11/18/03
                                                        
MICHIGAN'S CHARTER FISHING INDUSTRY BOUNCES BACK: GREATER REVENUES, LARGER BOATS BUT FEWER CAPTAINS

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan's charter fishing industry is generating greater revenues than it did eight years ago, despite having fewer captains, according to a report recently released by Michigan Sea Grant and produced by the Great Lakes Sea Grant Network. 

The state's 468 charter captains received an estimated total of $10.1 million in fees in 2002, compared with an inflation-adjusted estimated $6.7 million for 543 captains in 1994. The 274 Lake Michigan-based charter fishing firms had the largest estimated total sales at $5.1 million, followed by lakes Erie/St. Clair, Lake Huron and Lake Superior.

Salmonids -- lake trout, salmon and steelhead (rainbow trout) -- were the most popular species sought in 2002, the targets of 21,399 trips.

"The Great Lakes sport fishery has rebounded from its low point in the early 1990s when disease was rampant in salmonids,says Chuck Pistis, Sea Grant Extension agent and co-author of the report. "The economic investments in and contributions of the charter fishing industry mirror the recovery in the Great Lakes fishery during that time."

Pistis says that charter fishing clients also contributed significantly to the economies of Michigan's coastal communities in 2002, spending an estimated $19.8 million on food, lodging and other local purchases in Michigan's Great Lakes ports.

Nineteen percent of the captains responding to the survey rely on charter fishing as their primary livelihood, up from 13 percent in 1994, and 52 percent rated it as a secondary source of income in 2002, down from 66.5 percent in 1994. Almost 60 percent of captains plan to increase the number of trips they make over the next five years, but 18 percent plan to quit the business during that time.  

Responding captains indicated that the most important concerns facing their industry are the economy, the impacts of exotic species, boating equipment/operating costs and the lack of fish/reduced fish abundance.

The Michigan industry compares well with those in other Great Lakes states. Michigan generated almost 30 percent of the total $34.5 million charter fishing revenue in the U.S. Great Lakes region, and the value of its charter boats and equipment was $49.1 million, almost 28 percent of the $178 million regional total. The average boat is longer by 1 foot than the average in 1994.

The state's charter fishing fleet of 468 operations is the second largest in the Great Lakes to Ohio's 794, followed by New York (305), Wisconsin (258), Illinois/Indiana (64), Minnesota (44) and Pennsylvania (28). 

"The survey is a great asset to all charter boat captains and the ports that they work out of," said Frank English, president of the Michigan Charter Boat Association. "The information is invaluable."

See: Complete report, Michigan's Great Lakes Charter Fishing Industry in 2002