After Cecil the lion was killed in Zimbabwe, airlines started saying they’d stop carrying hunting trophies aboard
their aircraft. While that might not sound like much, you probably don’t realize that in Alaska,
BIG GAME Is A BIG DEAL
By James Brooks | Juneau Empire
In 2014, the state of Alaska issued 119,049 hunting licenses of all types.
87 percent of those licenses were bought by residents.
13 percent were bought by nonresidents.
In the same year, the state issued 19,116 ‘big game’ tags.
30 percent of those tags were bought by residents.
70 percent were bought by nonresidents.
Those statistics haven’t changed much in the past 40 years. Since 1977, when the state began keeping track of resident and
nonresident tags separately, most have been bought by nonresidents.
26,526 total tags
in 2000 (peak)
30000
25000
19,116 total
tags in 2014
20000
15000
8,712 total tags
in 1977
10000
5000
0
5,716 in 2014
2,937 in 1977
198.79
in 1983
200
Since 1962, the state’s population
has gone up, but the number of hunting licenses
per 1,000 residents hasn’t changed all that much.
(peak)
150
154.58
in 1962
140.01
in 2014
100
Nonresident ‘big game’ tags (whether for Americans or foreign aliens*) cost much more than resident tags where required.
Brown/Grizzly Bear
$500/$650*
(2,074 sold in 2014)
Dall sheep
$425/$550*
(509 sold in 2014)
Black bear
$225/$300*
(2,140 sold in 2014)
Roosevelt Elk
$300/$400*
(1,619 sold in 2014)
Caribou
$325/$425*
(2,361 sold in 2014)
Moose
$400/$500*
(2,356 sold in 2014)
Deer
$150/$200*
(1,619 sold in 2014)
As a result of those two factors, nonresident spending supports Alaska’s hunting managment and research far more than resident
spending does. In 2014, hunting license and big game tag sales raised $6.03 million for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Nonresident fees paid 82 percent of that total.
Resident fees were just 18 percent.
These figures don’t include the millions of dollars in secondary spending that Outside hunters generate, or the guides, transporters
and lodge employees they keep busy. Even without those extra factors, you can see why we mean it when we say big game is a big
deal in Alaska.
SOURCES: “State of Alaska Hunt/Sport Fish and Game Licenses Sold, 1926-2014 report”; Alaska Department of Labor historical
population figures; “Big Game Tags, 1962 to present”; “2014 calendar year licenses and tags issued”; “Big game tag quantities sold, 2011-2020 recap”.