The worth of giants: The consumptive and non‐consumptive use value of the giant sea bass (Stereolepis gigas)

Abstract

Although the economic value of wildlife historically has been attributed to its consumptive use, the global growth of ecotourism has expanded wildlife valuation to include non‐consumptive uses. In California, the critically endangered giant sea bass (Stereolepis gigas) is paradoxically both a flagship species in the recreational dive industry and regularly sold in California's commercial fisheries when incidentally caught. The differences in the economic value of S. gigas to these two key stakeholders – commercial fishers and recreational scuba divers – were explored. The average annual landing value of S. gigas was US$12 600, this value was determined using California commercial fishery landing receipt data. In contrast the estimated average value of S. gigas to recreational divers was US$2.3 million per year. The non‐consumptive use value was calculated by approximating the annual number of recreational charter boat divers and determining divers' willingness‐to‐pay for a S. gigas sighting. Stated landings volumes of S. gigas appear to represent a minimum annual extraction of 2% to 19% of the S. gigas population. Using self‐reported fishery catch location data, S. gigas bycatch hotspots were identified and used to inform suggestions for strategic spatial and temporal closures. Overall, these results highlight the value of giant sea bass beyond fisheries and underscore the importance of incorporating non‐consumptive values when developing harvest policies and marine management plans.

Asymmetry across international borders: Research, fishery and management trends and economic value of the giant sea bass (Stereolepis gigas)

“…Chabot et al, (2015) estimated the effective population size (Ne) of the species to be 500 individuals, including samples from California and Mexico, adding that this could be greater than 10% of the census population size (i.e., census population size <5,000). This estimate spread rapidly in the scientific community and the media and contributed to the perception of the fragile status of the GSB population (Fox, 2018;Guerra et al, 2017;Sahagun, 2018;Tallal, 2020;Wisckol, 2018). Based upon our results, this is almost certainly an underestimate of both the effective and census population sizes of GSB.…”

“…Currently, GSB is protected as a no‐take species in California to facilitate continual population recovery, but commercial fishers are still permitted to land one incidental catch per trip, and the species has not been granted federal protections under the US Endangered Species Act (Musick et al., 2000). While GSB is no longer targeted by fisheries in California, its gradual recovery has supported a multi‐million‐dollar industry associated with non‐extractive recreational activities, such as SCUBA diving (Guerra et al., 2017) and public aquariums (National Ocean Economics Program, 2021). Conversely in Mexico, there are no regulations in place for the Mexican commercial fishery, and there is a dearth of information about the past and current status of the stock to inform future management (DOF, 2006).…”

“…(c) The majority of papers focus on adult GSB and many do not mention specific life history stages [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]F I G U R E 3 Management of the giant sea bass (GSB) across the US-Mexico border is highly asymmetric. Despite little economic or scientific input, Mexican fishery catches, and revenues are high, while the opposite trend occurs in the US GSB ecotourism revenues were obtained fromGuerra et al (2017)…”

“…Guerra et al (2017) reported the non-consumptive value of the GSB in California, considering divers' willingness-to-pay for a GSB sighting, was US $2.3 million per year (Figure3), and the meanF I G U R E 5 Giant sea bass contemporary catches (2000-2016) are highest in the summer in both the USA and Mexico. In Mexico, this corresponds in part to the closure of the lobster fishery from March to September.…”

Validity of the Fisher Community Knowledge-Based Economic Valuation of the Local Ecosystem for Oyster Farming: A Case Study in Japan

“…The easiest value that the local ecosystem user can recognize is a consumptive value by the direct use of an ecosystem. In fisheries, this might be affected by the number of fish produced from the target ecosystem (Guerra et al, 2017). However, the amount of trials representing the link between the empirical economic evaluation of an ecosystem on use in a community and the actual environmental conditions is limited.…”