The Great Lakes Charter Fishing Great Lakes Network Ohio Sea Grant College Program Industry in 2002 Frank R. Lichtkoppler, Introduction Ohio Sea Grant Extension; Table 1 Chuck Pistis, In the fall of 2002 and winter of 2003 the Great Lakes Sea Ownership and Organization of Great Lakes Michigan Sea Grant Extension; Grant Network conducted a comprehensive survey of the Charter Boat Fishing Businesses and Diane Kuehn, charter fishing industry of the Great Lakes. The survey is an New York Sea Grant Extension effort to provide an update on the status, characteristics and Percent of Number of economics of the charter fishing business in the Great Lakes Characteristic Respondents Respondents This publication summarizes and is modeled after a similar survey conducted in 1994. the findings of the Great Lakes All data reported here are for the year 2002. Business Ownership 773 Sea Grant Network study on Sole proprietor 84% 647 the charter industry in the Great Methods Partnership 4% 29 Lakes. Individual fact sheets Corporation 10% 76 have been developed in Lead by Ohio Sea Grant, the Great Lakes Sea Grant Network conjunction with the Great Lakes programs surveyed the Great Lakes charter-fishing captains Other 2% 21 Fisheries Leadership Institute during October 2002 to April 2003 using a modified Dillman Business Organization 855 for the following regions: Illinois- mail survey technique (Dillman 1978). Non-respondents Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, were sent up to three reminder letters. In 2002, there were Owned own boat 88% 755 New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, an estimated 1,932 Great Lakes charter captains representing Leased or rented boat 1% 10 and Wisconsin. The goal of a decline of over 24% from the estimated 2,547 captains Salaried employee 1% 12 the Great Lakes Fisheries Freelance hire per trip 7% 57 Leadership Institute is to provide in 1994. A total of 1,767 captains were surveyed and 868 the next generation of fisheries captains returned surveys with usable data, a response rate Other arrangement 3% 21 leaders for the Great Lakes of 49%. Of the responding captains, about 16% were from region with the skills they New York, 1% from Pennsylvania, 41% from Ohio, 24% need to effectively interact with from Michigan, 3% from Illinois-Indiana, 13% from fisheries management agencies. Wisconsin, and 2% from Minnesota. Table 2 This document was produced Reasons for Entering/Remaining in the Great Lakes by the Ohio Sea Grant College Business Charter Fishing Business Program as a part of the 868 Respondents were asked to check all items that applied. Great Lakes Fishery Leadership The typical Great Lakes charter-fishing captain in 2002 is a Institute project of the Great composite of all of the data from all of the lakes. The captain Percent of Lakes Sea Grant Network. has been licensed for 13.4 years. Business organization and Reason Respondents boat ownership patterns are presented in this summary Produced by the Ohio Sea (Table 1). About 90% of the responding captains operated their Help people enjoy fishing 72% Grant College Program as a own charter firm. An estimated 42% of the Great Lakes char- Like the work 68% part of the Great Lakes Fishery ter captains had their homeport on Lake Erie/St Clair, 33% Secondary source of income 54% Leadership Institute project of on Lake Michigan, 15% on Lake Ontario/Niagara River/St. Primary income source 18% the Great Lakes Sea Grant Lawrence River, and 5% each on Lake Huron and Lake Other 7% Network. The Great Lakes Sea Superior. Most businesses (89 %) operated one boat, over 8% Grant network is a cooperative program of the Illinois-Indiana, operated two boats and just under 3% of respondents operat- Michigan, Minnesota, New York, ed three or more boats. Charterboats were typically 28.8 feet Ohio, Pennsylvania and long, almost 16 years old, and powered by an inboard (76%), Table 3 Wisconsin Sea Grant programs. inboard/outdrive (16%) or outboard (8%) motor. Benefits of Membership in an Ohio Professional Through its network of extension The average replacement cost for a Great Lakes charter Charter Boat Association agents, researchers, and vessel is $72,693, and the replacement cost for onboard busi- 847 Respondents* were asked to select the top three reasons. communicators, the Great Lakes ness-related equipment is, $12,523. About 33% of the respon- Sea Grant Network supplies Percent of dents use a vehicle for towing their boat and other charter- Benefit Respondents the region with usable solutions related business. The average replacement cost of the vehicle to pressing problems and pro- was $26,533; for the trailer it is $3,982. The vehicle is used Drug testing 50% vides basic information needed