Benefit-cost analysis of fishery rehabilitation projects: A Great Lakes case study

Tools of benefit-cost analysis are used to evaluate a project to rehabilitate the yellow perch fishery of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Both sport and commercial fishers harvest from this stock, which has been suffering from much reduced productivity since the early 1960s. The project is composed of commercial quotas and other regulations. Measures of benefits and costs were used that explicitly incorporate uncertainty about the potential level of success of the project. The analysis shows that commercial fish producers will more or less break even compared to where they would have been without the project, but that substantial recreational benefits can be expected. This case study illustrates how benefit-cost analysis can provide useful insights into the potential economic returns from rehabilitation projects. It also dramatizes unresolved research issues, particularly in the area of sport fishing valuation.