Tag Archives: Southcentral Alaska
Alaska: Commercial fishermen struggle in coronavirus pandemic
“We tied the boat up, hoping and waiting for things to stabilize a little bit,” said Jim Hubbard, who has been commercial fishing for nearly 50 years. Hubbard’s vessel, Kruzof, has been docked for two months during the coronavirus pandemic. With many restaurants shut down or operating at a limited capacity, it wasn’t worth it to fish. “We learned that about 80% of our seafood goes to the restaurant trade and the species we target, more the commodity-based fish species. It’s really basically gutted our markets,” Hubbard said. “We’re not making money, tourist people aren’t making money, the restaurants aren’t making money, and it just keeps going down,” said Cory Harris. Harris owns the F/V Tribute and just returned to Seward from a recent fishing venture. He wants to make whatever money he can even if the prices aren’t great. >click to read< 11:05
Report: $1.2 billion of output from Southcentral fishing
Seafood employs more people in Southcentral than mining in the entire state, pays out more in Anchorage than construction, and has enough management and logistics infrastructure in Anchorage to rival that of Seattle, according to a new report. According to the report, the seafood industry is a major engine for Southcentral Alaska, with 2,168 active commercial fishing permits, 35 processing plants, and three salmon hatcheries working to produce $1.2 billion of total economic output for the region. Read the rest here 13:31
