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February 23, 2018
T he C olumbia P ress
Seafood: Processing jobs are on the increase
Continued from Page 1
seafood processors.
Commercial fishers landed
227 million pounds of fish and
shellfish in Oregon in 2016,
about 56 pounds per Orego-
nian.
The haul had a dockside val-
ue of $149 million, a gain of
29 percent over 2015.
Fishermen sold a small por-
tion of the harvest off their
vessels or at markets directly
to consumers. Most was sold
to processors and buyers, then
exported or sold to wholesal-
ers, retailers, restaurants and
consumers.
In 2016, Oregon exported
$33.3 million worth of fish,
crustaceans and related pre-
pared products in 2016, ac-
cording to the Census Bureau.
Canada was by far the lead-
ing foreign destination, tak-
ing 56 percent of all exports.
Japan was the No. 2 destina-
tion, taking 11 percent of ex-
ports.
Canada took a lot of Dunge-
ness crab, Albacore tuna, and
trout or salmon fillets. Japan
took mostly unidentified fro-
zen fillets and crab. About 45
percent of seafood exports are
whole or live fish, presumably
with further processing done
in the destination country.
E mploymEnT T rEnds
The seafood processing in-
dustry fared relatively well
during the Great Recession.
Employment dipped signifi-
cantly in 2009, but otherwise
mostly grew through 2013.
Employment in 2013 was
about 150 more than in 2001.
This may not sound like much
of an accomplishment, but
Oregon lost 40,000 jobs from
all manufacturing businesses
during the same period.
From 2013 to 2015, fishing
employment fell by about 125
jobs, but the industry gained
28 jobs in 2016, and appears
to have grown in 2017. This
could be a new trend of an
increasing number of proces-
sors and employees.
This may be due to the en-
trance of a few specialty pro-
cessors who serve niche mar-
kets.
Employment in seafood pro-
cessing tends to be seasonal. It
peaks in midsummer and hits
its low point in March. Much
of the industry’s employment
depends directly on when fish
are landed.
This, in turn, depends on
weather, ocean conditions,
fish life-cycles, and regula-
tions, especially those estab-
lished by the Pacific Fishery
Management Council. It has
the authority to open and
close Oregon fisheries; com-
mercial crab season, for ex-
ample, opened more than a
month late this winter.
The summer employment
peak coincides not only with
better fishing weather, but in-
creased availability of fish.
Tuna, salmon and especially
Pacific whiting, are available
in the summer. Pacific whit-
ing, or hake, is Oregon’s larg-
est fishery by volume. A little
more than 113 million pounds
were landed in 2016. (Because
it was plentiful, however, it
fetched only eight cents per
pound when landed.)
Whiting is used to make su-
rimi, which is used to make
imitation crab or lobster.
Manufacturing surimi re-
quires a good deal of very con-
trolled processing and rapid
cleaning and handling of the
fish. This means that surimi
processors must hire many
seasonal employees.