Radio Script
2000

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Kenai Sport Fishing Economy
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INTRO: It's hard to keep a great fishing hole a secret. That's been the case for Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, where lunker salmon come home to spawn and halibut as big as a barn door lurk in the ocean just offshore. As Doug Schneider reports on this week's Arctic Science Journeys Radio, this worst-kept secret has triggered a small boom in the region's economy.

STORY: Odds are, if you come to Alaska's Kenai Peninsula to sport fish for halibut or salmon, you'll end up plunking some of your hard-earned cash into the region's economy. Dr. Mark Herrmann is a professor of economics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He's studying the impact of sport halibut fishing on the Kenai Peninsula's economy.

HERRMANN: "What we're interested in is money actually spent on the Kenai. So what we did was take out people who live on the Kenai because if they don't go fishing they'll spend it on something else on the Kenai. So as far as new money coming into the Kenai that is directly attributable to fishing, we figure it was about 32 million dollars in 1997."

Herrmann and six other economists compiled their economic data from a survey they conducted in 1997 of 2,600 resident and nonresident anglers. It's the first attempt to quantify the value of the region's growing sport halibut fishery.

HERRMANN: "Well, this was an 8-page survey, so we asked questions about catch. We asked questions about expenditures, and also asked hypothetical questions where we gave them a series of four trips with varying attributes. We said, would you take this trip or not take this trip. And then we asked socioeconomic questions, income levels, number of people in the household, that sort of thing."

The study had several interesting findings. For example, nonresidents spent far more, on average, to fish—a whopping 247 dollars each day—while Alaska residents spent only 99 dollars each day.

HERRMANN: "For obvious reasons. Nonresidents are staying in RV's and they're staying in hotels. Residents are camping on the shoreline or staying with friends. Residents in particular are doing more private boating."

While fishers spent a lot of money in hopes of catching that lunker halibut or salmon, Herrmann says residents and nonresidents alike valued their experience so much that they'd be willing to spend even more.

HERRMANN: "What we found is that on an average trip—whether from the shore or on a private boat or charter boat, that a resident would be willing to pay 70 dollars more than they actually paid for that fishing experience. And non-residents would be willing to pay 110 dollars more than they actually paid. So if it's $160, they'd be willing to pay up to $270 before the average fisherman is indifferent to taking the trip or not. Now this is for the average fisherman. Some will not be willing to pay that much, and others would be willing to pay more."

The survey also confirms the rapid growth of the region's sport charter industry. Sixty-one percent of the nonresidents who responded to the survey said they used sport charters, compared to 40 percent of the residents.

HERRMANN: "The biggest mode for residents was going out in private boats, and charter boats were far and away the biggest fishing experience for nonresidents."

And while nonresidents spent more money and were more likely to use a charter, they also were rewarded with more fish. Nonresidents caught an average of 2.4 halibut each day, compared to residents, who caught 1.7 halibut per day.

The survey also found that Homer, a small community on the southernmost tip of the Kenai Peninsula, accounted for nearly half of all charter trips departing from the peninsula. Seward came in second, followed by Deep Creek and the city of Kenai.

The data collected by Herrmann is being used to create computer models that predict the impact on the region's economy of such things as a decline in visitors or a drop in the sport-fish halibut quota. Their research is funded by the Alaska Sea Grant Program and the University of Alaska Fairbanks Coastal Marine Institute.

OUTRO: This is Arctic Science Journeys Radio, a production of the Alaska Sea Grant Program and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. I'm Doug Schneider.

The Kenai Peninsula study, A Survey of Participants in the Lower and Central Cook Inlet Halibut and Salmon Sport Fisheries, can be ordered from the Alaska Sea Grant Web site, or call toll free from the United States (including Alaska) and Canada, (888) 789-0090, or (907) 474-6707 and request reprint RP-02-04.

Doug Schneider, Information Officer
Alaska Sea Grant Program
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-5040
Phone: 907-474-7449
Email: fndgs@uaf.edu

To learn more about the Kenai Peninsula and its sport fisheries, visit these web pages:

Kenai Peninsula Resource Network

Discover Alaska's Kenai

Alaska Outdoor Journal: Sport fishing

Thanks to the following individual for help preparing this script:

Dr. Mark Hermann
Professor of Economics
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-6080
Phone: 907-474-7119
Email: ffmlh@uaf.edu