The Alaska Salmon Enhancement Program: A Cost/Benefit Analysis

In May 1991. the Alaska Senate's Special Committee on Domestic and International Commercial Fisheries initiated the first review of the state's salmon enhancement program since its inception 20 years ago. As part of this review, a cost/benefit analysis of the State's enhancement program for salmon was performed with cooperation from the Fisheries Research Enhancement Division of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The main results are that the additional producer's surplus generated by the pink and sockeye hatchery programs are estimated to be less than the costs of running these programs. Eliminating the entire pink or sockeye salmon programs is estimated to increase net benefits by about 8% and 6%. respectively. A 15% increase in either program is estimated to result in a reduction in net benefits and a 15% decrease in either program is estimated to result in a slight increase in net benefits. Estimates of the confidence intervals for net benefits suggest that the gains from the elimination of either the pink program or the sockeye program are statistically different from zero. However, changes of plus or minus 15% of current hatchery production are found not to statistically affect net benefits.