March 9, 2021 — The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute has been diving into the effects of COVID-19 on the seafood industry for a while now.
Mainly, it’s been using interviews, anecdotal evidence and market research to compile briefings about how fishermen and other industry stakeholders have fared.
Now, the association is looking for more quantitative data about the effects of the pandemic. It’s sending out two surveys — one for fishermen and one for processors.
“We wanted to conduct this survey to really, fully measure the scale and breadth of the pandemic impacts on Alaska’s commercial fishermen, as well as processors,” said communications director Ashley Heimbigner. “Which hasn’t really been done yet, on a broad scale.”