” Ricky Gease, executive director of the Kenai River Sportfishing Association, said the sport and personal use fisheries in Southcentral contribute $800 million to $900 million in economic impact to the state.”

“That far surpasses the economic values generated from the commercial fisheries in upper Cook Inlet,” he said. “That’s what the disagreement is about. You can optimize the commercial fishery to gain 5 percent value, but that may come at 5 percent or 10 percent or 20 percent cost to sport fishery. When one is much larger than the other, why are we focused on the smaller one?”

“Forty years ago nobody envisioned that there would be 150,000 sport fishermen licensed in the Anchorage area,” he said. “There are conflicts going back to statehood, but they are getting worse because more people are sport and fewer are commercial in the overall populace. To allocate more resource to sport, you’re going to have to take away from commercial guys. Then you get a natural phenomenon where people are going to fight for it. They’re not just going to give it up.”  >>>>>>

Or is it Sport v. Commercial?

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