Life Sciences Commons^™

The Economic Value Of Sea Otters And Recreational Tourism In A California Estuary, Jessica A. Fujii, Charles S. Colgan, Anthony Castelletto, Michelle M. Staedler, Amy G. Wolfrum, Kyle S. Van Houtan

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

The recovery of marine megafauna can lead to improved ecosystem function and services, but not all stakeholders may benefit equally. Quantifying the local economic value of a species’ presence may appeal to broader range of stakeholders when developing conservation strategies. This study aims to examine the economic effect recreational activities can have on a local region, and to determine what role the presence of southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis) had on the value visitors placed on the visit and the area’s preservation. We surveyed visitors to Elkhorn Slough, a small estuary in California known for diverse wildlife, …

Future Importance Of Healthy Oceans: Ecosystem Functions And Biodiversity, Marine Pollution, Carbon Sequestration, Ecosystem Goods And Services, Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

The paper provides a review the current status of ecosystem and resource extraction to provide a series of thoughts related to the future challenges in maintaining the health of the Marine and coastal ecosystems at the Bay of Bengal. The chapter highlighted the challenges current efforts and future interventions necessary to keep the Bay of Bengal large marine ecosystem healthy. They are mainly linked to climate change, environmental pollution from different sources, biodiversity conservation, sediment movement. marine spatial planning and adoption of protected area concept to design marine reserve, fish sanctuary and ecological critical areas in the coastal zone were …

Evaluating Oyster Aquaculture’S Cost-Effectiveness As A Nitrogen Removal Best Management Practice – A Case Study Of The Delaware Inland Bays, Jefferson F. Flood

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

Disease and overfishing have led to a dramatic decline in wild populations and subsequent harvests of the eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica over the past few decades in Delaware and other states along the Atlantic Coast. However, in addition to their value as food to consumers, oysters, whether wild populations or cultured stocks, can provide ecosystem services such as nutrient removal, which may result in localized water quality improvements. Consequently, recent policies in Delaware have sought to establish and grow an oyster aquaculture industry. However, a key challenge to achieving efficient levels of industry growth and water quality improvements is that …

Aquatic Invasive Species Change Ecosystem Services From The World's Largest Wild Sockeye Salmon Fisheries In Alaska, Tobias Schwoerer, Joseph M. Little, Milo D. Adkison

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

This study combines a multi-method approach to structured expert judgment with market valuation to forecast fisheries damages from introduced invasive species. The method is applied to a case study of Alaska’s first submersed aquatic invasive plant, Elodea spp., threatening Alaska’s salmon fisheries. Assuming that Elodea spp. remains unmanaged, estimated mean damages to commercial sockeye fisheries aggregated across Alaska amount to a potential $159 million annually with a 5% chance of exceeding $577 million annually ($2015 USD). The associated mean loss of natural capital amounts to $5.1 billion cumulatively over the next 100 years reaching $400 million after 10 years. …

Any Port In A Storm: Vessel Activity And The Risk Of Iuu-Caught Fish Passing Through The World’S Most Important Fishing Ports, Gilles Hosch, Bradley Soule, Max Schofield, Trevor Thomas, Charles Kilgour, Tim Huntington

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

This study assesses the risk of fish from illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) sources passing through the world’s most important fishing ports and explores the drivers of this risk.

Like previous studies it has attempted to rank ports and States based on landings and vessel visits reported by governments by using Automatic Identification System (AIS) positional data transmitted by fishing and fish carrier vessels to identify the locations of ports and rank them based on the frequency of visits by foreign-flagged and domestic-flagged vessels. It advances our thinking in that (i) the analysis includes an estimation of the hold capacity …