International audienceMarine recreational fishing (MRF) is a high-participation activity with large economic value and social benefits globally, and it impacts on some fish stocks. Although reporting MRF catches is a European Union legislative requirement, estimates are only available for some countries. Here, data on numbers of fishers, participation rates, days fished, expenditures, and catches of two widely targeted species were synthesized to provide European estimates of MRF and placed in the global context. Uncertainty assessment was not possible due to incomplete knowledge of error distributions; instead, a semi-quantitative bias assessment was made. There were an estimated 8.7 million European recreational sea fishers corresponding to a participation rate of 1.6%. An estimated 77.6 million days were fished, and expenditure was €5.9 billion annually. There were higher participation, numbers of fishers, days fished and expenditure in the Atlantic than the Mediterranean, but the Mediterranean estimates were generally less robust. Comparisons with other regions showed that European MRF participation rates and expenditure were in the mid-range, with higher participation in Oceania and the United States, higher expenditure in the United States, and lower participation and expenditure in South America and Africa. For both northern European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax, Moronidae) and western Baltic cod (Gadus morhua, Gadidae) stocks, MRF represented 27% of the total removals. This study highlights the importance of MRF and the need for bespoke, regular and statistically sound data collection to underpin European fisheries management. Solutions are proposed for future MRF data collection in Europe and other regions to support sustainable fisheries management

Regional economic impact assessments (EIAs) of recreational fisheries reveal how anglers' expenditures affect economic activity such as sales, income, and employment in a particular region. Unfortunately, most EIA studies report only the final impacts of the EIA, without describing the economic interdependencies that produced the impacts or how the results should and should not be used to guide management decisions. This is particularly troublesome because most resource managers only vaguely understand how EIA models work and how to interpret the results in a fisheries management framework. The purpose of this article is to provide a starting point toward establishing consistent and defensible techniques for conducting regional EIAs of recreational fisheries and to explore the appropriate uses of EIA outputs as they relate to the growing needs of natural resource managers. Using marine recreational party and charter boat fishing in Maine in 1996 as an example, an EIA was conducted with the IMPLAN (Impact analysis for Planning) input-output system. Economic impacts were analyzed separately for Maine residents and nonresidents, and a linear production function that represented average for-hire operating expenditures was developed and integrated into the input-output model. Direct, indirect, and induced economic impacts were estimated for sales, income, and employment. In total, the US$1.12 million spent in Maine by nonresident party and charter anglers in 1996 resulted in $1.04 million in sales that remained within the state, $393 thousand in additional income, and supported approximately 37 jobs. Resident expenditures in 1996 totaled $276 thousand and generated $225 thousand in instate sales, $82 thousand in income, and approximately 10 jobs. The impacts of nonresident expenditures were generally five times greater than that of their resident counterparts. However, the actual economic impact of resident expenditures depends on assumptions regarding the absence of the marine for-hire fishery in Maine. Although the model's multipliers may be used to predict the total impacts of changes in expenditures by party and charter boat anglers, it is important to understand their limitations. The procedures and data sets applied here, if used in conjunction with future versions of IMPLAN, can serve as a foundation for updating the Maine input-output model provided in this study and for developing economic impact assessments of recreational fisheries in other states. *

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About one‐third of all West Virginians obtain domestic water from private water wells. In this research, mail and telephone surveys were used to investigate household responses to bacteria, mineral, and organic chemical contamination of domestic water supplies. Of households who were informed of contamination and acknowledged the problem, over 85 percent took action to avoid exposure to water contamination problems. The most common action was to clean and/or repair the water system (55.9 percent of valid surveys). Approximately 45 percent of households made investments of either a water treatment system, a new water source, or correction of contamination source. The average, annual economic cost of rural household actions was $320 for bacteria, $357 for minerals, and $1,090 for organic contamination. These economic costs represent a lower bound estimate for rural household willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) for a reduction in domestic water contamination from government action. On average, investment actions had lower annual economic costs than noninvestment actions of boiling and hauling water so that households who undertook investment actions in response to water contamination would have a lower WTP for government action to reduce water contamination. When effectiveness of water treatment systems was evaluated, treatment systems which require minimal household maintenance were found to reduce exposure to water contamination to safe levels as households intended when they installed the system. Treatment systems which were commonly ineffective included those which required continual maintenance (e.g., chiorinators) or were not designed to solve the contaminant problem for which they were purchased (e.g., filter systems for bacteria).