When Gluttony is Good

Fat Bear Week will soon end. Including several rounds of voting for our favorite brown bear in Alaska’s Katmai National Park, the runoff began on September 23rd.

A lighthearted contest, the competition is also about some heavy tradeoffs.

Fat Bear Week

Two-time-champ, Grazer won last year. Her main opponent was Chunk.

Grazer looked rather slim when seen at the beginning of the summer in 2024:

But after her weight gain, she could have topped 1200 pounds:

Runner-Up Chunk:

The contest began in 2014 after a park ranger had a WOW moment. Realizing how large the bears became between July and September, he wanted to celebrate so fat a feat. Rather amazingly, just before their 6-month hibernation, brown bears can eat more than a whopping 100 pounds of salmon a day. (Also, scientists are curious about why brown bears fare so well after such a long snooze. Their research relates to our cardiovascular health, obesity, space medicine, and bed-ridden patients.)

Our Bottom Line: Tradeoffs

As economists, we can ask if a tradeoff for the jobs created by copper and gold mining is worth the sacrifice of the bears’ home.

The contest website expresses the wonder of the fat bears and their habitat:

“…They exemplify the richness of Katmai National Park and Bristol Bay, Alaska, a wild region that is home to more brown bears than people and the largest, healthiest runs of sockeye salmon left on the planet.”

Initially, we had different answers from Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump. The Biden Administration said “No” and either partially or entirely protected the Bristol Bay watershed from minerals development. By contrast, during his first administration President Trump did not. Now though, his administration supports protecting the bears’ environment while it approved Alaskan oil and gas drilling.

An economist would say that because of scarcity, we have to make tradeoffs. While mining development would have generated jobs and revenue, the sockeye salmon on which the brown bears feast, would have been devastated. Shown on a production possibilities graph, more of one item means less of another one. Below you can see that as you move along the curve, you sacrifice more minerals for more wilderness. (We should note though that the sockeye salmon do generate revenue.):

If indeed, the bear’s Katmai habitat is affected, Grazer, Grunt, and their brown bear friends will have less food.

My sources and more: Several years ago, I learned about Fat Bear Week and am delighted to return (and vote). The explore website has all of the facts, links, and details on each bear. In addition to the contest website NPR, the NY Times, and Mental Floss have more details. But my favorite was the BBC because it focused on a female winner, Grazer. And for the 2025 drilling update, here and here, we have  President Trump’s Alaska policies.

Our featured image is Otis, a former champ. Also, today’s post is an updated copy of what we’ve written in the past. And finally, having voted for the women in the past, I plan to vote for Grazer.