Securing sustainable tourism in marine protected areas: lessons from an assessment of scuba divers’ underwater behaviour in non-tropical environments

ABSTRACT

Non-tropical marine protected areas (MPAs) are likely to experience growing demand from scuba diving tourism, given the pressures on their tropical counterparts. The vulnerability of non-tropical MPAs to the impacts of diving tourism calls for monitoring and sustainable management of diving activities to ensure conservation. This study contributes to an assessment of scuba diving tourism in non-tropical MPAs. Scuba divers’ contact behaviour towards substrates and wildlife was evaluated at a temperate MPA in northern Italy and a subtropical MPA in southern Mozambique. A total of 380 scuba divers were observed underwater. Contact behaviour was measured against key characteristics with a post-dive questionnaire survey. Contact rates were 0.13 min⁻¹ for Italy and 0.59 min⁻¹ for Mozambique. Most contacts were deliberate, with turf or soft sediment, and had no visible effect. The results from the survey revealed that diving experience and attitudes are related to contact behaviour and that divers may underestimate the potential effects of certain contact types. The findings were used to develop a management framework to promote proper underwater conduct by scuba divers and maintain diving tourism as a sustainable activity in non-tropical MPAs.

KEYWORDS:

• Mediterranean coralligenous
• sandstone reefs
• contact rates
• diving experience
• diving attitude

Acknowledgements

The authors extend their gratitude to the scuba divers and dive operators who participated in this study. Special thanks go to Miguel Gonçalves (PPMR), the management board of the Portofino MPA, Carlo Cerrano, Ubaldo Pantaleo, Daniela Pica and Fabrizio Torsani. This study was funded by the Green Bubbles RISE project, H2020-MSCA-RISE-2014 grant agreement No. 643712. This paper reflects only the authors’ view. The Research Executive Agency is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. This study was approved by the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences Research Ethics Committee (EMS-REC) at North-West University under the ethics code EMS2016/11/25-0237.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Green Bubbles RISE project, H2020-MSCA-RISE-2014 [grant number 643712].