Tourism vs. commercial fishers:: development and changing use of Key West and Stock Island, Florida

For more than 200 years, commercial fishing was the most important economic activity in Key West, Florida. Over the last 20 years however, this way of life has been squeezed off the island, until there is no longer a commercial (as opposed to charter) fishing industry present on the Key. The “squeeze” is attributable to space competition from businesses associated with the explosive growth of the tourism sector in recent years. This paper relates a bit of the historical background of both the commercial fishing and the tourism industries. It goes on to examine some of the economic factors that converged to displace fishing activity to a nearby Key (Stock Island). This case study considers some of the implications for Key West of placing almost total economic reliance on the tourism segment.