150 



TABLE IV.3.3.— LAND USE DISTRIBUTION IN THE ESTUARINE ZONE 



Biophysical region 



Area (square miles) incorporated in- 



North Atlantic 



Middle Atlantic 



Chesapeake Bay 



South Atlantic 



Caribbean (Florida only) 



Gulf of Mexico 



Pacific Southwest 



Pacific Northwest 



Alaska (total State) 



Pacific Islands.- 



1 Number of installations only. Areas classified. 



2 Much farmland is within SMSA boundaries, distorting totals. 



Reference: National Estuarine Inventory. 



Sources: U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, and Interior. 



Section 2. The Values of Individtjal Uses 



FISH AND wildlife HABITAT 



The value of the estuarine zone as fish and wildlife habitat both de- 

 pends on and augments its values for other uses, particularly recrea- 

 tion and commercial fishing. 



There is, in addition to these, the basic incalculable value of the es- 

 tuarine habitat as a link in the essential energy-conversion chain which 

 permits man to survive at all. 



The trapping of fur bearers in the marshes of the Gulf and Atlantic 

 represents one of the few economic values directly attributable to es- 

 tuarine habitat. Louisiana is the major producer; in the 1965-66 sea- 

 son total sales were $4.6 million out of the Nation's $6 million total. 

 These included the pelts and some meat from nutria, muskrat, rac- 

 coons, mink, and otter, with much of the harvest coming from marshes 

 managed specifically for that purpose. 



The management of marshes for fur bearers requires periodic burn- 

 ing over, means of controlling predators, and the control of saline 

 water intrusion. This makes the marshes so managed unsuitable for 

 some other forms of estuarine-dependent life such as 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 $4 million per year fur seal harvest of the Prib- 

 iloff Islands is included. As a measure of the full value of estuarine 

 habitat this annual value is an excellent indicator of how the measur- 

 able economic worth of an estuarine use my 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 established 



