IV-553 



per capita, $420 of this is personal income. Average personal income 

 for all of the coastal counties is, according to Bureau of the Census 

 figures, $500 per capita greater than the average for the remainder 

 of the country. The total economic activity generated by this addi- 

 tional personal income then amounts to about $1,100 per person, using 

 the Narragansett Ray multiplier values. 



The total direct economic benefit of the estuarine zone to the 

 residents of the coastal counties is then about 60 billion dollars 

 in terms of additional economic activity stimulated by the presence 

 of estuarine systems. This is not a measure of the total economic 

 activity of the estuarine zone, but only of the "value added" to the 

 total economic activity of the coastal counties by the presence of 

 the estuarine zone. 



Such gross means can give only an order-of-magnitude estimate of 

 even the direct economic value of the estuarine zone and cannot 

 possibly reflect either indirect benefits or the social importance 

 of the estuarine zone, much less its ecological value. 



Valid criteria for evaluating the importance of the estuarine environ- 

 ment or the value of individual estuarine uses, to a community must, 

 however, go beyond the reach of economic approximation and recognize 

 the fundamental relationship between man and his environment. Where- 

 ever there are people the environment will be exploited to satisfy 

 the needs and desires of man and his civilization. 



