I'm into some recreational fisheries research right now so I thought I'd chime in on the red grouper wars.
The CSM says:
Red grouper in the Gulf of Mexico has become one of the nation's most sought-after fish, coveted both by commercial fishermen and rod-and-reelers in Bermuda shorts.
Say what? According to the National Marine Fisheries Service's Marine Recreational Fishery Statistical Survey, only 0.45% of the 25,000+ anglers fishing on Florida's gulf coast included in the 2000 survey were primarily trying to catch red grouper. In contrast, almost 8% were primarily trying to catch spotted seatrout (bo-ring!). Those 25,000+ anglers caught about one fish each. About 3% of the total catch was red grouper. That's the way fishing goes: management decisions about seemingly insignificant species can cause a big ruckus.
More:
As a sign of the turmoil, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Service, in a rare decision, has refused to enforce the closure, in part to safeguard a recreational fishery that brings an annual $26 million to Florida's docks. Fishermen have piled on, saying they'll boycott catch surveys in protest. [Hmmm, bad for the MRFSS, bad for me.]
Florida's Gulf Coast grouper has a big impact on the state economy. The commercial fleet there supplies 92 percent of native grouper to the national market. Sold whole at the docks for $3.50 a pound, a wide-grained fillet sells for $16.99 at a fish counter in Raleigh, N.C.
($16.99 per pound?) According to the NMFS commercial database, the Florida gulf coast ex-vessel (i.e., dockside, wholesale) value of red grouper was $11.7 million. That doesn't compare well to the $26 million recreational impact. But:
Complicating the debate is the different way the two camps perceive value. Professionals look into their creel and see dollar signs; recreational fishermen care less about volume and more about the experience.
"It's difficult to compare value when the nature of recreational fishing is very different from the nature of a commercial trip," says Mr. Smith.
Indeed, the appropriate way to compare the value of the catch for an efficiency analysis (so that the red grouper resource flows to its highest valued use) is not the $11 million to $26 million amount of money spent (dollars that go into the gross domestic product accounts) but in terms of economic surplus. "Consumer" surplus is the amount that the anglers are willing to pay above the $26 million in order to keep fishing for red grouper. "Producer" surplus is, more or less, the profit generated by the $11 million in ex-vessel value and the $16.99/lb filets.
These numbers are tougher to estimate.