KEY PROBLEMS IN THE MANAGEMENT OF SPORTS FISHERIES

This article discusses issues associated with valuation of sports fishing activities for marine resource management. Since management decisions have effects on marine resource quality and activity levels of different groups of resource users, careful benefit-cost evaluation of alternative management plans is essential to implement an efficient management system. Three important issues for measuring sports fishing benefits are discussed: (1) aspects of fishing experience enjoyed by recreationists, (2) congestion, and (3) recreational inputs purchased for fishing participation. The household production function framework is discussed as a plausible approach to incorporate a variety of recreational inputs for describing sports fishing demand. Throughout the article, data deficiency is emphasized. Individual microlevel data about recreationists' socioeconomic characteristics and expenditures as well as fishing site quality variables are necessary to improve the sports fishing valuation task.