|
Web posted
At the peak of summer in 2005, the monthly job count in fish harvesting rose above 20,000 workers, the report said.
“Add to those numbers the thousands of jobs the fisheries create in seafood processing, support service industries and government management, and the economic importance of fisheries to Alaska becomes even more clear,” wrote economists Dan Robinson and Neal Gilbertsen.
Employment in Alaska's fish harvesting rose slightly in 2005 over 2004, adding 127 jobs. “This 1.7 percent gain nearly equated the 1.9 percent growth rate of the state's wage and salary employment,” the economists said. “Over the six years measured by this relatively new data set, total fish harvesting employment has shown two distinct trend lines: from 2000 to 2002, employment numbers fell at a dramatic rate; then from 2002 to 2005, total employment stabilized and managed to recover a small amount of the lost ground.”
Still, the report notes, this growth in employment has not been shared evenly among the fisheries. “On one hand, the salmon fisheries added 291 jobs for an 8.3 percent over-the-year increase in 2005, and have added a total of 744 jobs since their low point in 2002. On the other hand, the combined total for all other fisheries fell by 166 jobs in 2005, amounting to a 4.4 percent decline, and have lost a combined total of 772 jobs since 2000,” the economists said.
Salmon accounted for more than 50 percent of all Alaska fish harvesting jobs in 2005. According to the state's Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission, 75 percent of all individuals who fished permits that year spent part of their time fishing for salmon. In sheer numbers, the Alaska fishing fleet has always been dominated by salmon fishermen, some of whom traditionally supplemented their income with harvests of halibut, sablefish, herring and near-shore crab, only to see those supplemental fisheries assume a more important economic role as salmon prices collapsed in the 1990s.
The November through March winter troll employment has steadily grown since 2002, continuing this pattern in 2005. Unlike the troll fishery, which sees nearly year-round participation, the salmon fisheries as a whole are highly seasonal. The months of June, July and August see huge volumes of salmon landed and correspondingly large employment numbers.
“Because most of the fish must be frozen or canned, they face different market conditions than kings and don't command the premium prices of the fresh market,” the economists noted. “It's these high-volume fisheries that continue to struggle with relatively low prices, and employment in the peak summer months remains far below 2000 levels, despite gains in 2005, and a generally upward trend since 2002.”
In Bristol Bay, the region averaged 6,800 jobs during June, July and August of 2005, nearly 600 more than the average for those months in 2004. “A considerable amount of the over-the-year increase was the result of a legal ruling that ended a Chignik cooperative allocation, altering the structure of the area's seine fishery,” the report said.
Co-op participants had agreed to reduce the number of boats and permits fished in an effort to cut costs and operate more efficiently. Seventy-seven permit holders joined and paid 22 members to catch the allocation it had been granted by the Alaska Board of Fisheries. The catch value was then divided among co-op members.
After the court ruling at least temporarily ended the co-op, the number of permits participating in the fishery tripled from 2004 to 2005, resulting in nearly 300 more monthly jobs during the seasonal peak.
But the Southwest region's salmon harvesting employment has also been growing as a result of stronger sockeye runs and slightly higher prices, economists noted.
The employment picture in the crab industry was quite different. Economists found that the net effect of privatizing crab fisheries under the federally authorized crab rationalization program was fewer jobs. In the five years immediately preceding rationalization, the Southwest region's crab fishery averaged 479 jobs a month during the four winter months of major crab fisheries. In 2005, under rationalization, there was a monthly average of just 303 jobs, economists said.
Groundfish fisheries, which require a relatively few number of large boats to catch huge quantities of fish, painted still another economic picture.
While the Bering Sea and Aleutian Island pollock trawl fishery is by far Alaska's — and the nation's — largest fishery in terms of volume, there are many smaller boat fisheries included in this grouping. Longliner, jig and pot fishermen, who target everything from rockfish to Pacific cod, greatly outnumber the better known trawlers, economists said.
As a group, groundfish employment has been suffering a slow erosion, the report said. “While the 59 jobs lost in 2005 seem insignificant in relation to that year's employment of 1,132 people, it represents a 5 percent decline and continues a five-year trend of job losses,” the report said. “Since 2000, the groundfish fisheries have shed a total of 443 jobs, a decline of 28 percent.”
Alaska's halibut fishery shows an employment trend similar to groundfish. “Small losses in 2005 ... continue a recent history of consistent, incremental job erosion,” the report said. “The 37 fewer jobs in 2005 represent a 2.9 percent decline, and the five consecutive years of losses from 2000 to 2005, add up to a total loss of 171 jobs and a 12 percent overall decline.”
The economists said the continuing fall in employment contrasts with an ongoing trend of higher earnings. “In effect, fewer jobs are being generated by a fishery that has experienced significant economic gains over the 2000-2005 period,” the report said. “Once again, this demonstrates that employment numbers are but one piece of the puzzle in determining the economic health of a fishery.”
Employment in the sablefish fishery remained virtually unchanged from 2004 levels, providing 449 jobs in 2005.
In large part, employment patterns in the halibut and sablefish fisheries are explained by the quota share system that was introduced in 1995 and the consolidation of production that has followed, the report said. At the time of original issuance, 4,830 individuals received halibut quota shares.
By 2000, the number of halibut quota share holders had fallen to 3,541, and by 2005, this number had declined 33 percent from the original issuance to 3,239. The 12 percent decline in halibut fisheries employment from 2000 to 2005 roughly tracks the 8 percent decline in halibut quota share holders over that same period.
Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.
|
