Commercial fishermen brought 597.1 million pounds of fish, worth $110.0 million, to the port of Dutch Harbor-Unalaska, Alaska, in 1998 -- making it the port with both the highest volume and greatest dollar value of fish landings in the country, the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced today.

Officials at NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service said the port of Dutch Harbor-Unalaska netted the top landings slot for the 11th straight year. Meanwhile, Reedville, Va., was ranked as the number two port for the quantity of landings for the second consecutive year. Prior to last year's landing figures, Reedville had not been part of the ranking since 1978 because disclosure of landing totals would have revealed confidential data of the only two private enterprises in that port. However, the companies merged over the past two years and consented to releasing the data that continues to keep Reedville in the top ten ranking.

Landings at Dutch Harbor-Unalaska were valued at $110 million, a decrease of
$12.6 million from the 1997 value. New Bedford, Mass. was second with landings valued at $93.5 million, while the Kodiak, Alaska catch value was third at $78.7 million in 1998.

The top 10 leading U.S. ports in volume and value of fish and shellfish landed in 1996, 1997 and the latest statistics of 1998 are:

VOLUME (figures are in millions of pounds)

PORT	1996	1997	1998
Dutch Harbor, Alaska	579.6	587.8	597.1
Reedville, Va.	**	491.9	509.0
Kodiak, Alaska	202.7	277.5	357.6
Empire-Venice, La.	316.5	395.9	328.0
Seattle, Wash.	241.2	336.1	312.8
Cameron, La.	315.7	379.6	257.4
Intercoastal City, La.	199.0	270.8	206.7
Pascagoula-Miss Point, Miss.	148.0	164.7	193.2
Morgan City-Berwick, La.	162.9	222.9	158.6
Los Angeles, Calif.	156.9	168.2	145.3

**Not available or confidential to avoid disclosure of private enterprise.
Record for quantity is 848.2 million pounds landed in Los Angeles, Calif., in 1960.

Value (figures are in millions of dollars)

PORT	1996	1997	1998
Dutch Harbor-Unalaska, Alaska	118.7	122.6	110.0
New Bedford, Mass.	100.5	103.2	93.5
Kodiak, Alaska	82.3	88.6	78.7
Brownsville-Port Isabel, Texas	60.0	46.1	64.2
Honolulu, Hawaii	47.9	54.0	49.0
Key West, Fla.	62.8	54.9	44.8
Reedville, Va.	**	29.5	42.6
Point Judith, R.I.	46.0	47.6	41.8
Dulac-Chauvin, La.	45.2	42.1	38.7
Empire-Venice, Calif.	45.4	57.8	38.3

**Not available or confidential to avoid disclosure of private enterprise.

A complete list of commercial fishery landings and value at 50 major U.S. ports for 1995-1997 is available upon request.