Determining the 'carrying capacity' of popular dive sites is essential to protecting sensitive marine environments, according to a University of Queensland researcher.
Dr Derrin Davis, who recently graduated with a PhD in economics, has completed a study on the development of recreational scuba diving, highlighting the need for environmental monitoring programs in heavily-used diving locations.
'Recreational scuba diving is one of the fastest-growing international sports, with more than 100,000 new scuba certificates issued each year in Australia,' Dr Davis said.
About two million dives are completed each year, with the total value of recreational diving businesses exceeding $360 million a year.
Dr Davis, who is based at the Centre for Coastal Management at Southern Cross University in Lismore, said the study looked at the impacts, economics and management of recreational diving in marine protected areas.
The behaviour of divers was monitored at four sites - Heron Island and Lady Elliott Island in the southern Great Barrier Reef, the Solitary Islands Marine Reserve near Coffs Harbour, and Gneering Shoals in south-east Queensland.
Divers were accompanied - unknowingly - by project observers who recorded their behaviour, including the number of times each diver touched or damaged the reef or any sea life.
'The project showed that unless activities like scuba diving are managed, they can have negative impacts on important areas like marine parks,' said Dr Davis.
'The impacts from recreational diving weren't as great as we had expected, but we found some divers were causing damage inadvertently.'
An Australia-wide survey of divers was carried out to gather information on who dives, where and why they dive, how often they dive, and how much they spend on the sport.
The survey showed that most active divers had been involved in the sport for less than 10 years, were willing to travel long distances to dive sites, and most were aged 25 to 34. Popular dive sites were chosen for their diversity and abundance of marine life.
Dr Davis said the results of the survey had provided a range of potential management strategies which could help minimise environmental damage.
However, he said it was likely that social and aesthetic factors would become significant constraints on demand at individual sites before biological damage became a concern.
'Our work showed that a few relatively simple strategies will allow a continued increase in diving without causing any greater or further impact on the underwater environment,' he said.
The potential strategies included 'no touch' guidelines, restricting numbers at particular sites, and encouraging use of a wider range of sites.
'New concepts - like making it expensive to dive at heavily-used sites and cheaper at less-popular sites - have come out of this work,' Dr Davis said.
'Alternative management strategies need to be looked at more closely rather than just going for regulation every time issues arise.'
Dr Davis said the provision of boat moorings in heavily-used marine sites should be given high priority to minimise damage from recreational activities.
'An idea that needs to be developed is that there are many different ways to manage a recreational activity like scuba diving,' he said.
Environmental education as part of learn-to-dive programs, and the use of economic incentives, would play key roles, he said.
'In recent times, dive training organisations and organisations like Dive Queensland have shown increased interest in environmental aspects of diving.'
Dr Davis' study also looked at diver motivations and approaches to managing the industry in marine protected areas, using Western Australia's whale shark tourism industry as a model.
'The management of the industry is evolving but provides important lessons in areas such as user pays, the transparency of such policies, and the importance of industry involvement in management,' he said.
'We found that consumers are willing to pay to support management if the use of funds collected is transparent.
'However, different ethnic groups are found to have different attitudes, with consumers from Australia, along with those from the United Kingdom and Europe, more willing to pay than Japanese consumers, either to interact with whale sharks or to contribute to the costs of their management.
Dr Davis said socio-economic research complemented ongoing and longer term biological research in protected areas, providing information quickly and cheaply to help managers of protected areas better balance competing uses of those areas.
For more information, contact Dr Davis on (066) 203 775.
