OCS development and commercial and recreational fishing

As the controversy over Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas leasing continues, with environmentalists and fishermen seeking to block or delay leasing decisions that they think will adversely affect their interests, the need for better estimates of the environmental costs associated with OCS development becomes increasingly apparent. Although high degrees of precision in such estimates may never be economic, let alone feasible, better knowledge would reduce the uncertainty surrounding the magnitude of such costs, and would make it easier to come to grips with the problem and reduce, if not resolve, the controversy.