In Alaska, dipnetting for salmon is about more than what’s caught

This story was first published by Alaska Public Media on Aug. 6.

On a recent Monday on Alaska’s Kenai River, Kevin Berry stood in chest-high water as a sockeye salmon smacked his large, round net.

“There we go!” Berry shouted, dragging the net to shore.

His two young sons, Milton and August, squealed with excitement. Using a thick piece of driftwood, the boys bonked the fish on the head, killing it. Berry ripped out the gills to bleed the fish before rinsing it in the river and placing it in the cooler.

It was the first fish of the day.

In addition to being a dipnetter, Berry is the chair of the economics department at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He’s currently working to understand how much a dipnetting trip is worth to Alaskans.

But how do you calculate that? Berry said you can look at the cost of travel, along with what people gave up to make it happen, like taking time off work or foregoing another summer activity.

“I think every Alaskan out there has the same experience of panicking because summer is getting close to over, and we all have like four different things on any given day we like to do,” Berry said. “All of those things are real costs, and we can think about them as an opportunity cost of going to dipnet.”

Dipnetting in Alaska typically wraps up in early August. It’s only open to residents, so it feels sort of like a holiday only Alaskans can celebrate. On any given day during the dipnetting season, anglers from across the state pack the Kenai River, standing shoulder to shoulder in silty water, waiting for salmon to snag their nets.

Berry’s research is a work in progress, and he’s not ready to share exact numbers yet. But he estimates that dipnetting on the Kenai River is worth a lot to Alaskans — several hundred dollars more to a household than what they actually spend on it each summer.

With gear, time, and travel costs factored in, Berry said buying salmon would be about the same cost as catching it yourself. The real value, he said, is in the experience.

“There's all sorts of action of people pulling them in, processing them, watching their kids, trying to take care of their camp and everything else. It's just such a chaotic scene that for me, it's like a very Alaskan experience. I tie it very much to the place here,” he said.

While Berry and his sons were dipnetting on South Kenai Beach, Richard Lesko was a few feet away, hoping to catch and smoke enough fish to last him throughout the winter. Lesko drove more than 150 miles to fish today and said being surrounded by other Alaskans makes the trek worthwhile.

Doing the work of fishing for yourself has added benefits, Lesko said. “I know how it's processed. I know when it's caught. I know it's bled right after it's caught. I know how it's cleaned and everything,” he said.

Lesko had caught 10 salmon at that point. It’s a fraction of the 25 each permit holder can catch, plus an extra 10 for each household member.

Meanwhile, Berry only caught two fish during his three-hour trip. Still, his sons said they had a blast.

“He's the funnest dad ever,” Milton said. “He likes fishing, and I like fishing,” replied his younger brother, August.

But Berry said it’s not about the fish — it’s the memories he made with his kids. It’s one he hopes they remember, too.

“It was my middle son's first time,” Berry said. “Getting to show him how we catch fish and how you start to process them is incredibly valuable. It's baking in all those memories, that entire experience together. It’s not just the fish you walk away with.”