![]()
PART I
Introduction and Overview
We want to be sure that the United States does not lose the opportunity to be a leader in fisheries management, given that we have the ability, resources, and techniques to be that leader.
Andrew A. Rosenberg,
National Marine Fisheries Service
![]()
CHAPTER I
U.S. Fisheries Today
The overall status of fisheries nationally and globally is clearly a problem.
Linda Behnken, Alaska Longline Fishermenâs Association
U.S. marine fisheries, from New England to the Gulf of Mexico, to the Western Pacific and Alaska, are as varied and diverse as the regions that support them. They reflect the ecosystems, economies, and histories of their regions, the ethnic traditions and culture of the people who fish them, and the social structure of their communities.
The diversity of fisheries is represented in the number of ways fish are caught and used. It is also reflected in regional differences in the status of fish stocks, the condition of fishery economies and fishing communities, and the state of fishery management.
Types of Fisheries
Fish are caught in four general types of fisheries: commercial, recreational, subsistence, and indigenous. The mix of these fisheries varies from region to region. Information is available on the landings and value of commercial fisheries and is estimated for the number of fishing trips and fish caught in recreational fisheries. Little information is available, for the most part only descriptive, on subsistence and indigenous fisheries.
Commercial
Commercial fisheries are those in which catches are sold. U.S. commercial fisheries landed 4.2 million metric tons (a little over 9 billion pounds) of edible and industrial seafood at U.S. ports in 1998, continuing the downward trend of the past several years. These landings were valued at $3.1 billion ex-vesselâat point of first sale. An additional 182 thousand metric tons (about 401 million pounds), valued at $165.9 million, were landed at ports outside the United States or delivered to processing vessels at sea. About 78 percent of the fish landed in 1998 were used as fresh and frozen food, with the rest processed into canned and cured products and nonedible fish meal and oil.1 These proportions have been fairly stable over the recent past. The United States continued as the worldâs fifth-largest seafood producer in 1998, after China, Peru, Japan, and Chile, accounting for 4.5 percent of the total world catch.2
Commercial fisheries are conducted in every U.S. coastal region by people using a range of vessel types, vessel sizes, and gear types. Fishing businesses range from owner-operated family vessels to multi-investor-owned factory trawlers. They also include seafood processors, brokers, transporters, suppliers, and retailers. Alaska routinely leads all states in the volume of landingsâmore than all other states combinedâwith 4.9 billion pounds sold for $951 million in 1998. Dutch HarborâUnalaska, Alaska, was the top producing port in the United States in 1998, where 597 million pounds of fish were landed, valued at $110 million.3
Recreational
Recreational fisheries are those pursued for pleasure and relaxation. Recreational catch includes fish that are retained as well as fish that are released. In 1998 an estimated 17 million marine recreational anglers made over 60 million trips and caught about 312 million fish.4 Of these, 136 million fish weighing about 195 million pounds were kept. The rest of those caughtâmore than halfâwere released alive. For the United States as a whole, recreational landings are small in comparison to commercial landingsâabout 2.4 percentâalthough the ratio of recreational to commercial catch varies widely by species and by region. Most recreational anglers, trips, and catches occur on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, where recreational fishing is important and continuing to grow.5 There are important components of recreational fisheries that overlap with commercial fisheries in the form of businesses such as charter and âheadâ boats that provide recreational fishing for a fee and businesses such as marine suppliers and hotels that exist to support recreational fishing.
Subsistence
Subsistence fisheries are those conducted for food and other products but not for commercial or recreational use. These fisheries are pursued mostly, but not exclusively, by native peoples. They represent a small proportion of the total catch but are important to particular regions such as Alaska and the Western Pacific for both native and nonnative people.6
Indigenous
Indigenous fisheries are established through treaties and other agreements between the federal government, tribal governments, and other native groups. They are concentrated in California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. These fisheries include commercial, subsistence, and ceremonial catches. Treaty tribes are formally represented in Pacific fishery management, where the total catch quotas of salmon and several stocks of groundfish and shellfish include direct treaty allocations. Community development quotas in Western Alaska set aside a portion of the total allowable catch of Bering Sea groundfish and crabs for the mostly native villages. Similar programs were authorized for Hawaii and other U.S. Pacific islands in the Sustainable Fisheries Act, which amended the MFCMA in 1996. Indigenous fisheries are a small proportion of total U.S. landings but are of large importance regionally.7
Processing, Trade, and Consumption
American seafood processors produced about $7.4 billion of edible and nonedible fishery products in 1998, about 10 percent less than in 1997, continuing the recent downward trend in domestic processed product. As is usual, edible products accounted for most ($6.8 billion) of processed value. In order of volume, the major processed food products are raw fillets and steaks, fish sticks and portions, and breaded shrimp. Also important are canned fishery products, such as tuna, salmon, clams, and sardines.
The United States imported 3.6 billion pounds of edible seafood products in the form of fresh, frozen, canned, cured, caviar, and roe in 1998. These imports were valued at $8.2 billion, an increase of 308 million pounds and $419 million from the previous year. The increase in seafood imports continued the 1990s trend of an expanding trade imbalance in seafood products. Also increased were imports of industrial fishery products such as fish oils, meal, and scrap, valued at $7.4 billion. The United States imports a greater value of food fish from Canada, Thailand, Ecuador, and Mexico than from other countries, the most valuable of these imports being shrimp.8
Exports were valued at $8.7 billion in 1998, a decrease from the previous year. Most fishery exportsâabout 75 percentâare nonedible fish meals and oils. The most valuable food export products were fresh and frozen salmon, herring roe, surimi (minced fish meat), lobsters, flatfish, canned salmon, shrimp, and crabs, in that order. The United States exports the largest value of seafood to Japan, followed by Canada, the European Union, and other Asian countries.9
Americans spent an estimated $49.3 billion for 12.0 ...
