This year’s dipnetting season won’t be a net loss for Kenai, Paul Ostrander, Kenai’s city manager, said Friday.
The total revenue for the season, which was open from July 10-31, was about $485,600, Ostrander said. This was 12.6% down from 2020, but about a 10% increase from 2019.
“The fishing was generally productive for folks,” Ostrander said.
Dan Castimore, the IT manager at the city, said it’s important to recognize that the summer of 2020 saw an unusual amount of activity.
Regarding person sessions, Castimore said there were a total of 47,266, which is about 6% higher than the five-year average.
Person sessions don’t describe individuals who come to dipnet, but rather each session a single person chooses to fish. For example, Castimore said that a three-person group paying to fish for three days would be counted as nine.
“It’s definitely not a perfect number,” he said, but emphasized that comparing the person sessions across years is a useful figure.
Castimore said about 52% of dipnetters came from Anchorage, about 13% came from the Matanuska-Susitna area, close to 7% were from Kenai and another 5% from Soldotna.
Reach reporter Camille Botello at camille.botello@peninsulaclarion.com.
