PROJECT 2.1: VISITOR ENVIRONMENT INTERACTIONS
(Prof H Marsh, JCU)
The major challenge for this project is to determine ecologically and
socially acceptable levels of tourist use of the GBR. With the assistance
of operators at six reef sites, snorkelling, an activity enjoyed by a
high proportion of visitors to the GBR has been studied to develop the
required methodologies which will then be extended to other major reef
activities.
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A researcher re-enacts potential SCUBA-diver damage
to corals, caused by clutching or inadvertant fin kicks. Tourist operators
immediately took up these results by including warnings in their pre-dive
briefings.
Photo by Seiji Nakaya.
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The field work for this project involved administering questionnaires
to more than 1800 visitors and more than 50 days of observing the behaviour
and ecological impacts of snorkellers. Results from the surveys indicate
that visitors rate natural conditions and staff characteristics as most
influential in the reef experience, while the physical conditions on the
day and the number of people on the trip were least influential. Visitors
on smaller operations indicated that the number of people they were travelling
with has a more positive influence on their experience than visitors on
large operations. Most visitors had limited prior experience in coral
reef environments and use idealised representations of reef environments
when making judgments about reef quality.
Parallel research on the impacts of scuba divers on the ecological and
aesthetic values of the coral reefs they visit, shows that most divers
(84%) caused no detectable damage to corals. Where damage did occur it
was confined to fast-growing branching corals and was usually due to fin
contact. Initial results suggested that underwater photographers contributed
disproportionately to the coral damage. With the support of Kodak (Australia),
the GBRMPA and an operator, an additional study was conducted to determine
whether the use of an underwater camera influences the rate at which divers
damage coral. The study showed that the use of underwater cameras did
not cause SCUBA divers to break corals more frequently than would otherwise
occur. The major determinant of the magnitude of damage was the gender
of the diver with male divers causing more damage than female divers.
A study of two new dive sites and two comparable undived sites showed
no detectable increase in coral damage attributable to diving after 12
months exposure to low levels of diving (2000 dives per site).
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