Economic Value of Freshwater Recreational Angling in Otago: A Travel Cost Method Approach

Abstract

Otago is renowned internationally for offering some of the most pristine and exciting freshwater trout and salmon fishing in the world. However, many freshwater fishing sites in Otago are showing signs of environmental degradation due in part to continuing agricultural development, especially the increasing intensification of land use through dairy farming. Stricter requirements for controlling the flow of contaminants into waterways have been proposed and are under discussion. Implementation of stricter requirements will impact farming costs, but provide benefits for anglers and other recreational users. Estimating the economic values of the freshwater recreational angling is an important input to decisions about rules to maintain or improve water quality. Information about angler travel costs and fishing activities was collected via an on-line survey, and a travel cost method was applied to estimate the economic value of access to Otago freshwater recreational fisheries by domestic anglers. The estimates of that value in terms of consumer surplus fall in the range of $88 million to $130 million per annum. In addition, anglers who fished in back-country fisheries enjoyed higher consumer surplus than anglers who fished at river or lake fisheries. These estimates are reasonably comparable with estimates using similar methods with data from other areas in New Zealand and around the world.