Abstract

To establish whether a potential marine protected area (MPA) is an area of special national significance requires knowledge of the areas resomce, ecological, historical, cultural, and archeological qualities. Socio-economic understandings include the public benefits to be derived from recreational use and tourism activity. Managers at the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) are required to facilitate all public and private uses of sanctuary resources (not otherwise prohibited) "to the extent compatible with the primaly objective of resomce protection". This paper provides estimates of the total economic impacts of FGBNMS sport divers on the Texas coastal community where they boarded their dive charter boats (Freeport, Texas). FGBNMS managers wanted a baseline understanding of the extent of new money entering the local and state economyas a result of the marine sanctuary. We sent an 11-page mail questionnaire to a sample of 1,059 sport divers using dive charter boats along the Texas coast; 528 were returned for a response rate of 56%. FGBNMS divers spent an average of$259 in the local community and $94 "elsewhere in Texas" on their last diving trip. Most (74%) of local expenditures were made for charterdive boatfees. We estimated the expenditures of non-local Texas residents in the Freeport areaat between $363,079 and $407,344. Non-residents ofTexas spent an additional $204,068 to $407,346 in the local community. Using a multiplier of 1.8169 (number of times money is spent and re-spent before leaving the local economy), diver direct expenditures resulted in $1,030,450 to $1,155,800 of total economic output in the local area. This level of economic output also generated 21 to 24 jobs. The total value-added (or income and taxes that remain in the local community) was estimated at between $653,921 and $733,467. Various uses of economic impact data will be discussed.

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