FEMA disaster type · OpenFEMA declarations
Fishing Losses disasters in the United States
FEMA disaster declarations classified as "Fishing Losses" from 1972 to 1994 - which states are hit most often and how the count has changed over time.
- 6
- FEMA declarations
- 5
- States affected
- 1972
- Earliest year
- 1994
- Latest year
The verdict
According to FEMA's disaster declaration history, fishing losses ranks #21 of the 27 distinct disaster types the agency has declared, accounting for 0.1% of all 5,218 declarations on record. It is rarer than 77% of the other declaration types FEMA tracks, based on total historical volume.
- #21 of 27
- FEMA disaster types, by declaration volume
- 0.1%
- share of all 5,218 FEMA declarations
- 6
- fishing losses declarations, 1972–1994
Ranking reflects the count of Presidentially declared federal disasters per OpenFEMA, not event severity or economic loss; a rare declaration type can still be individually catastrophic.
How does Fishing Losses compare?
Fishing Losses vs. every FEMA declaration type
Declaration volume across all tracked incident types
6 19th percentile higher than 19% of 27 disaster types
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more disaster types. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 · 2026-08-03
What shapes the fishing losses record?
States with the most fishing losses declarations
Wider bars = more FEMA declarations of this type
- Maine
Maine
2 declarations
- California
California
1 declarations
- Massachusetts
Massachusetts
1 declarations
- Oregon
Oregon
1 declarations
- Washington
Washington
1 declarations
What this shows Maine leads with 2 fishing losses declarations among the states shown.
Fishing Losses declarations by year
Federal declaration cadence for this incident type across the OpenFEMA record.
Peak year in this series: 1994 (3 declarations). A declaration is a federal assistance trigger, not a raw event count.
How common are Fishing Losses disasters in the U.S.?
With so few declarations on record, the year-by-year pattern is necessarily sparse. The peak year on record was 1994, with 3 fishing losses declarations issued that single year, a clustering driven by major multi-state events and the federal government's declaration cadence. The most recent year on record is 1994, with 3 declarations. Trends over the 22+ year history reflect how infrequently this disaster type crosses the federal declaration threshold at all.
FEMA has issued 6 federal disaster declarations classified as fishing losses between 1972 and 1994, affecting 5 states and territories. Each declaration represents a formal federal recognition that an event exceeded state and local response capacity, unlocking Public Assistance, Individual Assistance, or Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funding depending on the declaration class (DR, EM, or FM). Raw declaration counts therefore measure the federal response footprint, which is a lagging and thresholded indicator: smaller events handled entirely at the state level never appear, and declaration thresholds have been recalibrated over the dataset's multi-decade history.
This disaster type's footprint is thin and scattered across the map. The three states with the most fishing losses declarations on record are ME (2 declarations), CA (1 declarations), MA (1 declarations), consistent with how narrowly this hazard type is geographically concentrated. States with the fewest declarations, including MA (1), OR (1), WA (1), unsurprising given how rare a federal declaration of this type is anywhere in the country.
What is actually in FEMA's fishing losses file?
The complete OpenFEMA record is small enough to inspect title by title: 6 declaration rows resolve to 3 named records. A row is a federal administrative action, not necessarily a separate physical event.
- THE EL NINO (THE SALMON INDUSTRY): California, Oregon, Washington; Major Disaster (DR); 1994-09-13, 1994-08-02, 1994-08-02. OpenFEMA carries 3 declaration rows under this title.
- RED TIDE-TOXIC ALGAE: Maine; Emergency (EM); 1980-09-20.
- TOXIC ALGAE IN COASTAL WATERS: Massachusetts, Maine; Major Disaster (DR); 1972-09-28, 1972-09-28. OpenFEMA carries 2 declaration rows under this title.
The repeated THE EL NINO (THE SALMON INDUSTRY), TOXIC ALGAE IN COASTAL WATERS titles show why declaration totals should not be read as a literal incident count.
Which federal declaration does fishing losses actually get?
With only 6 declarations on record, this type is too thin to express as a reliable percentage split, so the raw breakdown is: 5 Major Disaster (DR), 1 Emergency (EM). Each federal instrument carries different assistance: a Major Disaster declaration can unlock Individual Assistance and Hazard Mitigation funding, an Emergency declaration is narrower and faster, and Fire Management Assistance covers firefighting costs during an active incident.
Declarations by State
| # | State | Declarations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maine ME | 2 |
| 2 | California CA | 1 |
| 3 | Massachusetts MA | 1 |
| 4 | Oregon OR | 1 |
| 5 | Washington WA | 1 |
Declarations by Year
| Year | Declarations |
|---|---|
| 1994 | 3 |
| 1980 | 1 |
| 1972 | 2 |
Recent Fishing Losses Declarations
Download all 6 declarations as CSV . Source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0. The table below lists the 6 most recent; the file carries every one.
| DR# | Title | State | Type | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1038 | THE EL NINO (THE SALMON INDUSTRY) | CA | DR | 1994-09-13 |
| 1036 | THE EL NINO (THE SALMON INDUSTRY) | OR | DR | 1994-08-02 |
| 1037 | THE EL NINO (THE SALMON INDUSTRY) | WA | DR | 1994-08-02 |
| 3082 | RED TIDE-TOXIC ALGAE | ME | EM | 1980-09-20 |
| 357 | TOXIC ALGAE IN COASTAL WATERS | MA | DR | 1972-09-28 |
| 356 | TOXIC ALGAE IN COASTAL WATERS | ME | DR | 1972-09-28 |
What this means for Fishing Losses declarations
Fishing Losses is rarer than 77% of the other declaration types FEMA tracks, with 6 FEMA declaration records; Maine leads with 2.
- Maine accounts for the largest share of fishing losses declarations in this corpus. Maine profile
- See how states compare on raw FEMA declaration volume across all incident types. Most disasters ranking
- Learn what a FEMA declaration does and does not measure relative to NOAA storm events. Disaster-data guide
A federal declaration is a legal assistance trigger, not a count of every storm event or a forecast. For current threats follow the National Weather Service and local officials; in an emergency call 911.
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Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 For informational purposes only
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Verify declarations with FEMA → Verify storm-event context with NOAA →
Every figure on PlainHazard is rendered directly from FEMA federal disaster data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or national statistics report, the data & editorial changelog, or report a data error.