among manufacturing, wholesale, and retail trades for tackle, boats, motors, 

 and trailers was $1.22 million in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. 



Average daily catch for reef fisherman was about 26.5 lb of fish. Total 

 catch and catch per unit of effort by sport fishermen has declined recently 

 suggesting the possibility of overfishing in heavily fished areas. Sport 

 fishermen are largely restricted to inshore waters because of the limited ca- 

 pacity of their boats to travel great distances and withstand sea conditions, 

 and because of the long travel time. Spring, summer, and fall are the primary 

 seasons for fishing in the Florida Panhandle. The species of greatest impor- 

 tance to offshore charter boats during all seasons is king mackerel. Ground- 

 fish, snapper, and grouper, are of secondary importance to charter boats. 



Tables R/T 8-16 in the Data Appendix provide projected demand for salt- 

 water sport fishing. About 2.1 million saltwater fishing trips were made in 

 Northwest Florida in 1980; about 2.2 million is expected in 1985 and 2.5 mil- 

 lion in 1990, an increase of 22.1% over the decade. Bay County will contrib- 

 ute the greatest portion of all demand for future saltwater fishing in the 

 region. From 1980 to 1990, those counties showing the greatest percentage in- 

 crease in saltwater fishing demand are expected to be Franklin and Walton 

 Counties. In 1980, the demand ratio for saltwater fishing was 42 fishing 

 trips per 100 people. 



Cato and Prochaska (1976) provided an economic analysis of red snapper- 

 grouper party boat operations for the Northwest Florida gulf coast. In 1974, 

 an average of 6,714 sports fishermen fished on each boat with costs ranging 

 from $8.50 for half-a-day to $45 for a two-day trip. Average catch per person 

 was 7.5 lb for red snapper, 7.3 lb for grouper, and 5.2 lb for other species. 

 In 1974, the average annual catch per boat was 134,286 lb and the average 

 catch per fisherman was about 20 1b. Based upon the revenue per boat of 

 $142,529 and total costs of $111,972, the net return to the boat operator was 

 $30,557. In 1974, 48 party boats made 322,272 trips and landed 6.5 million lb 

 of fish. Fishermen spent over $6.7 million on party boats. 



The structure and economics of fee fisheries of the Florida Gulf Coast 

 and the Keys from Pensacola to Key West were studied by Browder et al . (1978). 

 The study analyzed offshore charter boats, inshore/offshore charter boats for 

 bays, offshore guide boats for back country fishing, and head boats which 

 carry large numbers of passengers and operate on a per customer basis rather 

 than charter. The location of the marinas for these boats are given in 

 Table 7. 



Northwest Florida has 138 offshore charter boats and 23 head boats; none 

 are inshore/offshore boats or guide boats. King mackerel, reef fishes (snap- 

 per and grouper), redfish, and flounder are most sought after by offshore 

 charter boats in the winter and billfish in the summer and fall. Grouper is 

 the leading species fished by head boats. The average number of fishermen per 

 charter boat in Northwest Florida was 7.9. The average age of the fisherman 

 was 38 years. About 82% were from out-of-state. Head boats averaged 62.1 

 persons per trip; about 90% of the fishermen were from out-of-state. 



According to charter boat captains, of particular concern is the decline 

 in the abundance of fish, especially king mackerel, and the rapidly increasing 

 cost of the fishing operations. 



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