Palau Shark Tourism Value
The Republic of Palau is an archipelago of over 500 islands as part of Micronesia in the western Pacific Ocean. It’s not the easiest place to get to, but the quality of the diving and the potential of encountering large animals has put this island nation firmly on the top 10 list of best places to dive with sharks. Tourism is the major driver of the Palau economy, and Palauans value and protect their natural resources. With the influx of tourism it became obvious that even such a remote place will be impacted. The government took action by declaring their waters a shark sanctuary in 2010, fully protecting sharks and manta rays. And in the following years have increased protections of their EEZ in various management plans. Without sharks, none of that would have been viable, as they are the major attraction and one of the reasons divers from around the world will spend their live savings to fly to Palau.
The highlights from this paper by Vianna et al., 2010 establish:
Sharks have a greater value as a non-harvested resource than as a fishery.
The shark-diving industry attracts 8,600 divers each year or approximately 21% of the divers visiting Palau.
The value of sharks to the Palauan economy was estimated to be US$18 million per year, accounting for approximately 8% of the gross domestic product of Palau.
An individual reef shark in Palau was estimated to have an annual value of US$179,000 and a lifetime value of US$1.9 million to the tourism industry.
The annual income in salaries paid by the shark-diving industry to the local community was estimated to be US$1.2 million.
The annual tax income to the Government of Palau generated by shark diving was estimated to be US$1.5 million or 14% of the business tax revenue. (roughly 24 times higher than those from the fishing industry).
A fishery targeting the same 100 sharks that are interacting with the tourism industry in Palau would obtain a maximum of US$10,800, or 0.00006% of the life-time value of these animals as a non-consumptive resource.