2002 Economic Status of the Groundfish Fisheries off Alaska
September 26, 2002
The domestic groundfish fishery off Alaska is an important segment of the U.S. fishing industry. This report contains figures and tables which summarize various aspects of the economic performance of the fishery. Generally, data are presented for the domestic groundfish fishery for 1998 through 2002. Limited catch and ex-vessel value data are reported for earlier years in order to depict the rapid development of the domestic groundfish fishery in the 1980s and to provide a more complete historical perspective on catch. Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) is not included in data for the groundfish fishery in this report because for management purposes halibut is not part of the groundfish complex.
The report provides estimates of total groundfish catch, groundfish discards and discard rates, prohibited species bycatch and bycatch rates, the ex-vessel value of the groundfish catch, the ex-vessel value of the catch in other Alaska fisheries, the gross product value (F.O.B. Alaska) of the resulting groundfish seafood products, the number and sizes of vessels that participated in the Alaska groundfish fisheries, vessel activity, and employment on at-sea processors.
In addition, this report contains data on some of the external factors which, in part, determine the economic status of the fisheries. Such factors include foreign exchange rates, the prices and price indexes of products that compete with products from these fisheries, cold storage holdings, domestic per capita consumption of seafood products, and fishery imports.
An attachment to this report contains some regional economic information. That information will be expanded and integrated into the main report in the final version of this report.
The estimates in this report are intended both to provide information that can be used to describe the Alaska groundfish fisheries and to provide industry and others an opportunity to comment on the validity of these estimates.
The final version of this report will also include a summary of recent estimates of capacity, capacity utilization, and fishery utilization for the vessels that participated in federally managed commercial fisheries off Alaska in 2002 (Felthoven et al. 2003).
Additional Resources
- Groundfish Economic Status Reports for the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands
- Groundfish and Shellfish Assessment Surveys Sample Request Instructions
- Southeast Alaska Coastal Monitoring Survey Reports
- North Pacific Groundfish Stock Assessments
- Alaska Groundfish Survey Data Map