Concepts of value for marine recreational fishing.

fishing. The benefit-cost criterion is one guide for making these decisions. This paper focuses on procedures for estimating changes in marine recreational fishing benefits under resource management options. The theoretical basis for such estimation is clear and there are a number of good studies to guide the research. With benefit-cost analysis, it is appropriate to use the maximum willingness of users to pay to measure gains in benefits and minimum desired compensation to measure losses. Thus, when benefits exceed costs, it is possible for those who gain to compensate those who lose, such that no person is worse off and some are better off. These same concepts are applied to market goods such as commercially caught fish, thus making it possible to evaluate changes in benefits resulting from an option that reduces the commercial catch of salmon but increases the catch by sportsmen. The value of marine recreational fishing experiences depends heavily on their quality and location with respect to users and substitute opportunities. Management options are likely to influence the quality of opportunities in a particular area such as a bay or sound. Thus, it is not appropriate to estimate average values for an activity or a large geographic area, but rather values associated with a particular area. Willingness of users to pay is the appropriate measure of increase in benefits directly associated with an option (e.g., fishing benefits stemming from an increased stock of fish). Willingness to pay for recreation at an area is ordinarily approximated by an area under the demand curve for use of that area. This includes the actual user fees, if any, plus an approximation of the additional amount that consumers are willing to pay (consumers' surplus) rather than go without using the area. This approximation is likely to be satisfactory for recreation because extracting the full willingness to pay for each unit of the good from consumers would not raise expenditures sufficiently to shift the demand curve (i.e., there would be a small income effect). Willig provides formulas for identifying the error in that approximation.