Costly crustaceans: A hedonic price analysis of the Florida stone crab

Abstract

The stone crab (Menippe mercenaria and Menippe adina) fishery is the second most valuable commercial fishery in the state of Florida, with $30 million in dockside annual landings in 2019, It is a unique fishery in that only the claws are harvested, and the crab is returned to the sea where a high portion of them survive. There is substantial variability in the ex-vessel prices paid to fishers for stone crab claws, with claws yielding from $5 to over $30 per pound. However, there is limited knowledge with respect to what influences the prices of this valuable seafood product. Hedonic models allowed us to estimate the effect that different product attributes of a harvested stone crab claw have on the price. Here, we used commercial landings data from 2009 to 2020 to investigate the impact of attributes including claw size, county landed, fishing year, month, and area fished (inshore or offshore). The premiums associated with these attributes are highly variable with the largest premiums based on claw size followed by county landed, with south Florida and the Keys having higher price premiums than northwest Florida. There was interannual variation for the month attribute, with the middle of the fishing year having the highest price (January, February) and the lowest was placed on the start and end of each fishing year (October, November, May). These results provide basic economic information and regional insights into one of the most valuable fisheries in Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, and can help inform managers and stakeholders on the balance between profitability and sustainability of this unique fishery.