Strong algal growth, water turbidity, overfishing, underwater noise or trash not only on the beaches are just a few examples that the North Sea and Baltic Sea are confronted with. The latest status assessment of the German North Sea and Baltic Sea waters from 2018 shows that a good status of marine waters is still a long way off.

From a human well-being perspective, a marine environment in poor condition reduces the value that people place on the North Sea and Baltic Sea and the benefits, e.g., for climate protection and food.

In this project, we estimate the benefits for the German population that would arise if a "Good Environmental Status" were achieved in German marine waters. For this purpose, we derive the willingness to pay of the German population for this good status in the German marine environment using the Contingent Valuation Method.