“Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great.” Verse 25 of Psalm 104 (English Standard Version) evokes the vastness of the ocean and the complexity of its eco-webs, and it articulates the challenge faced by scientists and resource managers whose job it is to number the innumerable.

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.