Ship to shore.

• Author: Holmes, Krys
• Position: Alaska's fishing industry - Includes glossary of fishing gear - Glossary

SHIP TO SHORE

THE CONGREGATION OF FISH OFF THE SHORES OF Alaska supports one-sixth of the state's economy, employs 20,000 of its people, pays them more than the average wage, and still may be the least understood of Alaska's resources.

What's the difference between a Ketchikan troller and a Kodiak trawler? What can a Kachemak Bay shellfish farmer learn from a Bristol Bay gillnetter? How can an investor determine when the flatfish market will soar and the surimi market go flat? And how can fisheries managers set quotas that will be fair to both 500-foot surimi factory ships and 50-foot drag boats?

This primer to the Alaska commercial fish business is an introduction to this many-legged creature that is Alaska's largest private industry. The seafood business is too complex and ornery to be described well in one piece, or in one lifetime. This is only a sketch, merely the hallway light to a wing of Alaska's economic structure that is substantial and enduring, yet always under construction.

The seafood industry is Alaska's largest private employer, second only to defense employment. A report published last year that compiles and analyzes seafood industry economic data is the Alaska Seafood Industry Study, prepared by The McDowell Group of Juneau for the Alaska Seafood Industry Study Commission. It notes that seafood revenues produced nearly $600 million in payroll in 1987, a figure that was expected to have increased in 1988 and 1989. The average monthly wage is $2,582, slightly higher than the average wage for any other industry in the state.

The ex-vessel value of Alaska's seafood was estimated at $1.1 billion in 1987. Ex-vessel refers to the value of uncleaned fish sold by the harvester to the processor. The wholesale value of Alaska's seafood is estimated at about $3 billion.

Between $3.7 billion and $4.3 billion is invested in the fish business in Alaska. Half of this is invested in vessels and on-board equipment, 25 percent in permits and 25 percent in processing plants and equipment. Fishermen themselves spend about $190 million per year on goods and services in Alaska, and processors spend $90 million.

But the importance of Alaska's seafood industry to the state, and to the world, goes far beyond any economic assessment report. Alaska produces 46 percent of our nation's seafood, and 2 percent of the world's supply. If Alaska was an independent nation, it would be the world's 11th largest seafood supplier. Even so, only about 30 percent of the tonnage landed ends up as food or feed for the world's markets. The rest - skins, heads, bones and offal-has yet to become the profitable by-products that it potentially could be.

HISTORY

The fish business in Alaska has matured through three ages: early territorial days, the first 20 years of statehood and the age of Americanization. Salmon was Alaska's first commercial species, starting with the first canneries in 1878. By 1929, there were 159 canneries in Alaska, most of them owned by Seattle-based companies.

In those early days, Alaska's fisheries were managed federally from a distance. Fish traps were legal; canneries sometimes exploited their workers and overexploited the resource; and some fisheries were depleted.

Entrepreneurial creativity reigned supreme in those days. Some of the best legends and important technical history on which our fisheries are based came out of the territorial days of Alaska. And it was in these nascent days of the industry that Seattle established itself as the capital of the Alaska fishing industry.

Statehood brought hands-on fishery management of nearshore waters. For the first time, Alaskans were responsible for managing their own resource. During the first decades of statehood, the salmon resource plunged to an all-time low. Limited entry was instituted for salmon fishing, and other management programs were established for commercial fisheries within three miles of shore. By 1985, salmon harvests had rebounded to 147 million fish.

The third age of Alaska's fisheries began in 1976, when Congress passed the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act. This act...