Citation:

Mazzotta, Marisa J., Nathaniel H. Merrill, AND Kate K. Mulvaney. Coastal Recreation in Southern New England: Results from a Regional Survey. Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics (JOCE). Center for the Blue Economy, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Monterey, CA, 9(1):Article 1, (2022). https://doi.org/10.15351/2373-8456.1152

Impact/Purpose:

Despite the deep cultural importance of coastal recreation to New England residents, there is a lack of valid empirical economic and social studies quantifying these activities. Understanding the extent and value of recreational use supports decisions that affect coastal resources and allows for investigation of impacts from changes in water quality or other environmental conditions. Capturing the extent of recreation quantifies one aspect of the value of southern New England’s coastal ecosystem services, providing insights to managers about the importance of safeguarding marine resources and the benefits of doing so. This paper reports on a survey of New England residents to capture an up-to-date and large-scale view of coastal recreation behavior. Using the survey results, we estimated models of participation—how many people participate in any coastal recreation, and effort—how often people recreate on the coast over the course of a year, and examined the factors that influence recreational behavior. We also summarized general behavioral information including participation in various types of water recreation activities, including beachgoing, swimming, fishing, wildlife viewing, boating, and other coastal recreation activities. We provide summary statistics from the survey and results of participation and effort statistical models. The results quantify and spatially map demand for coastal recreation and provide models to predict participation and effort based on demographics, providing insights on the scale and location of beneficiaries of this important human use of the natural environment.  

Description:

This paper presents a summary of coastal recreation of New England residents from a survey conducted in the summer of 2018. The management of New England’s coasts benefits from understanding the value of coastal recreation and the factors influencing recreational behavior. To address this need, the survey collected the geographic location and trip details for both day and overnight visits to any type of location on the New England coast for a range of water recreation activities, providing a comprehensive view of coastal recreation in the region. This paper summarizes participation in various types of water recreation activities, including beachgoing, swimming, fishing, wildlife viewing, boating, and other coastal recreation activities. We quantify demand for coastal recreation using participation and effort models that disaggregate the dimensions of recreational behavior over space and census demographics. This provides insights on the scale and location of beneficiaries of this important human use of the natural environment. We found that 71% of people in the surveyed region participate in coastal recreation and engage in a wide range of coastal recreation activities at varied locations from open-ocean-facing coastal beaches to sheltered, estuarine ways to water. On average, people in the region take 37 trips to recreate on the coast of New England in a year, spending 167 hours per year visiting recreation sites and 66 hours traveling. This adds up to nearly 170.5 million trips from our sample region, 772.4 million hours of recreation time, and 304.6 million hours of travel time. Distance to the coast, demographics, and recreational activities affect how often people go and how much time they spend on coastal recreation.

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