ENOW Hawaii: Exploring the Hawaii Ocean Economy through a Deeper Dive into the ENOW Data Set

Economics: National Ocean Watch (ENOW) data play a major role in characterizing the importance of the ocean economies of the United States on a national, state, and sub-state scale. However, a wide variety of economic activities that are typically not ocean-dependent in mainland coastal areas tend to be partially or completely dependent on the ocean in island communities, and are therefore underestimated. To better characterize the ocean economies of islands, NOAA sponsored a study in Hawaii. This report explores some challenges with ENOW data and opportunities to estimate more accurate economic indicators for Hawaii’s ocean-dependent economy in three ENOW sectors: ship and boat building, tourism and recreation, and living resources (informal fish sales markets).