The economic benefit of spearfishing as an impure public good: A case study of invasive Lionfish in Florida

Abstract

Lionfish (Pterois miles and P. volitans) is a highly invasive species originally from the South Pacific and Indian Oceans. As an effort to control its exponentially growing population, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has launched a program called “Lionfish Challenge” to promote harvesting of lionfish from Florida waters. The program provides anglers with a unique recreational opportunity because they would need to dive and spearfish to harvest lionfish. Furthermore, participants in the program not only gain utility from spearfishing as a private good but also as a public good, knowing that they are contributing to the ecosystem in Florida waters. This paper contributes to the literature by measuring the economic benefit for participants from spearfishing as an impure public good. Using data provided by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, a travel cost method was applied to model the demand for lionfish fishing trips. Data included information about counties where lionfish were harvested at the trip-level, but only if participants took a trip and harvested lionfish. Therefore, those who are good at catching lionfish had a higher probability of being included in the data. To account for potential sample selection bias, a probability weight was applied, using the average number of lionfish harvested as a proxy. Results indicate that the per-trip consumer surplus per participant was between $965.89 and $1,597.36, depending on model specifications, with the preferred specification indicating a mean CS of $1,117.72 per trip. The seasonal consumer surplus per participant was indicated to be between $4,550.45 and $3487.91, again, depending on model specification.