Wild Salmon Is An Alaskan Thing

Katrina Mueller/USFWS
Katrina Mueller/USFWS

This is probably not a surprise, but per Alaska’s reporting fish guru, Laine Welch, a lot of the nation’s wild salmon comes from Alaska:

 

Here’s Welch, in the Homer Tribune:

Alaska claimed the nation’s top three fishing ports for seafood catches last year, and wild salmon landings – 95 percent from Alaska – topped one billion pounds. It’s an all-time record and a 70 percent increase from 2012.
That’s according to the annual Fisheries of the United States report for 2013, just released by NOAA Fisheries. 
Dutch Harbor topped the list for landings for the 17th year running with 753 million pounds of fish crossing the docks last year, valued at nearly $200 million. The Aleutian Islands region ranked second for landings, thanks to the big Trident plant at Akutan; Kodiak ranked third for both seafood landings and value. 
For the 14th year in a row, New Bedford, Mass. had the highest valued catch at $380 million. That’s due mostly to pricey sea scallops, which accounted for more than 80 percent of New Bedford’s 130 million pound landings.
In all, 14 Alaska ports made the top 50 list: the Alaska Peninsula (8), Cordova (9), Ketchikan (10), Sitka (15), Petersburg (16), Seward (20), Naknek (21), Valdez (24), Bristol Bay (26), Kenai (38) and Juneau (41). Most ports showed huge increases in fish landings and values, meaning a nice return in local and state tax dollars.