11th ICRS Abstract book - Nova Southeastern University

23.951
Coral Reef-Based Tourism And The Private Boating Industry Of The Bahamas
Liana TALAUE-MCMANUS* 1 , Wendy WOOD 2 , Grant BROOKS 3 , Garin
DAVIDSON 4 , Maria VILLANUEVA 1
1 Marine Affairs and Policy, University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine &
Atmospheric Science, Miami, FL, 2 National Coral Reef Institute, Nova Southeastern
University, Dania Beach, FL, 3 BoatHistoryReport.com, Windermere, FL, 4 Florida Sea
Grant Boating and Waterway Management Program, University of Florida, Gainesville,
FL
Both diving and private cruising represent major tourism sectors in small island states
rich with coral reefs. This analysis represents an in-depth study of the latter sector, which
has rarely been examined in terms of its contribution to reef-based tourism and its overall
impact on coral reefs.
We studied the private boating industry in the Bahamas to assess its impacts and potential
role in establishing and maintaining reef-based marine protected areas (MPAs). We
estimated its economic contribution, identified boaters’ travel and waste disposal
patterns, and determined their knowledge of and willingness to pay for MPAs. Our
sample size included respondents from 140 wintering (January-April) and 78 summer
(May-July) cruising boats.
Cruisers generate about US$ 57 million in revenues, with winter cruisers accounting for
61% of total in-country expenditures in 2003. Longer-cruising winter boaters preferred
Exuma followed by Abaco, and New Providence. Summer boaters chose Exuma, Cat
Island , and Abaco as their top destinations. Most summer and winter boaters were repeat
visitors, indicating that continued maintenance and improvement of boating destinations
is imperative.
Cruisers offload a significant amount of waste at sea relative to what disposal facilities
can accommodate and which can degrade the quality of reef environments. Fifty-nine
percent of winter boaters and 72% of summer boaters offloaded their solid waste at
marinas, while 37% of winter boaters and 20% of summer boaters did so at sea. For
liquid waste, about 83% of winter boaters and 80% of summer boaters disposed at sea,
and together accounted for 4% of the annual total nitrogen loading for the Bahamas. To
encourage marina-based sewage disposal, a network of 12 pump-out stations may be
installed for $132,000 or 2% of boating fees alone. The cruising industry can support
coral reef-based MPAs financially and by adopting marina-based sewage disposal.
23.952
A Baseline Socioeconomic Survey For The Community-Based Fishery Management
Program Villages in American Samoa
Selaina TUIMAVAVE* 1,2
1 DMWR, Am. Samoa Govt, Pago Pago, American Samoa, 2 DMWR, Am. Samoa
Government, Pago Pago, American Samoa
The American Samoa Community-based Fishery Management Program works with ten
village communities in American Samoa to implement conservation through village
marine protected areas. The designation of these areas prohibit fishing communities to
engage in any fishing activity in any of these areas unless authorized by the appropriate
village councils. This project will determine the shift (if any) of lifestyle for these
communities, how these village communities are affected and determine trends of
different alternate activities these communities are engaging in. In doing this, a
socioeconomic survey was conducted in the ten villages of the program on the island of
Tutuila and four non-program villages in order to compare the data collected to determine
any difference. According to the survey, communities are dependent on marine resources
in order to fulfill their recreational time away from work and home. A small percentage
of interviewees indicated a serious change in their lifestyle since the implementation of
village marine protected areas. Additionally, the survey also indicated that although
these communities highly depend on marine resources for subsistence and traditional
purposes, a significant number of these interviewers would buy these resources from
either a roadside fishermen, from the store or from off-island vendors. In conclusion, it is
documented that in addition to fishing, these communities with village marine protected
areas are accommodating their needs through other means like buying resources from the
store. Additionally, these areas are beneficial in that they are improving the habitat
quality for the communities to enjoy during openings when permitted by each village
councils.
Poster Mini-Symposium 23: Reef Management
23.953
Managing Reef Systems in Small Island Developing States (Sids): Case Study Of
Balancing Reef Management And Tourism Development in The Bahamas
Kathleen SEALEY* 1,2 , Nicolle CUSHION 1 , Sherry CONSTANTINE 1
1 Biology, University of Miami, Miami, FL, 2 Marine and Environmental Studies Institute,
College of The Bahamas, Nassau, Azerbaijan
The Bahamas is challenged with building a strong economic base for tourism throughout an
island archipelago while balancing the environmental limitations of populating small islands.
Although sustainable tourism is promoted throughout the Caribbean, there are few real
ecological benchmarks or criteria for evaluating the long-term impact of development or the
environmental soundness of a proposed development project. Reefs are particularly vulnerable
to impacts of coastal development, but can rarely be managed by private entities. The Bakers
Bay Golf and Ocean Club, Guana Cay, Abaco was used as a case study to understand the
management and monitoring needs for a small island coastal system dominated by reef and hard
bottom marine communities. The case study set out to determine best practices for 1.)
Measurable ecological goals in reef protection, 2.) Tracking of information and decisions over
time, and 3.) Building partnerships between ecologists, developers and government to manager
user conflict over reef resource use. The case study points to the importance of having a 1)
multi-year baseline data set to base adaptive management objectives, 2) the resources needed to
implement assessment and monitoring, and 3) long-term economic data to put a real value on
protection of reef resources.
23.954
Coastal Clean-Up in Little Cayman in 2007
Sara KREISEL* 1 , Diana SCIAMBI 1 , Krista RICH 1 , Lisa DUNNE 1 , Roy DUCOTE 1 , Vania
COELHO 1,2
1 CCMI, Little Cayman, Cayman Islands, 2 Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics,
Dominican University of California, San Rafael
This study examined the annual accumulation rate of anthropogenic marine debris in the
coastlines of Little Cayman. An initial clean-up was carried out in the summer of 2006 and was
repeated in July 2007 to measure the rate of debris accumulation. Two undeveloped beach sites
with no regular cleaning or maintenance were selected for this study; both were 200 meters long
and 10 meters wide (2000 m 2 ), one is on the south (windward) side and the other is on the north
(leeward) side of the island. Trash was collected from each site and separated in five categories:
plastic, glass, shoes, Styrofoam, and ropes and nets. All bags were weighed and the volume was
estimated. A total of 117.8 kilos or 1986.4 liters of trash was found, with plastics comprising
nearly 60%, ropes and nets about 20%, and shoes 12%. By both weight and volume, there was
nearly four times more garbage recovered from the windward side of Little Cayman than from
the leeward side. This difference was probably due to the stronger winds and currents on the
south side bringing more material to shore. Since the initial 2006 study, in which no previous
clean-ups were known to have taken place in the selected sites, 56% as much weight and 73%
of the volume of anthropogenic debris had re-gathered on the studied areas. Across the 32 km
that makes up the coastlines of Little Cayman, we estimated 9.5 tons or 160 thousand liters of
garbage accumulated over a one-year period. This type of coastal pollution is a serious issue
and trash removal projects such as this one can contribute to decrease its effects on local
communities.
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