Natural Resource Damages from Fishing Site Impairments

Abstract

Repeated surveys of New York State anglers eliciting fishing trips taken are used to estimate the willingness-to-pay to avoid fish consumption advisories. We consider over 1,300 in-state origins and 1,700 destinations and use site-specific constants to address time-invariant unobserved characteristics. Conditional logit models produce WTP values between $2.91 and $5.96 per day, while mixed logit models give average values of $1.16 to $1.72. We also estimate the values of recreational amenities (such as boat launches), which can be used to offset resource losses.