Advertising 36% to better manage the Great for boat towing over 18% of the time and for other charter Lakes and inland waters for both business about 36% of the time. Industry representation to state, federal, 34% present and future generations and local authorities (www.greatlakesseagrant.org). Captains Education on current issues and regulations 30% Over 97% of the responding captains were “six-pack” opera- Increased business 16% OHSU-TS-039 tors, licensed to carry no more than six passengers. Notably, Can share charters 14% June 2003 less than 18% of the captains rely on the charter business as Obtain business operation ideas and advice 14% their primary source of income (Table 2). Group insurance 12% About 69% of the 847 responding captains are members of Get tips about fishing 12% a professional charter captains association. The top four cited Can obtain pricing information 7% benefits of membership in a professional charter captains Other benefits 5% association are drug testing, advertising, and industry repre- * 69% are members of a professional sentation to state, federal and local authorities and education charter captains’ association. © The Ohio State University on current issues and regulations (Table 3). Table 4 Trips Estimated Trips and Revenues* for the Great Lakes Charter Industry Responding captains average 28.3 full-day and 25.1 half-day 689 Respondents paid charter trips per year. Just over 50% of these trips are for Number Average No. Average Revenues lake trout and salmon. Almost 26% of the trips are for walleye, Fish Species of Trips Trips/Business Charge/Trip Earned 12% are for steelhead, over 6% are for small mouth bass and not quite 6% are for yellow perch. Applying the response data Walleye to the total population of active captains yields an estimated Full day 18,857 10.8 $ 401 $ 4,334 93,209 charter trips of which 53% were full day and 47% were Half day 5,290 3.0 308 935 half-day trips (Table 4). Lake trout and Salmon On average, 7% of Great Lakes charter captains fished on a Full day 16,709 9.6 453 4,334 Half day 29,944 17.2 328 5,622 Great Lake other than the one on which their homeport a was located. Of those captains that fished on another waterbody, Steelhead Full day 5,954 3.4 424 1,445 about 33% of their charters were conducted on the other lakes. Half day 5,290 3.0 317 961 In the Great Lakes an estimated 25% of the total trips con- Smallmouth bass ducted are run in August, 24% in July, 20% in June, over 12% Full day 4,679 2.7 380 1,018 in the September, 12% in May, over 3% in October, 3% in Half day 995 0.6 269 153 April and less than 1% in March. Yellow perch Charter fees vary according to lake, state, target species, Full day 3,195 1.8 337 617 length of the charter, and services offered. The most popular Half day 2,287 1.3 278 364 trip was the half-day lake trout and salmon charter; its cost Subtotals across the region averaged $328 per boat (range $25 to $560). Full day 49,394 28.3 $ 11,748 Half-day trips were defined as trips lasting less than seven Half day 43,807 25.1 8,034 hours. Totals 93,209 53.4 $ 19,290 Services and Provisions * The numbers of trips are an extrapolation of respondent trip rates applied to Most charter businesses provide tackle, ice, bait, and fish the total population of Great Lakes charter captains (Lake Erie, Lake St. Clair, cleaning as part of their standard charter trip service. Some Lake Huron, Lake Michigan and Lake Superior). Revenues are calculated from captains also offer fish cleaning, trip photos/videos, or lodging the average number of trips/business multiplied by the average charge/trip. and food for an additional fee (Table 5). Costs and Returns Table 5 For boat owning captains, the largest annual operating expens- Services Offered by Great Lakes Charter Boat Operators es were for fuel and oil, dockage, hired labor, and equipment ------- Percent of Respondents ------ repair (Table 6). Boat loan payments are a high cash outlay but Service or Provision Included in Base Included for Number of are not part of operating costs. Charter Fee Additional Fee Respondents The average cash requirement to operate the charter firm includes the operating expenses plus the boat loan payments. Tackle 97% 2% 797 Average annual boat loan payments including principal and Ice 93% 2% 743 interest are $4,041. The average annual cash needed to operate Bait 88% 5% 755 a Great Lakes charter firm is $15,484 for those making boat Fish cleaning 65% 18% 752 loan payments and $11,443 for those who do not (Table 7). This Photos/Video 35% 14% 601 means that the typical charter firm that owns and operates a Lodging/Food 8% 33% 545 single vessel must generate sales of either $15,484 or $11,443 just to meet the cash needs of the firm.