Oregon commercial fishermen hauled in 211 million pounds of seafood in 2009, a 3% bump up from 2008, but fathoms below 2005’s 313-million-pound haul.
Oregon commercial fishermen hauled in 211 million pounds of seafood in 2009, a 3% bump up from 2008, but fathoms below 2005’s 313-million-pound haul. Still, quantity does not always increase value: Revenue earned by the actual fishermen rose 4.4% to $104.7 million, near the peak of $105.9 million in 2006. Dungeness crab doubled its value since 1990, now accounting for 41% of revenue. Groundfish was the next most valuable “fish,” followed by tuna, pink shrimp, whiting, “other” and finally, salmon, representing only 3% of revenue, a big dive from 1990 when it represented 13%. Oregon salmon fishers’ best year of the decade was 2004, when they caught 5.9 million pounds and earned $13 million in revenue. Primarily used for imitation crabmeat, whiting accounted for 30% of the catch, the largest of all the fisheries, but it only brought in 4% of revenue. The “other” fishery has grown rapidly in value and volume in recent years, largely driven by Pacific sardine harvests.
BRANDON SAWYER
