Assessing the impact of management on sea anglers in the UK using choice experiments.

Recreational sea angling is a popular activity generating significant socio-economic benefits but can impact on fish stocks. The motivations of recreational sea anglers go beyond catch, with a diverse range of motivations relating to physical health and well-being. Heterogenous motives and the popularity of catch and release practices mean that applying commercial fisheries management goals (maximum sustainable yield) to recreational fisheries could result in reduced participation, increased non-compliance, and a subsequent loss of both market and non-market values generated through recreational angling activities. Hence, assessment of sea angler preferences for management is important for the development of appropriate management strategies. In this study, a choice experiment was conducted to assess sea anglers' preferences for changes in UK sea angling management measures. Stated preferences for catching, keeping, and releasing fish due to bag limits and minimum-landing sizes were assessed. Willingness to pay (WTP) estimates for marginal changes of catching the first sea bass on a trip were between £11 and £31 depending on whether the fish could be kept or released and between £11 and £28 for cod, respectively. WTP was much higher for fish caught and kept than caught and released suggesting that consumption of fish was an important motivation. Minimum size was the most considered choice attribute for respondents, while cost was less commonly considered. The implications of the findings are discussed in the context of future management of recreational fisheries.

Marine litter and climate change: Inextricably connected threats to the world's oceans.

The global issues of climate change and marine litter are interlinked and understanding these connections is key to managing their combined risks to marine biodiversity and ultimately society. For example, fossil fuel-based plastics cause direct emissions of greenhouse gases and therefore are an important contributing factor to climate change, while other impacts of plastics can manifest as alterations in key species and habitats in coastal and marine environments. Marine litter is acknowledged as a threat multiplier that acts with other stressors such as climate change to cause far greater damage than if they occurred in isolation. On the other hand, while climate change can lead to increased inputs of litter into the marine environment, the presence of marine litter can also undermine the climate resilience of marine ecosystems. There is increasing evidence that that climate change and marine litter are inextricably linked, although these interactions and the resulting effects vary widely across oceanic regions and depend on the particular characteristics of specific marine environments. Ecosystem resilience approaches, that integrate climate change with other local stressors, offer a suitable framework to incorporate the consideration of marine litter where that is deemed to be a risk, and to steer, coordinate and prioritise research and monitoring, as well as management, policy, planning and action to effectively tackle the combined risks and impacts from climate change and marine litter.

Bringing ecosystem services into economic decision-making: land use in the United Kingdom.

Landscapes generate a wide range of valuable ecosystem services, yet land-use decisions often ignore the value of these services. Using the example of the United Kingdom, we show the significance of land-use change not only for agricultural production but also for emissions and sequestration of greenhouse gases, open-access recreational visits, urban green space, and wild-species diversity. We use spatially explicit models in conjunction with valuation methods to estimate comparable economic values for these services, taking account of climate change impacts. We show that, although decisions that focus solely on agriculture reduce overall ecosystem service values, highly significant value increases can be obtained from targeted planning by incorporating all potential services and their values and that this approach also conserves wild-species diversity.