Valuing Environmental Costs of Algal Blooms. An application to Santa Ponça Bay, Mallorca

In many recreational sites, marine coastal water can be affected by the presence of algal blooms, having potential impacts, although not exclusively, on recreational activities. This paper applies a choice experiment to elicit the marginal value for a set of attributes describing coastal water quality improving programs in the presence of algal blooms in Santa Ponça Bay, Mallorca (Spain), where the main impact is a temporary loss of sight depth in coastal water. Results from show that, for the residents of the area, a policy decreasing both the duration and intensity of the bloom would be welfare improving. Besides, there exist nonlinearities in the valuation function for the attributes related to the extent and duration of the blooms.