Marine management in the United States: applications in recreation and tourism

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries Service), a U.S. federal agency, is the primary agency responsible for the conservation and management of the nation’s ocean resources and marine habitat. In addition to... [ view full abstract ]

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries Service), a U.S. federal agency, is the primary agency responsible for the conservation and management of the nation’s ocean resources and marine habitat. In addition to managing some of the world’s largest commercial fisheries, NOAA Fisheries Service ensures that other activities that rely on healthy oceans, such as marine-based recreation and tourism, can also be sustained.  The management process, which must consider diverse and sometimes competing objectives of different stakeholders and sectors, requires economic data and analyses to make informed, science-based decisions concerning the marine environment.  This session will examine how economics has and can be utilized at NOAA Fisheries Service to improve decision-making, focusing primarily on examples related to marine-based recreation.  The session will discuss economic data collections, analysis techniques, and management applications related to recreational fishing, marine protected areas, and a suite of marine-based recreational activities. 

The first paper will discuss public preferences and attitudes towards marine protected areas off the U.S. west coast.  The second paper will present results from a national ocean recreation expenditure study that characterized the economic contribution of a range of ocean and coastal activities.  The third paper will discuss a management tool that combines an economic model of angler behavior with an age-structured stock dynamics model to provide policy relevant advice to managers of the groundfish fishery in the Northeast United States.  We anticipate this session will generate discussion about the use of economic data and analyses in marine management both in the U.S. and abroad, and hope to highlight avenues where economics can be used to improve natural resource management more generally.