Water Quality and Recreational Angling Demand in Ireland

Using on-site survey data from sea, coarse and game angling sites in Ireland, this paper estimates count data models of recreational angling demand. The models are used to investigate the extent to which anglers are responsive to differences in water quality, with the water quality metric defined by the EU's Water Framework Directive. The analysis shows that angling demand is greater where water quality has a higher ecological status, particularly for anglers targeting game species.  However, for coarse anglers we find the reverse, angling demand is greater in waters with lower ecological status.  On average, across the different target species surveyed, anglers have a willingness to pay of €371 for a day's fishing.  The additional benefit of angling in waters with high versus low ecological status was the highest for game anglers at a mean of €122 per day.