This 1985 edit delivers a glimpse of the inception of the pollock fishery in Alaska. The gamble paid off. Pollock is now the most successful fishery in Alaska. Some might say, it’s at the expense of the king salmon, which are easily caught in their larger trawl nets.
Making a 40 ton cod end worth between 3 and 4 thousand dollars
Via YouTube: Excerpt from Alaska Review 58. In this segment, Alaska Review examines the rapid growth of Alaska’s pollock and bottom-fishing industry and what it means for the state’s economy. Report covers topics such as the Magnuson Act, the 200-Mile Limit, joint venture operations, foreign fishing fleets, harvest limits, and new food products such as surimi.
Those interviewed include: Thorne Tasker of Alaskan Joint Venture Fisheries, Inc.; Al Burch of the Alaska Draggers Association; Chris Riley of the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation; Jim Branson of the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council; Greg Baker, director of the Office of Commercial Fisheries Development for the State of Alaska; Bob Keating, Joint Venture representative; Colonel Yong Sam Kim of the Samho Moolsan Company of South Korea; Chris Mitchell, executive director of the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation; Jerry Babbitt, food scientist with the National Marine Fisheries Service; and Gilbert Francklyn, Dutch Harbor crab fisherman. Program contains views of the Alaska coastline, fishing vessels, the visit of an Alaskan commission to Norway, fish processing facilities, grocery store fish displays, fish preparation at a restaurant, underwater scenes of fish being caught in a bottom trawling net, nets being hauled back aboard boats, graph showing bottom fish harvest levels, scenes from the 1984 North Pacific Fisheries Management Council meeting, a Japanese restaurant, an Alaska Pacific Seafoods processing facility in Kodiak, a food science lab, crab pots and crab boats, and a graph showing a rapid decline in Bering Sea king crab harvest levels.