NOAA 98-053
Contact: Stephanie Dorezas FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 10,1998
Commercial fishermen brought 587.8 million pounds of fish, worth $122.6 million, to the port of Dutch Harbor-Unalaska, Alaska, in 1997 -- making it the port with both the highest volume and greatest dollar value of fish in the country, the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced today.
Officials at NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service said the port of Dutch Harbor-Unalaska netted the top landings slot for a tenth straight year. Reedville, Va. was ranked as the number two port for the first time in the fifty year history of ranking the nation's top fishing ports. Reedville had not been part of the ranking since 1978 because disclosure of landing totals would have revealed confidential data of the only two private enterprises in that port. However, the companies have recently merged and have now consented to releasing the data, which puts Reedville back into the ranking and bumped Ketchikan, Alaska out of the top ten.
Landings at Dutch Harbor-Unalaska were valued at $122 million, a decrease of $26 million from the 1994 value. New Bedford, Mass. was second with landings valued at $22 million less than that of Dutch Harbor, while the Kodiak, Alaska catch value was third at $89 million in 1997.
The top 10 leading U.S. ports in volume and value of fish and shellfish landed in 1995, 1996 and the latest statistics of 1997 are:
VOLUME
(figures are in millions of pounds)
PORT 1995 1996 1997
Dutch Harbor-
Unalaska, Alaska 684.6* 579.6 587.8
Reedville, Va. (1)** (1) 491.9
Empire-Venice, La. 298.1 316.5 395.9
Cameron, La. 280.0 315.7 379.6
Seattle, Wash. 229.0 241.2 336.1
Kodiak, Alaska 362.4 202.7 277.5
Intercoastal City, La. 179.2 199.0 270.8
Morgan City-Berwick, La. 127.4 162.9 222.9
Los Angeles, Calif. 168.5 156.9 168.2
Pascagoula-Moss Point, Miss. 128.6 148.0 164.7
* Record for quantity is 848.2 million pounds landed in Los Angeles,
Calif., in 1960.
** Not available or confidential to avoid disclosure of private enterprise.
VALUE
(figures are in millions of dollars)
PORT 1995 1996 1997
Dutch Harbor-Unalaska, Alaska 146.2 118.7 122.6
New Bedford, Mass. 86.9 100.5 103.2
Kodiak, Alaska 105.4 82.3 88.6
Empire-Venice, La. 51.1 45.4 57.8
Key West, Fla. 66.7 62.8 54.9
Honolulu, Hawaii 46.7 47.9 53.7
Point Judith, R.I. 43.7 46.0 47.6
Brownsville-Port Isabel, Texas 66.0 60.0 46.1
Portland, Maine 39.4 38.6 43.2
A complete list of commercial fishery landings and value at 60 major U.S. ports for 1995-1997 is available upon request.