On September 20, 2017 Hurricane Mara struck the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. This Category 5 stormcaused extensive damage to local fishing communities. Besides the devastating wind fields and storm surges that many fishing centers (villas pesqueras) suffered, the extended interruption in utility and fuelfurther limited the recovery of the commercial fishing sector.Flattened demand, access limitations, and limited refrigeration further impacted fishing effort and revenues. This study reports on the preliminary findings of a rapid assessment of the damages and also examines how fishing practices have recovered in response to this extreme weather event, especially in terms of vulnerability to future storms.

The pelagic fisheries of the North East Atlantic are all harvested by the same countries/parties. For several years, there has been an unsolved dispute between these nations about the size of their respective quotas. Based on their importance and roles in the fisheries, we model the exploitation as consisting of three players, namely the EU, Norway, and Iceland. The optimization model takes into account biological interaction between the species and strategic interaction between the agents simultaneously. It is assumed that when the nations act as singletons, they behave myopically. When they are member of a coalition, they act in order to maximize the coalitions long-term net revenue. Internal and external stability conditions, for all possible coalition structures in steady state, are analyzed in order to find out which coalition structures are most likely to occur, with and without side-payments. The most likely outcome is full competition where everybody behave myopically. This is also the case which is most similar to real world observations. Cooperation and long-term maximization would increase total net revenue ten times. For this to happen, Norway would have to give the other two heavy side payments. This is not realistic, but the same effect could be achieved through quota negotiations involving other species.

Sandy beaches and coastal dunes are a biologically and economically important type of landscape around the world. It is an iconic part of the Pacific Northwest, visited by many and is home for rare native coastal species. Pacific Northwest sandy beaches and coastal dunes have been altered significantly over the past century by invasive species, and there have been substantial efforts to restore them. This paper estimates willingness-to-pay for sandy beach and coastal dune landscape restoration. We use a choice experiment to survey households in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho and elicit their willingness-to-pay for five restoration attributes: level of restoration, total size of restored areas, recreation, number of flooding day in restored areas, and cost. We study how respondents value the trade-offs among restoration, recreation, and risk measured in terms of flooding. This research addresses a gap in the literature by estimating demand for sandy beaches and coastal dunes and by exploring how people value tradeoffs in restoration. In this non-market valuation study of an unfamiliar good, respondents are provided with visual illustrations designed specifically for the survey and verbal description of the landscape under alternative scenarios. Our D-0 efficient experimental design helps identify the attribute combinations to be used in the survey, while qualitative questions are used to identify preference heterogeneity. The survey is fine-tuned through a rigorous process involving formal focus groups and a pilot study. We expect to find strong preference heterogeneity. Some respondents highly value recreation, while others would want the highest quality of restoration. Respondents are generally risk-averse and are willing to pay less for scenarios with more flooding. Respondents in Oregon, where most of the sandy beaches and coastal dunes are located, are willing to pay more than those outside the state. In order to effectively restore a coastal landscape, a process that takes time and money, it is crucial to understand how people value its attributes. Public demand for coastal areas and for restored areas in general can only be appropriately met by considering both the natural science and the economics of preferences regarding conservation and restoration.

The pelagic Sargassum is a marine macroalga that from 2015 became a problem for Mexican beaches, mainly on the coast of Quintana Roo. This atypical event changes the cleanliness and color of the beaches, so it affects tourism. The origin of this macroalgae is the Sargasso Sea, and from the north of Ecuador, but the causes of this atypical event are not yet fully identified. Recent data show an accumulation of up to 200 tons per year for each kilometer of coastline. Therefore, a multidisciplinary project is being carried out with the aim of designing strategies for the sustainable harvest, management, and processing of Sargassum. In this sense, a preliminary evaluation of the economic losses is presented, through the losses of tourist income, derived from the problem of stranding pelagic Sargassum off the coast of Quintana Roo. The results will be used as a baseline to perform a cost-benefit analysis for the proposals of use and control of the stranded Sargassum. The estimation of losses of tourist income was estimated through the analysis of the historical series of hotel activity and tourist arrivals in Quintana Roo. Information that was complemented through expert interviews in order to know how the changes in occupation, attributed to the stranding of Sargassum, have resulted in changes in the tourist economic dynamics (v .gr. Reduction of tourist spending). Parallel to the project intention, it is essential that managers and policymakers understand the value of the area and how changes in management can affect these recreational values.