Securing Alaska’s Future / The grocery connection

Our fishing.
Our groceries.
Our bottom line.

Alaska’s fishing industry helps support the routes that bring essentials into our communities. Walk the aisles, build your cart, and explore how a price change adds up over a year.

Step into the store →Pick it up. Put it in.
Watch the year add up.
ALASKA SEAFOOD. NORTH AMERICAN REACH.
Alaska seafood connects to North American ports and marketsA geographic map shows marine cargo connections from Dutch Harbor to Seattle and Anchorage to Tacoma, a seafood distribution connection from Homer to Richmond in British Columbia, and a documented Alaska salmon air-cargo connection from Cordova to Boston. Dashed paths are distribution or air connections, not direct ocean routes.ALASKACANADAUNITED STATESPACIFIC OCEANDutch Harbor–Seattle: marine cargo connectionAnchorage–Tacoma: TOTE marine cargo serviceHomer–Richmond, British Columbia: 7 Seas seafood supply chain; transport mode not specifiedCordova–Boston: documented salmon delivery via Alaska Air Cargo, May 2024; connections may be involvedDutch HarborAnchorageHomerCordovaRichmond, B.C.SeattleTacomaBoston
Marine cargoAir / distribution connections

Selected documented connections across Alaska’s seafood and freight networks. Arrows show connections, not vessel tracks or nonstop services. Groceries and supplies also move north on marine routes.

Where these connections come from

Lynden describes Alaska seafood transport to Seattle by water and onward U.S. distribution. TOTE documents Anchorage–Tacoma cargo service.

7 Seas documents seafood moving from Homer to its Richmond, B.C. processing and distribution operation. Richmond is in Metro Vancouver; this is not a claim of a direct ocean service.

Alaska Air Cargo documents Cordova salmon reaching Boston in May 2024. This is an air-cargo example, not a port-to-port sailing or a nonstop-flight claim.

These examples span Alaska fisheries; they are not all pollock routes. Coastlines: Natural Earth.

58%

of Southwest Alaska’s outbound domestic cargo was seafood. The connection reaches well beyond the seafood aisle.

2021–2022 annual average · McKinley Research Group

01 / Let’s go shopping

Walk the aisles. Feel the impact.

Tap products on the shelves to add them. Your annual impact updates with every pick.

AISLE 01 / 05

Dairy & eggs

TAP A PRODUCT TO ADD IT
1 of 5
YOUR SHOPPING CARTExample weekly shop · make it yours

Illustrative shelf prices from the original experience, not live local prices. Select any mix of items and quantities.

Your annual extra +$0.00See impact ↑
02 / Why fishing affects your bills

The connection starts at the dock.

The price on a shelf includes the cost of getting goods there. Seafood provides business for the transportation networks that serve Alaska’s communities. Southbound seafood keeps ships and planes from returning empty, so northbound goods don’t carry the full cost of each trip.

Inbound:
Essentials Arrive

Alaskans rely on freighters from the Lower 48 for nearly all of their groceries, consumer products, vehicles, equipment, and building materials.

Outbound:
Seafood Lowers the Bill

Massive volumes of seafood like pollock and salmon fill those freighters for the return trip south. This “backhaul cargo” provides revenue that helps cover the cost of the round trip and keeps northbound shipping rates affordable.

Impact:
The Domino Effect at Checkout

If the fishing industry shrinks, freighters have less cargo for the return trip. To make up for that lost revenue, shipping companies estimate northbound rates could rise by 10% or more, increasing the cost of getting groceries and other essentials to Alaska.

Shipping connection: McKinley Research Group, 2025 · printed pp. 24–25 ↗

03 / Beyond the grocery aisle

Our fuel. Our flights.
Our communities.

Household affordability reaches beyond a shopping trip. Fishing supports demand for services that coastal communities use every day.

Fuel & electricity

Lower demand from fishing could increase fuel-distribution costs in Southwest Alaska. Diesel-dependent electric systems can feel that pressure, too.

Travel & access

Seasonal workers help fill flights. Reduced demand could mean fewer passenger services in Southwest Alaska and more difficult trips for residents.

Local services

Fishing-related activity supports local revenue. A downturn can put pressure on the budgets behind utilities, emergency services, and community life.

These wider effects are context, not additional charges in your cart result. Fuel and travel: McKinley Research Group, printed pp. 26–27 ↗. Local services: St. Paul reporting below.

04 / The stakes are local

When fishing slows, communities feel it.

These documented experiences show how closely fisheries and daily life are connected. They illustrate different events, not a single statewide price forecast.

KING COVE · ALASKA PENINSULA

A processing closure.
A shipping connection lost.

The 2025 McKinley report notes that Samson Tug and Barge ended regular service to King Cove following the Peter Pan plant closure in 2024. It is a concrete example of how processing activity and freight service can be linked.

Read the shipping research · p. 25 ↗
ST. PAUL · PRIBILOF ISLANDS

A fishery closure.
A community budget shaken.

After the 2022 snow-crab closure, St. Paul faced the loss of roughly 60% of its budget, according to reporting discussed by KUCB in 2023. The community turned to fundraising to help afford emergency medical services.

Read the St. Paul story · KUCB, 2023 ↗
The research, the assumptions, and your result

Research: McKinley Research Group’s August 2025 report, commissioned by the Alaska Pollock Fishery Alliance, examines a pollock-fishery closure or significant quota reduction. The 58% figure is Southwest Alaska’s seafood share of outbound domestic cargo, averaged over 2021–2022 (printed p. 22). Shipping effects are discussed on printed pp. 24–25. Read the full study ↗

Illustration: The shopping experience shows how higher costs could affect an Alaska household’s grocery bill. The default 10% scenario is informed by research finding that seafood backhaul lowers northbound freight rates by as much as 10% in coastal Alaska. Users can adjust the scenario from 0–20%.

Calculation: Each item’s scenario unit price is rounded to the nearest cent, then multiplied by quantity. Extra per shop is the difference between the two cart totals. Annual extra = extra per shop × your selected number of shops per year. The initial cart is an editable example weekly shop.

Scope: The cart estimates grocery and household-item spending only. Potential impacts on fuel, travel, and public service are not included in the total. Example price data sourced from field documentation in Anchorage, September 2026. All projections are estimates and should not be construed as precise predictions.

Your cart, over a year

Small changes.
A year of impact.

+$0

in extra annual spending in your selected scenario.

An illustration of your selected retail-price change, not a prediction of savings from fishing. Actual impacts depend on location, freight costs, and retail pricing.

Learn more about Securing Alaska’s Future ↗
HOW YOU CAN HELP

Join The Movement

Securing Alaska’s Future needs your voice. Sign up to get the truth, stay connected, and be the first to know when it’s time to act. No spam, no sharing.

Already subscribed? Follow us on Facebook for the latest updates and to help share the truth.

Facebook-square X-twitter Ri-instagram-line

Paid for by Securing Alaska’s Future. © 2026 Securing Alaska’s Future.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Join The Movement

Securing Alaska’s Future needs your voice. Sign up to get the truth, stay connected, and be the first to know when it’s time to act. No spam, no sharing.

Already subscribed? Follow us on Facebook for the latest updates and to help share the truth.

Facebook-square X-twitter Ri-instagram-line

Paid for by Securing Alaska’s Future. © 2026 Securing Alaska’s Future.