IV-548 



but has been used in the estuarine system only in an analysis of 

 fisheries and recreation in San Francisco Bay. Net benefits for 

 general recreation activities, by this method, range from $0.50 to 

 $1.50 per day. Specific forms of recreation may have higher values. 



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 therefore 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 



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, 

 without multiplier values. An additional economic value of $10 

 billion annually in salaries and wages has been estimated for eleven 

 major ports. 



