According to a report commissioned by the City of Valdez, PWS Seine Fishery harvests and values fluctuate greatly.

In 2013 (the most recent available confirmed data), the local commercial fishing industry included 28 local resident active permit holders, 74 crew members, and 56 commercial fishing vessels homeported in Valdez. Many local boats are seiners that also participated in longline IFQ fisheries for black cod and halibut.

Twenty longline, pot, and jig boats homeport in Valdez in addition to three tenders and two other small support vessels. Numerous additional seiners that are homeported elsewhere deliver fish in Valdez.

The most recent assessment of the full economic impact of the seafood industry found that commercial fishing and seafood processing together employed just over 700 workers in Valdez, including local fishermen, processing workers, hatchery employees and government workers engaged is fisheries management. Additional employment is created in the support sector. In total, seafood generated an estimated $16.7 million in local labor income in Valdez in 2013.

The vast majority (82% in 2014) of earnings from commercial fishing activities by Valdez residents are the result of participation in the Prince William Sound seine fishery. The pink salmon runs on which this fishery is based can fluctuate significantly from year to year. The 2014 PWS seine harvest totaled 131 million pounds with an ex-vessel value of $40 million. The value of the 2014 was less than half the 2013 value.

Published data is not available on processing employment in Valdez, due to confidentiality restrictions. Seafood processing employment data for the Valdez Cordova Census provides an

indication of the scale and timing of processing employment in the region. In 2014, seafood professing employment averaged 443 jobs, however monthly employment ranged from a low of 58

in January to a peak of 1,161 in August. The total number of workers in the sector was 1,658. Based on pounds landed, Valdez hosted about one-third of the seafood processing employment in the

census area in 2013, or about 600 individual workers.

In 2013, 88% of workers employed in seafood processing in the Valdez Cordova Census Area were not Alaska residents. Resident workers made an average of $26,573 in wages, while non-residents made $12,760.

Recent expansion by two local processors are driven by strong pink runs, increased production at the two local hatcheries, and successful marketing of salmon by-products. Expansion at the Peter

Pan Seafoods plant involves a joint venture with Trident Seafoods to produce high quality salmon oil from salmon heads and other parts. Silver Bay Seafoods is in the process of building a new 70,000 square feet facility and expects to roughly double the company’s processing capacity, utility usage,

and workforce.