Economic Impacts of BSAI Crab Rationalization on Kodiak Fishing Employment and Earnings and Kodiak Businesses: A Preliminary Analysis.

Abstract

This study was requested by the City of Kodiak to analyze how crab rationalization has affected crab fishing jobs and earnings of Kodiak residents and sales of Kodiak businesses. The study is limited to these issues. It does not address many other important issues raised by crab rationalization. There are significant challenges in studying economic effects of crab rationalization on Kodiak. There are important differences between crab fisheries, and within each fishery there are differences in boat sizes, vessel ownership, quota allocation, and many other factors which affect how quota is fished. Many factors besides rationalization affect crab fisheries, and many factors besides crab fisheries affect Kodiak’s economy—making it difficult to identify the specific effects of crab rationalization on Kodiak. Since rationalization began in the 2005/06 season, there have been very rapid and dramatic changes in the crab fisheries. Between the 2004/05 and 2005/06 seasons, vessel registration declined by about two-thirds for the Bristol Bay Red King Crab (BBR) fishery and by about one-half for the Bering Sea Snow Crab (BSS) fishery.1