IV-175 



Applying such a figure to the population of the coastal counties 

 suggests that the value of the recreational resource of the 

 estuarine zone is about 300 million dollars if each person has 

 about five days of recreational use. Such an estimate would 

 include only local use and no multiplier values and might there- 

 fore be regarded as minimum value of the entire value of the 

 entire estuarine recreation resource. 



The major problems in defining the economic values of recreation 

 in the estuarine zone lie in the facts that recreation itself is 

 not an easily defined commodity nor can it be isolated from other 

 economic activities such as transportation, food and lodging 

 services, and equipment manufacturing. 



COMMERCIAL NAVIGATION AND NATIONAL DEFENSE 



The economic value of commercial navigation is easier to estab- 

 lish than the value of any other activity. Even here, however, 

 there is impact of this use on other estuarine uses, and the 

 estimates of economic value are not complete. Estimates of the 

 economic value of commercial navigation are based on the direct 

 revenue to the port of handling a ton of cargo, generally $16 to 

 $20. Such estimates lead to a total value of the estuarine 

 resource of $4.7 billion annually for cargo revenues alone, 



