IPHC Seminar Series 22-03 Non-market Valuation and Recreational Fishing: The What, Why, and How

Non-market Valuation and Recreational Fishing: The What, Why, and How Dan K. Lew, NOAA-AFSC Economic values of fishery resources are often desired by analysts and decision-makers to better inform fishery management decisions. Economic value information can help in the evaluation of allocation decisions and fishing regulation changes, and generally provides a means for understanding trade-offs among activities. While economic values associated with commercial fishing can frequently be estimated by examining market behavior (e.g., seafood markets, quota markets), recreational fishing values must be estimated using non-market valuation techniques given the general absence of explicit markets that directly reveal the value of recreational activities. Non-market valuation approaches fall into two main types: revealed preference (RP) methods that use information on observed behavior to infer underlying values and stated preference (SP) methods that use information from carefully worded questions in surveys or interviews that reveal the values of interest. In this talk, I describe the application of RP and SP methods to value recreational fishing and provide some examples related to saltwater recreational fishing in Alaska and elsewhere. I also identify some limitations, but also opportunities, for using these approaches in relation to Alaska fisheries management and in broader ecosystem-based management contexts.