Fish Harvesting Employment

Fisheries play an economic role in Alaska similar to that of wheat farming in North Dakota or corn production in Iowa. The latest National Marine Fisheries Service release reported that over 55 percent of the total U.S. fisheries harvest by volume was taken in Alaska waters. That production translated into nearly one-third of the total U.S. harvest by value. Dutch Harbor/ Unalaska ranked first among U.S. ports interms of volume, more than doubling runner-up Reedville, Va. These are impressive numbers for a state whose population amounts to only two tenths of one percent of the nation's total.