26 



effect of such value multiplier factors will be such as to make the 

 actual values of specific commercial fisheries several times the landed 

 values. 



Thus, the $438 million received by U.S. fisherman in 1967 probably 

 represents a total input to estuarine zone economic activity of over 

 $1 billion ; exactly how much it is impossible to say. Case studies assign 

 multiplier values of about three and four to commercial fishery land- 

 ing values, but the magnitudes of such multipliers depend on the 

 structure of the local economy as well as on other factors and generali- 

 ties are likely to be misleading. 



The relationship of the estuarine zone and commercial fishing cannot 

 be expressed by any simple economic index. The importance of com- 

 mercial fishing in the estuarine zone is related economically not only 

 to estuarine habitat, but also to transportation, commerce, food proc- 

 essing, and aquaculture. 



RecreatioTi 



Each kind of recreational use has its own economic impact. Recrea- 

 tional boating supports a large boatbuilding, marina, and boat repair 

 industry. Sport fishing supports not only a certain part of the boating 

 industries, but also a very specialized industry manufacturing and 

 selling fishing tackle. For example, the 1965 survey of fishing and 

 hunting shows that salt water anglers spent $800 million in that year. 

 Sightseeing and swimming support motel and restaurant services in 

 the favored areas, as do other overnight recreational activities. 



Attempts at the quantification of overall recreational economic 

 values are not yet well-developed. The user-day recreation benefits 

 approach has been used in some Federal waterway and reservoir proj- 

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

 fisheries and recreation in San Francisco Bay. Net benefits for gen- 

 eral 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 sug- 

 gests that the value of the recreational resource of the estuarine zone 

 is about $300 million if each person has about 5 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 en- 

 tire 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 activi- 

 ties 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 re- 

 source of $4.7 billion annually for cargo revenues alone, without multi- 

 plier values. An additional economic value of $10 billion annually in 

 salaries and wages has been estimated for 11 major ports. 



These estimates do not show the impact of commercial navigation 

 on land transportation, shoreline development, or the manufacturing 

 industries. Without the deep, safe harbors commercial navigation 



