In the Southeast Alaska Conference it is said that this year’s harvested salmon stock is likely to be only 137 million fish, down 75 million from last year. John Sund, spokesman for the OceansAlaska Marine Science Center, told that the major problem facing the industry is not a declining population of fish but the decreasing number of fishing people living and working in Alaska.
Sund explained that a combination of increasing energy costs for rural areas, federal litigation inhibiting fishing and decreasing fish stocks is keeping fishermen at home. The Alaska Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission informed that only half the 415 fishing permits issued in 2007 were used. According to Sund the development of a shellfish fishery is one of ways the industry could become viable again and create up to 600 jobs a year.
Sund also said that they need to establish a world class research and development facility in Ketchikan. Commenting on that Dan Robinson, spokesman for the Alaska Department of Labor, expressed that although their state’s oil revenues have grown, oil is not a priority in southeast Alaska and that’s affecting the region’s economy.
