North America

Canada

There are approximately 58,400 registered commercial fishers in Canada who land more than one million tonnes of marine and freshwater fish and seafood annually, with a landed value of more than $2 billion.

Canada is the world’s fifth-largest exporter of fish and seafood products, with exports to more than 130 countries. Canada’s fish and seafood exports reached an all-time high of $4.7 billion in 2002, although values declined to $4.3 billion in 2005 due to a weakened US dollar. Canada exports an estimated 85 per cent, by value, of its fish and seafood production.

Canada’s young aquaculture sector has grown at an annual rate of 20 per cent from 1986 through 2004. In 2004, farm-gate receipts were $669 million on 145,000 of product.

United States

United States export of edible commercial fishery products was 1,290,926mt in 2005 for a value of $3.8 billion dollars, surpassing the 2004 figures of 1,275,675mt of landings for a value of $3.5 billion.

Total United States landings of commercial fish in 2003 were 4,311,643mt for a landed value of $3.34 billion.

Eastern Canada

When northern cod went under moratorium in 1992, attention shifted to other fisheries.

Shrimp fisheries in eastern Canada have shown rapid growth during the last decade and are now ranked fourth in value among shellfish species, behind lobster, scallops and crabs. There were 817,045mt of seafood products landed in the Atlantic region in 2005 for a value of $1.6 billion. Top landings were 163,017mt of herring, 161,031 of shrimp and 95,329mt of queen (snow) crab. The top earner was 43,944mt of lobster valued at $591,019,000.

Newfoundland fishermen have been permitted a modest cod fishery for the first time in three years with a limit there of five million pounds, a fraction of high landings of nearly 600 million pounds in the 1980’s.

In the Scotia-Fundy region the commercial fishing industry is worth 40 per cent more today than it was a decade ago.

The Bay of Fundy canned sardine industry is based on juvenile herring. Connors Brothers Limited operates a cannery in Black’s Harbour, New Brunswick and one in Prospect Harbor, Maine. These two canneries process from 50,000 to 60,000 metric tons annually, collectively.

Connors Brothers sardine brands are Brunswick in Canada and Beach Cliff in the United States.

The processed value of the two million cases (200 million tins) of canned sardines produced annually at the two plants is approximately $125 million at between $60 to $80 a case wholesale.

Eastern United States

The major products of export from the Northeast are: American lobster; Atlantic sea scallops; monkfish; Atlantic mackerel; Atlantic herring; and squid. In terms of value, the leading seafood products exported in 2005 were lobster, representing 43 per cent of the region’s exports, and scallops at nearly 18 per cent.

In 2005, U.S. exports of American lobster reached 26,608mt with a value of $346.5 million.

Exports of fish and shellfish from the northeastern U.S. were valued at $728 million in 2005, up 11 per cent and $72 million over 2004. The region’s exports comprised 19 per cent of total U.S. fish and shellfish exports by value.

Scallops were the region’s leading growth product for export in 2005, with exports growing to 11.61mt, up from 7.62mt in 2004 and increasing 74 per cent in value from $73.6 million in 2004 to $128.3 million in 2005.

The European Union is the largest consumer of the region’s fish and shellfish exports, with France, Spain and Italy the largest markets.

Gulf Coast States

The Gulf coast states in the U.S, southeast are still recovering from the devastating effects of the 2005 hurricane season.

The Gulf of Mexico is home to a significant share of the U.S. fishing industry, representing 20 per cent of commercial fishing and 30 per cent of saltwater recreational fishing.

The value of the commercial harvest in the Gulf of Mexico in 2004 was $627 million with oyster production accounting for $59 million, shrimp $286 million and finfish and other shellfish, $282 million.

Louisiana, with over half the value of the commercial harvest in the Gulf, is anticipated to have the highest hurricane damage, followed by Mississippi.

Commercial fishing revenue in Louisiana was $44.2 million in August of 2005. In September that revenue dropped to $28.2 million, but bounced back to $37.8 million for October, $26.3 million in November and $14.5 million in December, surpassing seasonal revenue rates.

In Mississippi, commercial fishing revenues were $6.5 million in August and dropped to $3 million in September. As in Louisiana, revenues jumped in October to $5.4 million, to $4.5 million in November and $3.1 million in December.

An interesting phenomenon coming out of the effects of hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico in 2005 is increased shrimp production stemming from increased nutrients in the water following a stirring up of the Gulf by the hurricane.

