New Larissa Oil Spill

In June 2004 the M/V New Larissa, a freighter carrying 400,000 gallons of bunker and diesel fuel, bound for Morehead City, North Carolina, to pick up a load of wood chips, anchored two miles off the Cape Lookout because the bar was too rough to cross. The next day, the ship's anchor began to drag, and while its crew attempted to raise the anchor and move the ship to deeper water, rough weather pushed the ship toward shore, and it ran aground. The Coast Guard airlifted the twenty-three crew members and a bar pilot from the ship the next day. The vessel began to leak oil as pounding waves widened cracks in its hull.

The ship ultimately spilled 100,000 gallons of oil. The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) closed the Core and Bogue Sounds' commercial fishery. Within weeks, it was estimated that approximately 2% of the North Carolina oyster harvest and 1% of the shrimp harvest were destroyed. In addition, it was estimated that the number of North Carolina marine recreational fishing trips declined by 1% and the number of beach trips to Carteret County beaches fell by 50% for 2 months. Nearly 500 birds (30 different species including piping plover and the brown pelican) were oiled and did not survive.  However, the greatest tragedy was that two members of the DMF Marine Patrol were killed while working to save the crew.

The plaintiff in the case, the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, is suing the defendant, New Larissa, Inc., for damages resulting from:

1. lost lives | 2-50 year old men (high school graduates); one family has two grown children and the spouse works; the other family has two young children and the spouse is a homemaker
2. oyster fishing losses
3. shrimp fishing losses
4. recreational fishing losses
5. beach recreation losses, and
6. lost passive-use values

Commercial Fishing

• Commercial Fishery Landings, National Marine Fisheries Service, http://www.st.nmfs.gov/st1/commercial/.
• North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, http://www.ncfisheries.net.

Recreational Fishing and Beach Trips

• Industrial Economics, Inc., Sportfishing Values Database, http://www.indecon.com/ (click on "information products")
• Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey, http://www.st.nmfs.gov/st1/recreational/queries/index.html.
• NMFS Fisheries Economics - Publications and Literature, http://www.st.nmfs.gov/econ/pubs.html
• Leeworthy, Vernon R. (Bob), and Peter C. Wiley. 2001. Current Participation Patterns in Marine Recreation. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, http://marineeconomics.noaa.gov/NSRE/NSRE_2.pdf
• King, "Estimating the value of marine resources: a marine recreation case," Ocean and Coastal Management, 1995.
• Curtis, "Demand for Water-based Leisure Activity," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 2003.
• Bin, et al., "Some Consumer Surplus Estimates for North Carolina Beaches," ECU Working Paper, 2004.

Benefit Transfer

• King, Dennis M. and Marisa Mazzota, Benefit Transfer Method, Ecosystem Valuation, http://www.ecosystemvaluation.org/benefit_transfer.htm.

• Dumas, Schuhmann, and Whitehead, Measuring the Economic Benefits of Water Quality Improvement with
  Benefit Transfer: An Introduction for Non-Economists (description and examples)

• Dumas and Whitehead, The Potential Economic Benefits of Integrated and Sustainable Ocean Observation Systems: The Southeast Atlantic Region (an example)

Passive Use Values

• Loomis and White, "Economic benefits of rare and endangered species: summary and meta-analysis," Ecological Economics, 1996.
• Portney, "The Contingent Valuation Debate: Why Economists Should Care?" Journal of Economic Perspectives, 1994.
• Hanemann, "Valuing the Environment Through Contingent Valuation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 1994.
• Diamond and Hausman, "Contingent Valuation: Is Some Number Better than No Number," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 1994.

Value of Life

• Mrozek and Taylor, "What Determines the Value of Life? A Meta-Analysis," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 2002.
• de Blaeij, et al., "The Value of Statistical Life in Road Safety: A Meta-Analysis," Accident Analysis and Prevention, 2003.
• Blomquist, "Self Protection and Averting Behavior, Values of Statistical Lives, and Benefit Cost Analysis of Environmental Policy " Review of Economics of the Household, 2004. 
• U.S. Census Bureau, Earnings by Occupation and Education, http://www.census.gov/hhes/income/earnings/earnings.html

General

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index, http://www.bls.gov/cpi/home.htm
• What is a dollar worth? http://minneapolisfed.org/Research/data/us/calc/index.cfm
• EconLit (Provides citations, with abstracts, to over 600 journals, books, and working papers on economics; full-text is available for many articles; on-campus only)

Note: This case is hypothetical and some aspects are counterfactual.