermen and processors have been able to survive only by switching between fisheries, scraping through hard times and by reorganizing through bankruptcies. Many of the shore-based processors had their roots as salmon trap companies before statehood.

The access to fish stocks is not different based on where a fisherman lives. Alaska limited entry permits, primarily for salmon and herring, were issued in the 1970s with the intent of ensuring fishing access and income to Alaskans. Many were given to fishermen from the Lower 48, and non-Alaskans have bought others.

By design, these...