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Economic Value of Striped Bass Survey to be taken, anglers wanted!

 

by Jon S. Ebeling, Ph.D. Emeritus Professor of Political Science California State University, Chico.
August 31, 2009 -- The project is being undertaken by the program for Applied Research and Evaluation here at CSU, Chico, with the cooperation of the California department of fish and game.  The end result is to assess the overall economic value of sport fishing, specifically in the Sacramento, San Joaquin and San Francisco Bay regions, focusing specifically on Striped Bass, Steelhead, Black Bass, Halibut, Sturgeon and Chinook.  The study will evaluate the effects of this study on a county by county basis for 31 counties in the above mentioned regions.  This will be a five phase project.

 
The first phase of the project produced a literature review on these species consisting of 176 pages. .  The literature review focused on all available analytical literature conducted on all six species of fish, as well as the economic behavior of anglers and their impact on the larger economy.  In addition, the review presented several different forms of economic analysis applicable to the angling industry. The impact of current and past policies affecting the supply of the fish will be extremely important to this project.  The project will also be developing a series of surveys to measure anglers’ economic behavior, and economic decision making, as well as putting together a series of focus groups to discuss the economic importance of sport fishing in California and framing a sample of anglers from which to take our survey.


 The second phase of the project is focused on gathering data, from anglers themselves, the retailers who supply them, and from department of fish and game policymakers.  The data from the focus groups will be used to construct questionnaires for 3000 respondents and that information will be submitted to an economic analysis using Contingent Valuation Analysis, which assesses the value of a good based on a randomized bidding process among people who have a broad base of knowledge regarding this good.  CVA has become a very widely used tool for the economic analysis of environmental goods, as it projects the value of potential impacts to these goods with a high degree of accuracy.  ARE will assess how much anglers would be willing to pay for policies that would improve environmental quality, thereby establishing the value of environmental improvements in the minds of anglers.


In the third phase we will use the information gathered to run economic analysis, using four likely future environmental policies or regulations.  The analysis will focus on variables including the choices for resource management made by policymakers and the trends in angler behavior, as well as the number of fish in the environment, and will assess the primary, secondary and tertiary effects of different policies, seeking to understand values of everything from boat and tackle sales to the spending patterns of tackle shop employees, to assess the overall economic value of the industry. This method will use input/output analysis.


The fourth phase will evaluate the economic value of fishing license purchases, and forecast these values into the future, as well as forecasting the amount of money they will spend on fishing using the information gathered.  The data will also be used to forecast revenues and tax yields from said purchases into the next five years.


We are hoping to hold three more focus group activities before the creation of the questionnaire: We finished one in Chico, we will hold one in Stockton on the 8th of September and we will hold one in Sacramento on the 19th of September. We had planned on holding a second one in Stockton on the 9th of September, but the number of persons we could recruit is not enough to hold one. We will shift that meeting to Sacramento, but we are not sure yet which date.


We intend to hold two focus group meetings in the Bay Area, possibly one at Berkeley and one in San Francisco. Again these dates are not set yet. We will give you the date when we have confirmed them. A lot of what we are doing here is contingent on getting up to fifteen persons per meeting. For those who attend we will have a catered lunch or dinner and a stipend of $50.00 for the meeting.


If there are persons out there who want to get to the meetings we will have to hear from you , and you can contact us at 530 895-3338 or 530 945-1466.  We must confirm your willingness to attend and then we will send you a letter of invitation.


Those who went through the meeting in Chico told me they felt it was one of the best meetings on angling they have had. They highly recommend it to others who are either anglers or who are fishing equipment retailers, guides, and marina operators to attend.
 
We particularly need persons who fish in the bay delta and who fish in the San Joaquin.


Please give us a hand and help us get these meetings underway.
Jon S. Ebeling, Ph.D. Emeritus Professor of Political Science California State University, Chico.