The Economic Value of Catching and Keeping or Releasing Saltwater Sport Fish in the Southeast USA

To evaluate the economic effects of bag limit and minimum size regulations, it is important to understand how anglers’ valuation of catch varies. Using a sportfishing demand model, we estimated angler willingness to pay (WTP) for groupers Epinephelus spp. and Mycteroperca spp., red snapper Lutjanus campechanus , dolphinfish Coryphaena hippurus , and king mackerel Scomberomorus cavalla by using data from a choice experiment survey with questions about fishing trips in the southeast USA. Beyond differentiating by species and the number of fish caught (second through sixth), our catch disposition model separately estimated angler WTP for one additional fish caught and kept, caught and released due to a minimum size limit, and caught and released due to a bag limit. Angler valuations of groupers, red snapper, and king mackerel were similar and more than five times the angler valuation of dolphinfish. For all species, the angler valuation decreased with each successive fish. For red snapper and groupers, anglers indicated that keeping a fish was worth more than eight times the value of releasing the fish due to a bag limit. For all species except king mackerel, angler WTP did not differ much between a fish released due to a bag limit and a fish released due to a size limit. For king mackerel, the value of a fish caught and released due to a bag limit was more than 2.5 times the value of a fish released due to a size limit and was nearly half the value of a fish that was caught and kept. We compared our angler WTP values with those in the literature, and we provide a policy application example. Results suggest that measures of the economic effects of sportfishing regulations can be seriously misstated if the species, number, and disposition of the catch are not considered. Received January 3, 2011; accepted February 9, 2012