Alaska’s commercial fisheries are vast and lucrative. With a dockside value of $1.7 billion in 2016, the industry employs more than 29,000 people. To help fishermen and others understand more about Alaska’s 180-plus commercial fisheries, Alaska Sea Grant has developed an interactive map. It features target species, gear, locations, seasons and more.
Sunny Rice, Alaska Sea Grant’s Marine Advisory agent in Petersburg, spearheaded the project to complement the fisheries business tools on Sea Grant’s FishBiz website.
“Building the interactive map was a collaborative effort that allowed us to take advantage of the geographic diversity in our program,” said Rice. “Our agents from Nome to Unalaska to Kodiak and Prince William Sound drew on their knowledge of local fisheries to make sure we had a tool that made sense for Alaska fishermen. Mark Vinsel from United Fishermen of Alaska lent us his fishery database as a starting point, and we got input from ADF&G fishery managers.”
The interactive map allows users to search 183 different fisheries by region, target species and fishing gear. They can also search by limited entry, catch share, Individual Fishing Quota and other categories to help determine costs of entry. Each fishery is linked to its management agency website.
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Source: Alaska Sea Grant: Interactive map of Alaska commercial fisheries launched
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