Top Fishing Ports in U.S.--Can You Guess Which Two Are the Busiest?

By Jim Field
The answer is New Bedford, Massachusetts--based on the monetary value of fish handled--and Dutch Harbor, Alaska--based on bulk amount of fish handled. Personally, I am surprised by New Bedford: I have envisioned it as depressed area full of unemployed commercial fishermen in the wake of the gradual collapse of the cod industry. On the other hand, Dutch Harbor is no surprise to those of us who have religiously followed the Deadliest Catch TV series. My first pick, however, would have been Seattle or some other Washington State port.

Here's the FishNews announcement published by NOAA's Fisheries Service. Note the statistic on domestic commercial fish/seafood harvested in 2009: 7.9 billion ponds! Wow! Beneath the photos I've posted the Top Ten List, which surpisingly includes Cape May NJ (#5) and Hampton Roads VA(#6).

FishNews
A NOAA Fisheries report finds the port of New Bedford, Mass., the top spot for value of landings for the tenth year in a row. For the 21st consecutive year, Dutch Harbor, Alaska was the country's top port for the total amount of fish landed. Nationwide, the total domestic commercial landings for 2009 were 7.9 billion pounds, valued at $3.9 billion. This is a decrease from 2008, when the volume reached 8.3 billion pounds, with a value of $4.4 billion. Accounting for most of the decrease was a decline in landings of both pollock and Pacific whiting.

The report on the nation's ports is part of Fisheries of the United States 2009, a detailed statistical report on the nation's commercial and recreational fishing, landings, import, export, per capita fish consumption and consumer expenditures for fish products.

Aerial view of Dutch Harbor--pretty spectacular


A view of New Bedford docks


2009 Commercial Fishery Landings by Port Ranked by Dollars
First figure: millions of pounds
Second figure: millions of dollars
1 New Bedford, MA 170.0 249.2
2 Dutch Harbor-Unalaska, AK 506.3 159.7
3 Kodiak, AK 282.9 103.8
4 Naknek-King Salmon, AK 119.4 76.1
5 Cape May-Wildwood, NJ 63.9 73.4
6 Hampton Roads Area, VA 18.0 68.1
7 Empire-Venice, LA 411.8 67.1
8 Honolulu, HI 22.3 59.4
9 Sitka, AK 78.4 51.3
10 Dulac-Chauvin, LA 42.4 50.9