The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has released a report on its economic study of commercial and recreational fisheries released on 6 January 2009. The study reveals that the US commercial and recreational fisheries combined generated millions jobs and billion in sales. The report tiled “Fisheries Economics in the United States,” noted that in 2006 US commercial fishing operations accounted for 111,000 jobs in 2006 and generated $9.1 billion in sales.
The report also shows that an additional 106,000 jobs existed in seafood processing and 159,000 in seafood wholesale and distribution. It is found that seafood processing and distribution generated $14.9 and $19.0 billion in sales, respectively. In the commercial fusing sector the largest was the retail sector which accounted for 1,131,000 million jobs and nearly $60 billion in sales.
The report reveals data on sales, income and job figures for each coastal state. The highest amount of sales generated by the commercial fishing industry were in California ($9.8 billion), Florida ($5.2 billion), Massachusetts ($4.4 billion), Washington ($3.8 billion), and Alaska ($3 billion). The most jobs were generated in California (179,000), Florida (103,000), Massachusetts (83,000), Washington (75,000) and Texas (47,000). Jim Balsiger, NOAA’s acting Assistant Administrator for NMFS, advised that the report clearly shows that managing fisheries sustainably is good for the environment and the economy.