U.S. Pacific Coast

Sardines, once an abundant fish made famous in the John Steinbeck novel Cannery Row set among the canneries of Monterey California, have returned to the coast after a 50 year absence.

The biomass is estimated to be at 1.5 million metric tons, of which California and Oregon fishermen harvest about 80,000 tons.

The sardines are destined mostly for bait for the high seas tuna fleet. Salmon is a significant fishery in California and Oregon as well, but due to conservation concerns this will be the shortest ever chinook salmon season off California and Oregon.

In 2005 fishing in Oregon and California was cut in half to meet spawning objectives. This year commercial fishing opportunities are cut by a further 75 per cent. Commercial fishermen have staggered openings and are only permitted to keep 75 chinooks per week.

The reduced supply of chinook salmon in the area in 2006 has bumped prices to fishermen up to $8 a pound.

An albacore tuna troll fishery occurs off Oregon and Washington states. Last year about 14,500mt of tuna was taken by U.S. and Canadian fishermen fishing together through an albacore tuna treaty agreement.

British Columbia

In British Columbia (B.C.) on Canada’s West Coast, salmon fishermen were anticipating a chance at an opportunity to harvest a portion of a predicted 17 million sockeye estimated to be returning to Canada’s most productive salmon river, the Fraser River this summer. In 2005, due to weak stock issues, environmental conditions and federal allocation obligations to First Nations (aboriginal) fishers, despite a substantial run of 8.7 million sockeye, there was no commercial fishery.

Fisheries managers are already cautioning, however, that a warm summer may induce pre-spawn mortality and fishing opportunities may suffer to guarantee sufficient salmon reach the spawning grounds.

Without a Fraser River sockeye fishery, the salmon fishery still landed 27,043mt of salmon for a value of $33,823,000.

The International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) set the Canadian quota of Pacific halibut this year at 13.22 million pounds.

In 2005 7,497mt of halibut was landed for a value of $44,431,000. A total of 2005 groundfish landings in B.C. were 154,926mt with a value of $145,747,000.

B.C. fishermen have a quota of 50,000 tons of Pacific sardines, with about 50 vessels fishing.

B.C.’s herring fishery is substantial too, with 28,778mt landed for a value of $32,144,000.

Alaska

Alaska has two large crab fisheries, the autumn red king crab fishery and the January opilio crab season.

Fishing under a rationalisation plan for the fist time, the red king crab fishery opened last year on October 15 for a fishery that lasted three months on a total allowable catch (TAC) allowance of 18.3 million pounds. Between 1996 and 2004 under the ‘derby’ fishery regime, fisheries lasted less than a week.

With crab going for $4.30 per pound the red king crab fishery was estimated to have earned an ex-vessel price of about $79 million.

Alaska produces five varieties of Pacific salmon, sockeye, pink, chum, coho and chinook, often referred to as ‘King’ salmon due to their large size.

Sockeye salmon are the ‘money fish’ in Alaska’s salmon fishery, accounting for 60 per cent of total salmon value in Alaska. In 2005 sockeye landings earned $194 million in dockside prices to fishermen.

The 2005 all salmon species landings reached a record 221 million fish, exceeding the previous record of 181 million in 2005.

Projections for 2006 are for 167 million salmon to be landed due to lower returns of pink and sockeye salmon in 2006.

Alaska groundfish, with pollock being the dominant species, is one of the most important United States fish harvests. In 2001, the fishery produced a catch of 1.9 million tonnes and an ex-vessel value of U.S. $543 million. According to federal figures, this represented 47 per cent of the quantity and 17 per cent of the value of the total United States domestic landings. After primary processing, the value of fish increased sharply to reach about US$1.4 billion.

In 2005 3.2 billion pounds of pollock were harvested from the Bering Sea, and an additional 138 million from the Gulf of Alaska.

Statewide, the shore-based processing sector had processed 51 per cent of the total catch, while catcher/processors had processed 44 per cent, and mother ships the remaining six per cent.

Through August of 2005, the European Union was the primary destination for pollock exported from the United States, with 65 per cent of the catch going to European countries, including former Soviet satellite nations.

This year nearly 500 million pounds of Pacific cod will be harvested from the Bering Sea and another 150 million pounds will be added from the Gulf of Alaska.

Alaska is set to harvest 69.9 million pounds of halibut in 2006.