May 20, 2021 — The National Marine Fisheries Service — better known as NOAA Fisheries — released its annual report on the health of the nation’s fishing industry on Thursday, and once again the Port of New Bedford took top honors as the nation’s highest-grossing commercial fishing port.
New Bedford ranked No. 1 for the value of seafood landed at its port for the 20th consecutive year in 2019, with $451 million worth of fish hauled in by its boats. That was up by $20 million compared with the year before, and far outpaced the second-ranked Port of Naknek, Alaska, which had $289 million worth of landings.
NOAA officials said New Bedford’s dominance remains driven by sea scallops, which account for 84% of the value of all landings there.
The city fell from the top spot for nine years during the 1990s, which NOAA attributed at the time to factors including “the 1994 collapse of the New England groundfish fishery and declining numbers of sea scallops.” But New Bedford retook its crown in 2000 and hasn’t given it up since.
New Bedford’s catch leads the nation in value despite placing far from the top when it comes to total volume, ranking only 14th, at 116 million pounds. The top port by that metric has been Dutch Harbor, Alaska, for 23 years. Dutch Harbor is 763 million pounds a year of landings, with pollock the biggest category.