Item L3BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY
Meeting Date: February 20, 2013 Division: BOCC
Bulk Item: Yes _No _ Department: George R. Neugent
Staff Contact Person/Phone #: T. Colonna 4512
AGENDA ITEM WORDING:
The discussion and approval of a request by Bonefish Tarpon Trust Inc., a 501 C3 (not -for -profit
corporation) for assistance in the underway economic study addressing the value of Recreational Flats
Fishing in the Florida Keys. I'm convinced it will be shockingly revealing as to its importance to
Monroe County's economy.
ITEM BACKGROUND:
This study would and will be extremely valuable as supporting information for Resource Act
Funds.
PREVIOUS RELEVANT BOCC ACTION:
CONTRACT/AGREEMENT CHANGES:
STAFF RECOMMENDATIONS:
TOTAL COST: ? - $25,000 INDIRECT COST: BUDGETED: Yes
No
DIFFERENTIAL OF LOCAL PREFERENCE:
COST TO COUNTY: SOURCE OF FUNDS:
REVENUE PRODUCING: Yes No AMOUNT PER MONTH Year ?
APPROVED BY: County Atty OMB/Purchasing Risk Management
DOCUMENTATION: Included x Not Required
DISPOSITION: AGENDA ITEM #
Economic Impact of the Florida Keys Recreational Flats Fishery
A Project of the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust
Project Description
The Florida Keys has long been the focus of flats fishing in the United States and by anglers
throughout the world. In spite of this world-wide recognition, very little effort has been directed
toward the scientific study of flats fisheries, their anglers, and the economic effects of related
recreational fishing activity. This project examines the economic impact of the Florida Keys flats
fishery. The flats fishery is defined as angling for species commonly found and caught by anglers in
the shallow -water near -shore environment extending from the Atlantic side of the Keys into Florida
Bay and the Gulf of Mexico on the North side of the Keys.
All saltwater anglers in Florida must possess a valid saltwater fishing license if they fish from a boat
or shore. Anglers fishing with guides or from charter boats are not required to possess a saltwater
fishing license as they are covered under the boat permit issued for licensed guides and charter
operators. Thus, to capture the economic impacts of all flats anglers, information from both licensed
saltwater anglers and fishing guides is needed. This project will use Florida's saltwater fishing
license file as the basis for identifying and surveying Keys flats anglers and collecting their fishing -
related expenditure data. Charter captains and guides, identified from the license file, will be
surveyed separately to identify the number of anglers (many not possessing a fishing license) they
serve throughout the year so an estimate of guided angler expenditures can be made. Combined,
these two methods will capture nearly all of the fishing activity and angler expenditures throughout
the Keys.
Background
While no study has focused on the economic impacts of Florida Keys fishing in general or flats
fishing specifically, several relatively recent economic studies have been conducted in the South
Florida region that focused on near -shore fisheries for tarpon in the Caloosahatchee River and
Charlotte Harbor area on Florida's West coast (Fedler 2011a) and St. Lucie River on the East coast
of Florida (Fedler 201 lb). Both of these studies focused on the regional fishery for tarpon because of
constraints on funding and the rather isolated nature of the fishery in the St. Lucie River area.
A study that is more directly related to this Florida Keys project involved southern Florida anglers
fishing the saltwater reaches of Everglades National Park (Fedler 2010). A good portion of the park's
area encompasses Florida Bay and extends into Gulf of Mexico waters along the western edges of the
park. Much of the Upper Keys fishing area overlaps with waters inside national park boundaries. The
study also included angling down to the North side of the Keys. This study found that about 17% of
the anglers fishing Everglades National Park (ENP) saltwater specifically targeted bonefish while
20% targeted tarpon. The economic impact of these two fisheries was $154 million for bonefish and
$174 million for tarpon fishing in the Florida economy. The study did not differentiate expenditures
made by anglers in the region surrounding ENP and elsewhere in the state. Expenditures made by
anglers made specifically in the Keys will be identified in this study to show the effect of direct
angler expenditures made in the Keys economy as well as the State of Florida.
Justification
Historically, only the most popular, imperiled or widespread near -shore saltwater fish species have
received management attention in Florida. Until recently, snook and redfish have been the main
focus of scientific research. In the past few years, research on tarpon and bonefish has been on the
upswing, but these projects have been small in scale and mostly privately funded. Very little is
known about the life history permit. One way to increase management attention for these species is to
show their value to the local economies where they are pursued by anglers. Understanding the
dependence of local communities on specific fisheries in their region helps build an understanding
for the need to manage these species sustainably, restore declining species, and protect habitat that is
crucial to the spawning, rearing and other important components of a species life history.
Determining the economic impact of the Florida Keys flats fishery will help build the case for the
importance of science -based management rather than the anecdotal and politically -based actions flats
species have generally received to this point.
Goal
The goal of this study is to estimate the economic impact of flats fishing in the Florida Keys.
Economic impact includes the multiplier effects of angler expenditures, the wages and salaries
generated by angler spending, the jobs created, and the federal and state taxes resulting from flats
fishing activity.
Objectives
■ Estimate the number of flats fishing anglers in the Florida Keys during the 2011-2012 fishing
year.
■ Identify the number of days anglers spend targeting flats species within the study area.
■ Obtain angler annual saltwater fishing -related expenditures within the study area.
■ Estimate annual angler expenditures for principal species within the study area.
■ Estimate annual angler value added, wages, jobs and tax revenues generated by Keys flats
fishing.
Methods
The first phase of this project will use data collected from Florida saltwater fishing license holders
with licenses issued during 2011 and 2012. Resident anglers will be classified into three zones based
on their residence location. Zone 1 anglers will reside in counties including and south of Charlotte,
Hendry, and Palm Beach. Citrus, Sumter, Lake and Seminole counties comprise the northern
boundary of Zone 2. Zone 3 consists of the remaining counties in the state. License buyers from each
zone will be randomly selected to receive a telephone survey asking them about their Keys fishing
activity. The target number of completed telephone surveys of Keys anglers will be 1,000 from Zone
1, 500 from Zone 2 and 500 from Zone 3. This will provide data needed to accurately estimate angler
numbers and their spending.
Similarly, non-resident anglers buying licenses will be stratified by where they bought their license.
Tourist anglers are most likely to buy their licenses near where they will be fishing. This will allow
contacting non-resident anglers with the greatest probability of fishing in the Keys. Expenditure
categories are aligned with economic multipliers (Bureau of Economic Research 2006) for
computing multiplier effects, wages and salaries, jobs, and tax revenues.
Fishing guides will be contacted directly to obtain data.
The upshot of this project will be a solid estimate of the economic impact of flats fishing in the
Florida Keys. While primary interest may be on bonefish, permit and tarpon as the premier flats
species, attention will also be given to the role other flats species such as barracuda, sharks, grouper
and others play in the fishing activity of flats anglers. The project will also yield a good
understanding of the contribution guided fishing in the Keys plays in the local economy.
Project Completion Date: April 30, 2013
Total Project Cost: $110,000