Newly published research in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management by Matt Reimer and coauthors empirically estimates the impact of commercial fisheries on local economies. They find a 10% increase in a community's annual resident fishery earnings leads to a corresponding 0.7% increase in resident income in Alaska. This translates to an increase of 1.54 dollars in total income for each dollar increase in fisheries earnings. Their results also demonstrate the importance of local resource ownership for generating benefits for local economies.   

Here is a preprint version of the paper.