Online Resource 4: Review of Estimated Snorkeling and Diving Recreational Values Climatic Change Article: Climate Change Impacts on Freshwater Fish, Coral Reefs, and Related Ecosystem Services in the United States Authors: Diana Lane, Russell Jones, David Mills, Cameron Wobus, Richard C. Ready, Robert W. Buddemeier, Jeremy Martinich, and Kate Shouse Corresponding author: Diana Lane, Stratus Consulting Inc., dlane@stratusconsulting.com Review of estimated snorkeling and diving recreational values Study Study region Leeworthy and Bowker (1997) Florida Park et al. (2002) Florida Valuation method Consumer surplus per day (US 2005$) Travel cost $113.08 Contingent valuation $179.30 Travel cost $61.07 Cesar et al. (2002) Hawaii Contingent valuation $10.44a Bhat (2003) Florida Travel cost $150.44 Johns et al. (2001) Florida Contingent valuation $14.33 Oh et al. (2008) Gulf of Mexico Contingent valuation $205.95 Estudios Técnicos (2007) Puerto Rico Travel cost $105.43 Average (95% confidence interval) a $104.96 ($54.57, $155.35) Average of values for residents, visiting snorkelers, and visiting divers. We chose to use a single estimate (average +/- 95% confidence interval) across all the sites for the following reasons. For Hawaii, only one consumer surplus estimate is available (Cesar et al. 2002). That study used a contingent valuation survey of visitors to a marine park in Hawaii and found an average consumer surplus of around $10 ($2005) per visit for reef-based recreation, which is much lower than other studies on reef recreation. The study used a payment card methodology, with a range of prices from -$50 to +$50. This method can bias consumer surplus estimates downward if the payment card does not include sufficiently large values (Rowe et al. 1996). The average of estimates for the other locations is approximately $119. We find it unlikely that the consumer surplus for reef recreation in Hawaii would be less than 10% of the average for reef recreation in other United States (U.S.) locations, suggesting that the Cesar et al. estimate from Hawaii was biased downward by the methodology used. We also found only a single consumer surplus estimate for Puerto Rico of approximately $105 (Estudios Tecnicos 2007), which was almost identical to the average of all the consumer surplus estimates in the table above. Instead of using one value for Puerto Rico and a separate value for Hawaii and Florida that differed by less than a dollar, we chose to use a single estimate across all the sites. 1 We calculated a 95% confidence interval for the estimated mean consumer surplus value based on the calculated standard deviation of the eight study estimates under the assumption that the values in our table represent a random sample of snorkeling and diving recreational values for U.S. locations. References Bhat MG (2003) Application of non-market valuation to the Florida keys marine reserve management. J Environ Manage 67(4):315325 Cesar H, van Beukering P, Pintz S, Dierking S (2002) Economic valuation of the coral reefs of Hawaii. Final report. Hawaii Coral Reef Initiative Research Program Estudios Técnicos (2007) Valoración económica de los arrecifes de coral y ambientes asociados en el este de Puerto Rico: Fajardo, arrecifes la cordillera, vieques y culebra. Estudios Técnicos Inc. Informe Final DRNA/NOAA Johns GM, Leeworthy VR, Bell FW, Bonn MA (2001) Socioeconomic study of reefs in Southeast Florida. Final report. Hazen and Sawyer Environmental Engineers & Scientists Leeworthy VR, Bowker JM (1997) Nonmarket economic user values of the Florida Keys/Key West. Silver Spring, MD: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Strategic Environmental Assessments Division Oh CO, Ditton RB, Stoll JR (2008) The economic value of scuba diving use of natural and artificial reef habitats. Soc Nat Resour 21(6):455468 Park T, Bowker JM, Leeworthy VR (2002) Valuing snorkeling visits to the Florida Keys with stated and revealed preference models. J Environ Manage 65:301–312 Rowe RD, Schulze WD, Breffle WS. 1996. A test for payment card biases. J Environ Econ Manage 31:178185 2