Valuing Western Australia’s Recreational Fisheries

Australia by using the data from the newly finished National Survey of Recreational Fishing (2000/2001)(NSRF). There are a number of findings. 1. Socio-economic characteristics of anglers didn’t affect their catch of high quality fish (prize fish, reef fish or key-sport fish) as much as their catch of low quality fish (table fish and butter fish). 2. For a given trip, anglers were willing to pay $1.63, $26.03, $1.03 and $0.53 for the first prize fish, reef fish, key-sport fish or butter fish caught, respectively. 3. The top four valuable fishing sites in the survey period were Geraldton, Esperance, Albany and Broome, with annual access values of $6.45 million, $4.52 million, $3.47 million and $2.47 million, respectively. 4. The per trip estimates are of similar magnitude with those of USA studies.