Artificial Reef Attributes and The Relationship With Natural Reefs: Evidence From The Florida Keys

William L. Huth, Ash Morgan (), Paul Hindsley and Chris Burkhart

No 14-13, Working Papers from Department of Economics, Appalachian State University

Abstract: Natural or coral reefs represent extremely valuable ecosystems supporting an estimated 25 percent of all marine life, yet recent reports suggest that 75 percent of the world’s natural reefs are under threat from both natural and human stressors. In areas such as Key West, Florida, that boasts an expansive mix of natural and artificial reefs, recreational diving on the system provides an important economic contribution to the local community but also potentially contributes to the stress of the existing natural reef system. We develop a revealed and stated preference modeling framework of diver behavior and find that deployment of an additional large ship reef increases overall diving activity but does not impact diving behavior on the natural reef system. We also investigate potential diver behavior heterogeneity in response to the new reef and find that diver beliefs on the role of human stressors can alter diving behavior. Key Words:

Date: 2014
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://econ.appstate.edu/RePEc/pdf/wp1413.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:apl:wpaper:14-13

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Department of Economics, Appalachian State University Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by O. Ashton Morgan ().