The Economic Value of Coastal Communities

Linwood Pendleton

Senior Fellow,

The Ocean Foundation

Director

Coastal Ocean Values Center

Reuven Walder, Marine Photobank

www.coastalvalues.org

NERR Ace Basin

52% of nation’s housing is in coastal watersheds

Marine Photobank image provided by (c) Wolcott Henry 2005

(J. Kildow, Restore America’s Estuaries, 2007)

40% of US employment and 49% of US GDP resides in coastal counties

0%5%

10%15%20%25%

30%35%40%

NorthAtlantic

SouthAtlantic

Gulf ofMexico

Pacific GreatLakes

Population Employment GDP

(C.Colgan, Restore America’s Estuaries, 2007)

40% of Americans participate in coastal recreation

NERR Chesapeake Bay, MD

Leeworthy and Wiley (2000, NSRE)

Annual value of recreation = $20 billion to $80 billion

NERR Guana Tolomato Matanzas

(L. Pendleton, Restore America’s Estuaries, 2007)

Ocean related tourism supports 1.7 million jobs, $70 billion in revenues,

and $32 billion in wages.

(NOEP0 2004,, www.OceanEconomics.org)

PORT CITIES: $403 billion in goods move through

12 major estuary ports annually

MARAD

(D. Jin, RAE, 2007)

• What is the value of these activities to local communities?

• How do these values influence conservation decisions?

• How can government better protect these values?

• How do we measure these values?

• How can we monitor these values over time?