- Despite the stereotype of recent college grads heading north to seek fortune and adventure, the average Alaskan fisherman is 47 years old. 40% of all fishermen come from out of state.
- In 2008, Americans ate 16.3 pounds of seafood per person. In the top five favorites: pollock. Never heard of it? Heard of it, but never bought it? That’s probably because pollock is a very versatile fish used primarily in processed seafoods, becoming everything from fake “krab” to fish sticks.
- Commercial fishing is still the “most dangerous job” by injury and percentile death rates – 36 times greater than other risky professions. The Pacific dungeness fishery has had 17 deaths in the past seven years – a rate 50% higher than the better-known Bering Sea crabbing industry.
- The word hootch, slang for “alcohol,” probably comes from 19th century Alaska. A Tlingit tribe known as the Hoochinoo (Hutsnuwu) were in the practice of distilling alcohol from molasses, a process they probably picked up from European-descended trappers. The resulting booze was named hoot-chinoo, or “hootch,” after the tribe.
- Chinese fish consumption is 3 times what it is in the U.S. – the average Chinese person consumes around 45 pounds of seafood a year.
- More than 90% of all fish caught in the world are harvested in the northern hemisphere.
- French monks who were encouraged to observe ritual fasts and abstention from meat were allowed to eat rabbits – they were considered “fish.”
- Alaska was the 49th state to enter the union; it officially attained statehood in 1959.
- 40% of all fish species live in fresh water, yet .01% of the earth’s water is fresh.
Did you know…?