A new report released last month by the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO) calculates the contributions of often-overlooked portions of the ocean economy—concluding that marine research and education, state expenditures related to the ocean, and coastal electricity production together support 38,000 jobs and $25.5 billion in annual economic activity.
The analysis also introduces a new approach to estimate the value of peak summer tourism with greater precision than standard government measures, and for the first time attempts to assign an economic value to the region’s “blue carbon”—the ability of marine plants to store carbon that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere and exacerbate climate change.
The report, titled “New Perspectives on the Ocean Economy of the Mid-Atlantic States,” is available for download [here]. It provides both regional and state-by-state summaries of the economic impacts of each of these sectors—along with six others (marine construction, living resources, offshore mineral extraction, ship and boat building, tourism and recreation, and marine transportation) that have long been tracked by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) through its Economics: National Ocean Watch (ENOW) data.
“This report takes us a step forward in understanding the full scope of the blue economy in the Mid-Atlantic region,” said MARCO Chair Kimberly Cole of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. “It explores the impact of ocean-reliant economic activity in sectors that haven’t been covered by other analyses, but play an essential role in supporting jobs, wages, and businesses.”
Statistics in the report are based on economic data from 2018. Key findings include:
Key Findings
State Government
MARCO states collectively budgeted $654.6 million and employed 6,300 workers for ocean-related needs such as resource management, parks and recreation, and law enforcement.
The regional average budgeted by state governments per mile of shoreline was $62,000.
New Jersey topped the list at $144,000 per mile.
Marine Research and Education
Public and private higher education institutions with marine programs accounted for $317 million in spending and 7,200 jobs.
Virginia led the region with $134 million in marine research expenditures.
Tourism and Recreation
To present the most accurate picture of peak summer tourism, the analysis discounted seasonal activity unrelated to coastal recreation (e.g., hotel and restaurant spending tied to business travel or family visits).
Peak recreational tourism accounted for $10 billion in spending and supported 696,000 jobs.
New Jersey and Delaware had the largest peak summer economies, with employment in ocean tourism and recreation 54% and 39% higher, respectively.
Blue Carbon
The report assigns a range of potential economic values representing the damage that would result from climate change if each state’s aquatic vegetation were lost.
The region’s aquatic vegetation was estimated to hold between $10.1 billion and $29.5 billion in total value, depending on carbon pricing (e.g., the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative market price).
Virginia (64 metric tons), Maryland (63.5 metric tons), and New Jersey (60 metric tons) stored the majority of the region’s estimated blue carbon.
Electric Power Generation
Although power generation has not traditionally been considered a coastal industry, many plants were built in nearshore locations for access to water needed for steam generation, discharge, and delivery of fuels such as coal and oil.
Plants within 3 miles of the coast accounted for $22.4 billion in output and 24,500 jobs—second only to tourism and recreation among ocean economy sectors.
Negative health and environmental costs of fossil fuels were not included in this analysis.
New York had the largest coastal electric power industry with 115 plants.
Expert Insights
Author Dr. Charles Colgan, Research Director for the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey’s Center for the Blue Economy, noted that the report marks a significant change from the activity traditionally counted as “ocean-related” in the ENOW dataset.
He explained that the study provides a bridge between ENOW and the Bureau of Economic Analysis’ Marine Economy Satellite Account (MESA), which similarly expanded the definition of ocean-related activities but only reported that data at a national scale.
“This is the first time the value of ecosystems has been incorporated in the tracking of ocean values in the U.S.,” Colgan said. “The methods developed for the Mid-Atlantic states will soon be applied throughout the U.S., greatly expanding our understanding of how oceans and coasts contribute to state economies.”
Next Steps and Recommendations
The report recommends that data be updated regularly to detect and investigate important changes in ocean-related economic activity. It notes that this can be done easily and at modest cost by state coastal programs using publicly available information.
MARCO and Dr. Colgan previously collaborated on the 2018 report Climate Change Vulnerabilities in the Coastal Mid-Atlantic Region, which quantified the potential impacts of threats such as sea level rise, rising ocean temperatures, and ocean chemistry changes on communities and businesses across 63 coastal counties and independent cities from New York to Virginia.