Alaska was the leading fishing state in terms of earnings and in the total weight of catch in 1998. The salmon catch, the staple of the industry, amounted to 626.1 million lb (284 million kg) of fish valued at $242.7 million in 1998. The distribution of Alaska salmon landings by species that year was sockeye, 20%; pink, 53%; chum, 20%; coho, 5%; and chinook, 2%. Concerns of possible exhaustion of wild pollock stocks have resulted in a reduction in the total allowable catch for pollock. Crab, a major export item, had recently declined in availability; the sablefish harvest, however, was over 33.5 million lb (15.1 million kg) in 1998, accounting for 77% of the US sablefish catch in 1998. In all, Alaska's commercial catch in 1998 totaled over 4.8 billion lb (2.2 billion kg, down from the record high of 5.9 billion lb, or 2.7 billion kg, in 1993), valued at $951.5 million—providing 53% of the total commercial landing volume (and 30% of total value) of the US. In that year, Dutch Harbor–Unalaska ranked 1st and Kodiak 3rd among US fishing ports for both quantity (597.1 million lb/270.8 million kg, 357.6 million lb/ 162.2 million kg) and value ($110 million, $78.7 million). Alaska had 414 processing and wholesale plants with an average of about 7,988 employees during 1997, as well as a commercial fishing fleet of 16,442 boats and vessels that year.
Anglers are attracted by Alaska's abundant stocks of salmon and trout. There were 399,680 sport anglers licensed in Alaska in 1998.