Tiny Stowaways: Analyzing the Economic Benefits of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Permit Regulating Ballast Water Discharges

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed permitting ballast water discharges—a benefit of which would be to reduce the economic damages associated with the introduction and spread of aquatic invasive species. Research on ship-borne aquatic invasive species has been conducted in earnest for decades, but determining the economic damages they cause remains troublesome. Furthermore, with the exception of harmful algal blooms, the economic consequences of microscopic invaders have not been studied, despite their potentially great negative effects. In this paper, we show how to estimate the economic benefits of preventing the introduction and spread of harmful bacteria, microalgae, and viruses delivered in U.S. waters. Our calculations of net social welfare show the damages from a localized incident, cholera-causing bacteria found in shellfish in the Gulf of Mexico, to be approximately $706,000 (2006$). On a larger scale, harmful algal species have the potential to be transported in ships’ ballast tanks, and their effects in the United States have been to reduce commercial fisheries landings and impair water quality. We examine the economic repercussions of one bloom-forming species. Finally, we consider the possible translocation within the Great Lakes of a virus that has the potential to harm commercial and recreational fisheries. These calculations illustrate an approach to quantifying the benefits of preventing invasive aquatic microorganisms from controls on ballast water discharges.