Despite being the number one fishing port in the United States by volume and number two by value, Unalaska has the smallest number of resident commercial permit holders of any major fishing community in the state.

The industry group United Fishermen of Alaska recently compiled commercial fisheries and seafood processing data for 18 port communities.

Their survey shows that in 2010 Unalaska and the Aleutians West Borough had only 38 locally-owned commercial fishing permits.  That’s compared to communities like Homer, Kodiak and Petersburg, which each had more than a thousand resident permits.

But the city led the state in another category – processing jobs.  The only other community to come close to Unalaska’s 3,313 seafood processing jobs was the Aleutians East Borough, with 3,059.