Climate change and the value of fishing in the Arctic

• Main Authors: Gren, Ing-Marie, Marbuah, George
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Climate Research; Arctic; Climate change
• Online Access: https://pub.epsilon.slu.se/25324/; https://pub.epsilon.slu.se/25324/1/gren_im_marbuah_g_210914.pdf

Several studies indicate impacts on fish from climate change in the Arctic, but there is no study calculating the effect on the value of fishing. The value of fishing is determined not only by climate change, but also by other variables including prosperity and population density. The present study estimates the impact of these factors on the recreational value of fishing by using meta-regression analysis of studies estimating willingness-to-pay for fishing in the Arctic. The study includes 22 studies with a total of 107 observations, and the results indicate robust results with a positive relation between estimated value and temperature and prosperity, but a negative with precipitation. Using the results from the regression, simulations showed that increases by the same percent in temperature and precipitation give a minor net decrease in the fishing value, but an increase in the temperature with 1 ̊C can raise the average fishing value by approximately 15 percent.