LAUSR

Abstract Information on the economic value of changes in harvest regulations such as bag limits is necessary to understand the economic benefits and costs of recreational fishing policies. As fishery managers consider policies that vary across space, time, and angler groups we need information on the distribution of angler willingness-to-pay (WTP) for regulations across these dimensions. In this paper we ask whether angler WTP for changes in bag limits varies by state of license. We estimated an angler choice model using data from a stated preference choice experiment in the Gulf of Mexico. The parameters of the model were used to calculate the distribution of WTP for changes in bag limits for dolphinfish, snapper, red snapper, grouper, and king mackerel. Using the bag limit WTP distributions for each species we examined whether WTP varied by state in a statistically significant and economically meaningful way. We found that anglers with a license to fish in Florida were willing-to-pay relatively more for grouper bag limits than anglers with a license to fish in Louisiana, Alabama or Mississippi. We also found that anglers with a license to fish in Louisiana were willing to pay relatively more for red snapper bag limits than anglers with a license to fish in Florida, Alabama, or Mississippi. However, differences in WTP for the bag limits among the states were relatively modest.