The commercial fishing industry in Alaska is a diverse and vibrant sector that plays a critical role in the regional economy. From salmon enhancement organizations to marine brokerage firms, these companies provide a range of services that cater to various stakeholders including sports fishermen, commercial fishermen, fish processors, tourists, and businesses that rely on the fishing industry. In addition, environmental sustainability forms a crucial part of their operations, as they strive to maintain a healthy fish population and habitat. As the industry meets the demands of today, it also looks towards the future in adapting to climate change and sustainability challenges.


Top 25 commercial fishing companies in Alaska

1. Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association

  • Website: ciaanet.org
  • Headquarters: Kenai, Alaska, United States
  • Founded: 1976
  • Headcount: 11-50
  • LinkedIn

The Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association is a private, non-profit corporation that engages in salmon enhancement and habitat work throughout the Cook Inlet region for the benefit of commercial, subsistence, sport, and personal use fishing.


2. Valdez Fisheries Development Association, Inc.

Valdez Fisheries Development Association (VFDA) is a fisheries company that provides sustainable salmon harvests in south-central Alaska. They raise, propagate, and market fish and fish products, and develop renewable fisheries resources for the benefit of sports fishermen, commercial fishermen, fish processors, tourists, and all businesses dependent upon the fishing industry in Alaska.


3. Alaska Boats and Permits INC

Alaska Boats & Permits, Inc. is a full-service marine brokerage company based in Homer, Alaska that specializes in buying and selling commercial fishing vessels, permits, and Individual Fishing Quotas (IFQs).


4. City of King Cove

Cityofkingcove.com is the official website of King Cove, a predominantly Aleut fishing community located on the south side of the Alaska Peninsula. The city's economy depends on year-round commercial fishing and seafood processing industries.


5. Alaska Fish Factor Fish Radio

Alaska Fish Factor Fish Radio is a company that operates in the Media and Entertainment industry. It employs 1-5 people and has $0M-$1M of revenue. The company is headquartered in Kodiak, Alaska.


6. Alaska Department of Fish and Game

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game manages approximately 750 active fisheries, 26 game management units, and 32 special areas. Our operating budget is approximately $200 million annually. We work to foster the highest standards of scientific integrity and promote innovative sustainable fish and wildlife management programs to optimize public uses and economic benefits. From making policy and management decisions to providing education and outreach programs, interacting with and involving the public is vital to our mission and goals.


7. Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corporation

  • Website: pwsac.com
  • Headquarters: Cordova, Alaska, United States
  • Founded: 1974
  • Headcount: 51-200
  • LinkedIn

PWSAC is a private, non-profit hatchery association that produces hatchery-born, ocean raised wild salmon for commercial, sport, personal use, and subsistence fisheries in the Prince William Sound and Copper River regions. With an economic annual output of over $192 million, PWSAC impacts over 1,400 jobs and feeds 5,400 Alaskans in more than 50 communities.


8. United Southeast Alaska Gillnetters

United Southeast Alaska Gillnetters Association (USAG) is a member-based organization representing the Southeast Alaska Gillnet Fishery. The mission of United Southeast Alaska Gillnetters Association is to protect, serve and enhance southeast Alaska's salmon gillnet fleet. To do this, we work within all political and developmental areas affecting the fishermen and the gillnet fisheries within Southeast Alaska including the US Canada Treaty process, the Alaska Board of Fisheries process, United Fishermen of Alaska, the gillnet task force, the regional and non-regional hatchery systems, the Joint Regional Planning Team committee, the enhanced allocation process, and the state administrative and legislative processes. USAG is actively represented on important panels, political boards and hatchery boards. USAG's goals and interests rest soley with the SE Alaska gillnet fishery and its fishermen so there are no internal conflicts with other gear groups and other areas. USAG's board of directors represent many SE Alaska communities, reflecting the gillnet fishermen it supports, including fishermen from the lower 48. The Board sets internal policy for USAG and decides organizational action and political stance with long-term sustainability and long-term solutions in mind. USAG's part-time Executive Director, Cynthia Wallesz, handles correspondence, front line representation, information distribution, membership, capital and administrative lobbying, and day-to-day operations. Cynthia and the organization can be reached by phone at (253) 237-3099 via Google Voice or by email at usag.alaska @ gmail.com. Feel free to contact any member of USAG's Board of Directors or Staff with questions, comments and concerns.


