Fishing Communities of Alaska

fishing community:

a community which is substantially dependent on or substantially engaged in the harvest or processing of fishery resources to meet social and economic needs, and includes fishing vessel owners, operators, and crew and United States fish processors that are based in such community

-Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act

The Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) Economic and Social Sciences Research Program conducts research on Alaska communities in order to examine the social and economic impacts of federal fishery policies and regulations. As mandated under National Standard 8 of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, these policies and regulations shall

take into account the importance of fishery resources to fishing communities in order to (1): Provide for the sustained participation of such communities; and (2) To the extent practicable, minimize adverse economic impacts on such communities.

Executive Order 12898 additionally mandates that each federal agency, to the greatest extent practicable and permitted by law, shall make achieving environmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing the disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of their actions on minority and low-income populations.

Explore Alaska's fishing communities

Explore Alaska's fishing communities through in-depth profiles of 196 communities.

Community-related research

Completed research related to communities is described in various peer-reviewed and NOAA technical publications.