The Alaska Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission presents our twelfth report on changes in the distribution of Alaska's commercial fisheries entry permits as of year-end 1994.
Alaskans hold 10,397 permanent permits, or almost 78% of all permanent entry permits. Alaskans hold a majority of all permits valued at $100,000 or more. More than half (56.5%) of all permits held by Alaskans are held by rural Alaskans (5,876).
The percentage of entry permits held by Alaskans has remained fairly constant, with Alaska urban non-local permit holders1 having the largest gains in permits through transfers. Alaska rural local permit holders experienced the largest net losses, particularly from 1977 through 1986. Since that period, the rural local decline has become much smaller. Since 1987, the bulk of this decline in rural local permits has been due to movement of the permit holders (205) rather than transfers (79).
Most transfers occur between people of the same resident type (64.4%). Statewide, 60% of transfers are between people with a prior association or relationship (39.1% between immediate family members or relatives and 20.8% between friends or business partners). Among Alaska rural local transfer recipients, 58% receive their permit from a family member or relative. In several AYK and Alaska Peninsula salmon fisheries, the highest percentage of transfers is between relatives.
Almost 60% of all transfers are sales, while 34.5% are gifts. However, among transfers to Alaska rural locals, more than half are gifts. In 1989 the number of permanent transfers began to decrease, with the lowest transfer rates occurring in 1993 and 1994. At least during the past six years, there has been an overall decline in sales of permits.
Values of entry permits have fluctuated but tended to increase through 1990, then fall from 1991 to 1994, especially in the salmon and herring sac roe seine fisheries. There are two state-authorized loan programs for entry permits: the Department of Commerce's Fishing Loan Program and the Commercial Fishing and Agriculture Bank (CFAB). These two sources have financed 31.9% of the permit purchases made by Alaska residents. Urban residents received about two-thirds of the loans.
The average age of permit holders has increased from 43 years in 1975 to slightly more than 44 years. The average age of transfer recipients is 38 years with the youngest transferees tending to be Alaska rural locals.