9. Southeast Alaska Fishermans Alliance

SEAFA is a non-profit organization representing our membership involved in the salmon, crab, shrimp and longline fisheries. Our mission is to preserve, promote, protect and perpetuate the commercial fishing industry in Southeast Alaska, in particular the salmon, crab, shrimp and longline fisheries of Southeast Alaska; to further promote legislation, conservation, management, safety at sea and the general welfare for the mutual benefit of all members.


10. Petersburg Vessel Owner's Association

  • Website: psgvoa.org
  • Headquarters: Petersburg, Alaska, United States
  • Headcount: 51-200

The website belongs to Petersburg Vessel Owner's Association (psgvoa.org), which is an organization representing the interests of commercial fishermen in Southeast Alaska. The association helps to promote the sustainable use and development of the marine resources in the region.


11. Seago

Southeast Alaska Guides Organization is a non-profit organization that represents charter fishing and lodge operations in Southeast Alaska. They advocate for sustainable regulations to ensure the long-term success of their businesses and the fish resources they rely on.


12. Bay Welding Services, Inc.

Bay Weld Boats is a premier boat-building company that constructs custom aluminum vessels for State and Government agencies, commercial fishermen, charter operators, and private users.


13. Jkcharters

  • Website: jkcharters.com
  • Headquarters: Homer, Alaska, United States
  • Headcount: 1-10

Jkcharters is a company that operates in the Internet industry. It employs 6-10 people and has $1M-$5M of revenue. The company is headquartered in Homer, Alaska.


14. Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust

The Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust is a nonprofit corporation based in Sitka, Alaska. Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust's mission is to protect and support local fishing businesses, promote sustainable fishing practices, and revitalize fishing communities in Alaska.


15. Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation

  • Website: nsedc.com
  • Headquarters: Anchorage, Alaska, United States
  • Founded: 1992
  • Headcount: 51-200

NSEDC maintains a balance between local economic development oriented toward residents of the Norton Sound region.


16. Taglab

The Tag Lab is the centralized state resource for tracking salmon using microscopic tags. We maintain a detailed database that is used to quantify survival of fish groups, timing of runs through commercial fisheries, compliance with Pacific Salmon Treaty strictures and various biological parameters. The Tag Lab is part of a coastwide standardized salmon measurement program which also includes Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia. The Age Determination Unit is a statewide age reading service which produces data for fish and invertebrates sampled during commercial, population survey, and research harvests. Age data help fishery managers set harvest goals by assessing the ability of a species or a population to sustain harvest. This lab also works with scientists at similar labs in other states and provinces to standardize methods and improve techniques, through the Canada-US Groundfish Committee's Technical Subcommittee - Committee of Age Reading Experts. The ASL Repository holds Alaska commercial fisheries historic salmon age-sex-length observations. The Department is actively reconstructing historic data from many physical locations as time and funding permits. Results are edited into a standard format with consistent codes. ""Clean"" data are archived permanently in the repository for use by researchers and managers. Visitors may extract data selected by a number of filters. Small queries may be reported directly in a browser.


