Net Economic Value of the Freshwater Recreational Fisheries of New York

Abstract

A statewide angler survey was conducted in New York in 1988 in part to estimate the net economic value of the state's recreational fishery. Willingness-to-pay questions from the National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation were adapted to a mail survey format and respondents were asked how much they would be willing to pay above current expenditures for a specific fishing trip. The net economic value estimated from the responses exceeded $284 million for the freshwater fisheries of New York in 1988. Although inland fisheries accounted for 76% of the statewide net economic value, $69 million was associated with the portion of the Great Lakes assigned to New York. Comparisons with a 1976–1977 analysis of the net economic value of New York's Great Lakes fishery, which used a variation of the indirect travel cost methodology, showed a major shift in net economic value from trips for warmwater species to trips for coldwater or for both warm and coldwater species. Baseline data are now established for a variety of waterways in New York. Future research is needed to measure changes in value after environmental changes occur.