IV-166 



shrimp; so against the economic value of marsh management for 

 commercial trapping must be set the unknown cost of the loss of 

 habitat for other forms of life. 



The harvesting of pelts in the estuarine zone is of small economic 

 value even when the four-million-dollar per year fur seal harvest 

 of the Pribiloff Islands is included. As a measure of the full 

 value of estuarine habitat this annual value is an excellent 

 indicator of how the measurable economic worth of an estuarine 

 use may reflect very little of its actual importance. 



COMMERCIAL FISHING 



The economic value of the estuarine zone to even such an obviously 

 estuarine-dependent industry as commercial fishing can be estab- 

 lished, only with numerous assumptions and approximations. Not 

 only is the existence of much of the harvestable crop dependent 

 on the estuarine habitat, but the estuarine zone also provides 

 the safe harbors without which the ocean fisheries could not exist. 

 In addition, the sea food processing plants which supply the 

 entire Nation are nearly all located in the estuarine zone and 

 derive economic benefit from the existence of the commercial 

 fishing industry. 



