2011 US Commercial seafood landings biggest since 1994

Commercial fishermen in the US landed 10.1 billion pounds of seafood in 2011 – it’s the biggest commercial landing since 1994.

Their catch was valued at 5.3 billion dollars – nearly 785 million dollars more than the year before.

Much of the increase is due to higher catches of Gulf menhaden, Alaska pollock, and Pacific hake, also known as whiting.

And even though Florida is one of the biggest fishing states in the country, we didn’t even make the top ten list of top seafood ports in the US in 2011.

Commercial fishermen unloaded the most fish and shellfish the port of Dutch Harbor-Unalaska, in Alaska, making it the country's top port for landings for the 15th year in a row.

More than half of the seafood Americans eat from U.S. waters is caught in Alaska.

For the 12th consecutive year, New Bedford, Mass. had the highest valued catch, due mostly to the sea scallop fishery.

NOAA Fisheries also reports that catches throughout the Gulf of Mexico rebounded in 2011 to the highest volume since 1999, following a curtailed 2010 season due to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The full fishing season in 2011 produced commercial landings of Gulf menhaden that were 66 percent higher than 2010 landings, with Gulf fishermen bringing in more than 1.6 billion pounds of menhaden valued at $110 million.

Gulf shrimp landings rose 20 percent, from 176 million pounds valued at $338 million in 2010 to 212 million pounds valued at $418 million in 2011.

All of the information, and much more, is available in the newly released report, Fisheries of the United States 2011.

You can find that report posted on the news page at oysterradio.com.

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