Southeast Alaska maritime, economy grows: industries and jobs shift from forest to ocean.

• Author: Bradner, Mike
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Transportation

If there's an anchor to the economy in Southeast Alaska it's the regional maritime industry, which ranges from fisheries, water transportation, cruise ship support, the state ferry system (itself one of the largest marine employers) to, finally, shipbuilding, the new bright spot for the region.

About a fourth of all Southeast Alaska wages stem directly from ocean-related "blue" jobs, which totaled 8,200 in the region in 2013 and accounted for $475 million in wages. This is according to Southeast Conference, the regional economic development association, in its March 2015 report, "The Maritime Economy of Southeast Alaska."

The report relied on data compiled by Rain Coast Data, a Juneau consulting firm.

"We are a maritime economy. It is what marks our identity and what fuels our economic engine," said Shelly Wright, executive director of the Southeast Conference.

The ocean is the most dominant feature of Southeast Alaska, the report said. The region is defined as stretching five hundred miles from Dixon Entrance near Ketchikan to Yakutat, on the Gulf of Alaska coast northwest of Juneau and the northern Lynn Canal communities of Haines and Skagway.

The mainland coast is defined, in most places, as a narrow strip of land between mountains and shore. There are 1,100 islands making up the Alexander Archipelago in Southeast, which creates a total shoreline of approximately eighteen thousand miles.

Long History

Southeast's maritime tradition dates back ten thousand years, the report notes, and is rooted to the seafaring traditions of the original Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples of the area. Russians were in the region in the 1700s after furs, and in the late 1800s there was gold mining and seafood processing, all dependent on waterborne trade.

The Tlingits in particular used the wealth of the sea to develop sophisticated trade relations and craft skills. They became skilled navigators along ocean trade routes using large, ocean-going canoes.

After the American purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, it wasn't long until the natural beauty of the region came to the nation's attention along with its mineral wealth. Conservationist John Muir wrote about the scenic splendor of the Southeast coast in the 1970s, and by the 1980s steamships carrying freight and passengers, among them gold miners, were bringing the first cruise tourists. Today the number of visitors on cruise ships approaches 1 million, which has given rise to new ocean-related tourism businesses like whale watching and sea kayaking, as well as sports fishing.

Employment Growth

What's striking is how steadily the Southeast maritime sector is growing, according to the information compiled by Rain Coast Data. From 2010 to 2013 maritime-related...