Estimating a Total Demand Function for Sea Angling Pursuits

- Sea anglers in Ireland derive considerable utility from this recreational activity.
- Accounting for on-site sampling results in difference in estimates of trip demand.
- The consumers' surplus per trip is estimated at €242 per sea angler.
- The total use value of sea bass angling in Ireland annually is €81 million.

Sea angling is often over-looked in debates related to the sustainability of commercial fisheries, tourism and impacts on marine ecosystem service provision from coastal developments. This paper presents the estimation of a sea angling demand function for Irish waters. The negative binomial models also account for truncation and endogenous stratification; two issues that need to be controlled for when dealing with on-site sampled populations. Given the dispersed nature of sea angling activity, the chosen model does not focus on one specific site as is common in the literature for count data travel cost models but rather estimates the total demand for sea angling in the season, no matter where the angling takes place along the Irish coast. We use this empirical work to discuss the more general debate surrounding resource allocation between commercial fisheries and recreational anglers. The results indicate the high value of the Irish marine environment as a recreational angling resource.