Alaska Trends
This month’s article, “Hooked on Data” by Isaac Stone Simonelli, reports on how fisheries managers compile, share, and utilize all the different ways to count seafood. This includes the Commercial Operators Annual Report by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), which tracks the tonnage of seafood harvested from ex-vessel (when the catch leaves the boat) to first wholesale to processors. Meanwhile, the Tax Division of the Alaska Department of Revenue is responsible for adding up the value of the commercial salmon harvest and recording the price per pound.
Sportfishers keep a close eye on the tally of salmon returning to rivers. The most popular of ADF&G’s daily counts, perhaps not surprisingly, are the late-run sockeye and late-run chinook to the Kenai River. The US government also has a role, with NOAA’s Fisheries agency contributing a variety of data from federally managed waters. And finally, when seafood products leave Alaska for sale in foreign markets, export data is the domain of (believe it or not) the US Census Bureau.
This edition of Alaska Trends dips into the great and wide sea to harvest a sample of the fisheries data available.
![line drawing of three scales weighing 3 fish](https://vertakbizmag.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/akbiz-march-2022-trends-fig-02.png)
![digital illustration of three silhouette black fish](https://vertakbizmag.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/akbiz-march-2022-trends-fig-01.png)
![bar graph showing an increase of weight vs money from 1984 to 2020](https://vertakbizmag.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/akbiz-march-2022-trends-fig-03.png)
![bar graph showing an the ups and downs of harvesting from 1984 to 2020](https://vertakbizmag.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/akbiz-march-2022-trends-fig-04.png)
![digital illustration of a snowflake with a crab cut out of the middle](https://vertakbizmag.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/akbiz-march-2022-trends-fig-05.png)
![line drawing of frozen fish in packaging](https://vertakbizmag.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/akbiz-march-2022-trends-fig-06.png)
![digital illustration of 7 orange crabs and 5 white crabs](https://vertakbizmag.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/akbiz-march-2022-trends-fig-07.png)
![digital illustration of a squid](https://vertakbizmag.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/akbiz-march-2022-trends-fig-08.png)
![digital illustration of a squid](https://vertakbizmag.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/akbiz-march-2022-trends-fig-08.png)
![digital illustration of Abalones](https://vertakbizmag.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/akbiz-march-2022-trends-fig-09.png)
![digital illustration of Abalones](https://vertakbizmag.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/akbiz-march-2022-trends-fig-09.png)