Unalaska, AK – Today, three representatives from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hosted a public input session that will serve as a starting point for Unalaska's community profile. About two dozen residents too part in the all-day discussion. Some were city officials, some worked at the local NMFS office, and others were just interested residents.

The profiles are primarily used to inform economic and social impact assessments for the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. Those are then used to help the Council come up with management plans. But that's not the only use the profiles have. Dr. Amber Himes was one of the NOAA representatives at the meeting, and she says the agency is trying to turn the profiles into good resources for people in the fishing industry and people who live in coastal towns.

The profiles were first commissioned a decade ago, and they were pegged to the 2000 census. The complete collection of community profiles was finally released in 2005. Now that we're in another census year, NOAA thinks it should update its information.
This was the second community profile meeting. The first was in Anchorage, and about 30 people from across the state attended the event. Four more will be held through the next month. The NOAA team is next headed to Bethel, and they'll also visit Nome, Petersburg, and Kodiak.