Number of Alaska fishers hits record low, state report finds
- Alaska Beacon
- Nov 6
- 2 min read
By James Brooks
Alaska Beacon
The number of seafood harvesters in Alaska’s famed industry has set a new record low, surpassing last year’s record low, according to figures published this month by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development in its magazine, Alaska Economic Trends.
In 2024, an average of 5,393 people were employed as fishers each month in Alaska, wrote analyst Joshua Warren. That’s down by 443 jobs from the same figure in 2023.
That figure does not include the thousands of people employed as fish processors statewide.
Alaska remains the No. 1 seafood producer among U.S. states, according to federal statistics, and produces more seafood than every other state combined.
The department has kept a monthly tally of seafood jobs in the state since 2001, and the number of fishers has been in a steady decline since 2019 due to a variety of factors, including a lack of available fish, competition from cheaper international sources, and high operating costs that can make fishing uneconomic.
Since the start of 2001, the high point of fishing employment was in 2015, when an average of 8,501 people were employed each month.
Historically, seafood employment was significantly higher due to reduced rates of automation and the fact that Alaska seafood tended to be processed and packaged locally.
The modern trend has been toward direct export and processing internationally, where wages are lower.
Fishing employment in Alaska is extremely seasonal, with a peak in June and July during the salmon season and a low ebb in December, before a new season of fishing in federal waters offshore.
In July 2024, only 17,361 people worked as fishers in Alaska, the lowest annual peak on record since January 2021. In July 2013, the highest peak, more than 25,000 fishers were employed by the state’s seafood industry.
• James Brooks is a longtime Alaska reporter, having previously worked at the Anchorage Daily News, Juneau Empire, Kodiak Mirror and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Alaska Beacon is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