17. Kodiak Maritime Museum

Kodiak Maritime Museum is a nonprofit corporation that began its voyage in 1996 to educate the public about Alaska's commercial fishing industry and maritime heritage and to preserve this history for posterity. The people of Kodiak and all of Coastal Alaska have depended on Alaska's wealth of marine resources since the first people arrived in the region thousands of years ago. But it was the expansion of Alaska's commercial fisheries during the 1900s that brought tremendous change to Coastal Alaska. During this time, Kodiak grew from a small fishing village to one of the top two fishing ports in the nation. Whaling stations, salmon canneries, herring plants, and halibut, crab and groundfish processing plants throughout the Kodiak Archipelago employed thousands of people and kept Kodiak's fishing fleet the largest in Alaska busy year round. The last 100 years in the fisheries were spent making history rather than recording it. But when KMM's founders witnessed the fisheries undergo drastic changes in the 1990s, they knew it was time to launch an effort to preserve firsthand accounts and artifacts from this illustrious and dramatic part of the state's history. Much of Alaska's maritime heritage is housed in museums on the West Coast. KMM is setting a new course to preserve Alaska's maritime history in a maritime heritage center on Kodiak's working waterfront.


18. Associated Island Brokers Inc

Associated Island Brokers, Inc. is a real estate company offering services in residential, commercial, and remote property sales, property management, and rental leasing.


19. Alaska Journal of Commerce

The Alaska Journal of Commerce provides readers with all of the local business information they are looking for, all in one concise publication. Subscribers are information seekers and trend watchers, men and women who want quality business news. The newspaper also publishes popular supplements and inserts. Two of the most popular are the Oil and Gas Reporter and the Book of Lists. The annual Book of Lists is an invaluable compilation of industry lists, which are complied and published throughout the year. The Oil and Gas Reporter focuses solely on the industry that has been, and is continuing to be Alaska's leader in revenue.


20. United Cook Inlet Drift Association

  • Website: ucida.org
  • Headquarters: Soldotna, Alaska, United States
  • Headcount: 1-10

The United Cook Inlet Drift Association (UCIDA) was incorporated in 1980 to represent the 570 drift gillnet salmon fishing permit holders in Alaskas Cook Inlet. UCIDAs purpose is to enhance and perpetuate the interests of this valuable commercial salmon fishing industry. Wild Alaskan salmon have been commercially harvested in Cook Inlet since 1882. Today the industry is vital to the economic health of over 20 communities around Cook Inlet and on the Kenai Peninsula. This sustainable source of wild salmon contributes to the food security of both Alaska and the nation. In 2015 the McDowell Group published The Economic Impact of the Seafood Industry in Southcentral Alaska. Some of the key findings from the report include an industry employment rate of over 10,000 people in Southcentral Alaska and total economic output of $1.2 billion per year. Salmon is the foundation of this seafood industry, accounting for 85% of the value. UCIDAs Board of Directors and staff work to promote responsible management to ensure the long-term health of this abundant salmon resource and the resulting opportunities and benefits it provides. The day-to-day work of UCIDA covers an extremely broad range of issues that ultimately affect salmon, their harvest and marketing. These may include fishery management, invasive species, oil and gas lease sales, navigation issues, endangered species acts, oil spill response, local, state and federal regulatory issues and both state and federal litigation. The nine members of the Board of Directors serve staggered three-year terms. Elections are held at annual membership meetings. Members (Upper Cook Inlet drift gillnet permit holders) and Associate Members are encouraged to attend all Board meetings.


21. Iliamna Village Council

Lake and Peninsula Borough is a community in Alaska that focuses on commercial fishing and subsistence activities. The village has a mixed Alutiiq and Yup'ik population and is accessible by air and water. The state owns a lighted, gravel runway in Levelock.


22. United Fishermen of Alaska INC

UFA is the United Fishermen of Alaska. UFA promotes and protects the common interest of Alaska's commercial fishing industry.


23. The Cordova Times

Unable to provide a description as the website does not provide information about the company.


24. Alaska Direct Fish

Alaska Direct Fish is a seafood tracking company providing customers with detailed information about their seafood's harvest date, location, time, and accompanying images of the harvester's profile.


25. Highliner Lodge & Charters Inc.

Highliner Lodge & Charters is an all-inclusive fishing lodge based in Pelican, Alaska offering access to productive and unexploited sport-fishing in Southeast AK for various species including king salmon, silver salmon, Pacific halibut, and lingcod.


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