A greater percentage of Alaskan residents fish (53 percent in 2011) than residents of any other State. Alaska’s largest private sector employer is commercial fishing with total annual landings of fish products of 79 billion pounds (36 million metric tons). Nearly all of these fish are from self-sustaining populations. In 1867, the United States Secretary of State William H. Seward offered Russia $7,200,000, or two cents per acre, for Alaska. The State of Rhode Island could fit into Alaska 425 times. Most of America's salmon, crab, halibut, and herring come from Alaska. The State's coastline extends more than 6,600 miles. Alaska is the largest State in the United States and is more than twice the size of Texas.
