AGNELLO: ECONOMIC VALUE OF FISHING SUCCESS 



Table 4.— Implicit marginal valuations of fishing success for Atlantic recreational anglers (1987 $). OLS = or- 

 dinary least squares; WLS = weighted least squares. 



'Not computed since the net coefficient of log of fish kept for weakfish from Taljle 3 (WLS model (3)) was negative. 



S slope coefficients and the WS interaction coeffi- 

 cients from Table 3 (OLS (3) and WLS (3)) resulted 

 in either very small positive or negative values, the 

 valuations in Table 4 provide us with interesting 

 comparisons. Disaggregating the analysis by species 

 appears to make a substantial difference. Recrea- 

 tional fishermen placed the highest valuation on 

 summer flounder when compared with bluefish and 

 weakfish. This holds regardless of whether one 

 focuses on the first fish or the average number of 

 fish kept. Generally, the value of fish kept at the 

 mean level of success is between 1/2 and 1/4 that 

 of the first fish. In our log-linear model, this dimin- 

 ishing valuation gradient is simply of function of the 

 average number of fish kept. Thus, for summer 

 flounder anglers where the average number of fish 

 kept is 1.94, the value of the average fish is 1/1.94 

 that of the first fish. For bluefish and weakfish 

 anglers, the value of the average fish is 1/4.2 and 

 1/3.35 that of the first fish respectively. 



The demand specification appears to matter at 

 least as much as species preferred when valuing suc- 

 cess. The demand price model consistently gener- 

 ates significantly lower valuations than the demand 

 frequency approach. As discussed earlier, the de- 

 mand price model may be more appropriate since 

 travel cost (P) is treated as endogenous, and thus 

 the equation need not be inverted to find effects on 

 price (i.e., 3P/3S). For comparison with studies of 

 freshwater fishing using a demand frequency ap- 

 proach, we note that Samples and Bishop (1985) 

 found a value of $6.75 for an additional lake trout 

 or salmon landed, while Vaughan and Russell (1985) 

 found marginal values of $0.45 and $0.31 for trout 

 and catfish anglers respectively. Our results for 

 valuing fishing success offer some comparability 



with their findings and support the hypothesis that 

 marginal valuations can vary greatly by species and 

 by study. What is especially noteworthy is that suc- 

 cess valuations can also vary dramatically by model 

 specification within a species and study (i.e., for the 

 same data set). In our study the method of estima- 

 tion (i.e., OLS vs. WLS) has httle effect on the 

 parameter estimates of their significance levels. In 

 general to the extent that the weighting procedure 

 is appropriate, WLS provides a more accurate pic- 

 ture of reliability. 



CONCLUSIONS 



In this paper we have presented a theoretical and 

 empirical economic framework for valuing fishing 

 success of marine recreational anglers. The em- 

 pirical analysis reveals that the number of fish kept 

 by Atlantic marine anglers is generally associated 

 with positive and significant dollar valuations. 

 Sports fishermen implicitly reveal substantial vari- 

 ation in willingness to pay for catching and keep- 

 ing Atlantic bluefish, summer flounder, and weak- 

 fish. These valuations also vary considerably by 

 empirical model and the average level of success. 

 Management policies aimed at promoting catch suc- 

 cess have a stronger empirical basis for measuring 

 the benefits of increased catch and comparing these 

 benefits to losses in other areas. Managers should 

 be cautioned, however, that values can be sensitive 

 to many factors and that more theoretical and em- 

 pirical research in this area is needed. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENT 



Support for this research was obtained from the 



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