Irish marine environment shown to have high value as a recreational angling resource
Sea anglers are one of the main marine recreation user groups in Ireland. Within Ireland, an estimated 127,000 people go sea angling every year along Ireland’s 5,600 kilometres of coastline (Inland Fisheries Ireland, 2015). However, as an activity, 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. With this in mind this research focused on the use value associated with sea angling in Irish marine waters. In particular it estimates the first total demand model for sea angling recreational pursuits where the total number of trips taken by anglers in the season to any location along the Irish coast, is modelled. The analysis is timely given the current debates around how best to manage the heavily depleted stocks of sea bass in EU waters.