An Economic Discussion of the Marine Sport Fisheries in Central and Lower Cook Inlet

This paper reports on the valuation of the marine halibut and salmon sport fishery of central and lower Cook Inlet, Alaska. The project was designed to simulate changes in economic value and regional economic impacts for environmental analysis but has also been used in fishery allocation management. This study develops a predictive model of participation rate changes for estimation of net benefits to anglers and links the resulting demand function to a regional input-output model for determining expenditure-based impacts of marine sportfishing to the Kenai Peninsula economy. The participation rate model is driven by changes in mean sport fishery attributes such as the expected catch rate and weight for various species as well as the average cost of a fishing day. The total estimated new money brought into the Kenai Peninsula as a result of 259,615 saltwater angler days in central and lower Cook Inlet was $37.4 million in 1997, and the total compensating variation, $25.4 million. Simulations involving changes to sportfishing trip attributes from a 1997 baseline trip are examined and reported in the paper.