This paper addresses the validity and usefulness of nonmonetary approaches to valuing public investments in freshwater fishery resources. It identifies, defines, and gives examples drawn from four valuation approaches: measures of social well-being, psychophysical measures, attitude measures, and multiattribute choice measures. Each of these nonmonetary approaches provides useful information regarding the socioeconomic consequences of a proposed project, thereby complementing more conventional evaluation frameworks that tend to emphasize the biological or financial implications of a change. In addition, the argument is made that greater concern should be placed on the compatibility between a selected response mode and how people customarily think about the environmental asset under consideration.