October 17, 2013 — A new report indicates that more and more non-residents hold commercial fishing permits in Alaska. Limited entry permits are needed to fish in 65 commercial fisheries in Alaska and there are 79-different kinds of permits that cover different gear types. Currently there are over 16.5-thousand permits issued in Alaska.
The new report shows that between 1975 and 2012 there have been over 38.5-thousand permit transfers in Alaska and just over 84-percent of permits have changed hands at least once. CFEC notes that on average 8.4-percent of all permits change hands each year. A closer look at the data for last year shows that just over 1-thousand permits were transferred out of the over 13.4-thousand permits that are transferable. When the limited entry permits were first issued, Alaska residents received just over 81-percent of the permits, which totaled about 13.5-thousand. 8.2-thoussand of those permits were issued to local fishermen who lived in areas classified as rural. 3.6-thousand permits were initially issued to local fishermen who lived in an area of Alaska classified as urban. Non-resident fishermen received just over 3-thousand permits. That means that 18.5-percent were given to non-Alaska residents