Fisheries management involves trade-offs across recreational, commercial, and aesthetic goods. Contingent valuation assists in quantifying these trade-offs by eliciting resource values directly from the individuals who are affected by resource management. Recent research identifies three sources of potential error in contingent valuation design: (1) communication of complex policy information to individual respondents, (2) time constraints on a respondent's valuation decisions, and (3) strategic effects that arise as a respondent attempts to influence policy outcomes. A conceptual framework and design guidelines are developed for controlling these sources of error.