Impact of SCUBA divers on the coral reefs of a national park in the Mexican Caribbean

IF 2.4 Q2 HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM

Journal of Ecotourism Pub Date : 2021-05-05 DOI:10.1080/14724049.2021.1922422

F. Cerutti-Pereyra, Inés López-Ercilla, Gabriel Sánchez-Rivera, V. Francisco, X. Arvizu-Torres, Tamara Adame-Sánchez

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引用次数: 5

Abstract

ABSTRACT Coral reefs provide numerous ecosystem services and host more than 20% of marine biodiversity. However, the impact of recreational SCUBA diving on coral reefs is not often quantified in marine protected areas. We quantified the impact of divers on coral reefs in five sites within the National Park Reefs of Puerto Morelos, Mexico during high and low tourist seasons. We recorded the number and types of impacts on coral reefs done by divers during 30 minutes and the occurrence of endangered Acropora spp. The impacts most frequently recorded were "touching coral" and "creating sediment clouds" in the shallowest site, during the low season. A warning system was adopted by the Park based on the results. Making this information available for decision-making is crucial for ensuring the sustainable management of tourism, contributes to the conservation of fragile coral reef ecosystems, and ensures the sustianbility of livelihoods that rely on them.

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水肺潜水员对墨西哥加勒比海国家公园珊瑚礁的影响

珊瑚礁提供了许多生态系统服务，拥有超过20%的海洋生物多样性。然而，在海洋保护区，休闲潜水对珊瑚礁的影响往往没有量化。我们量化了潜水员在旅游旺季和淡季对墨西哥莫雷洛斯州港国家公园珊瑚礁的五个地点的珊瑚礁的影响。我们记录了潜水员在30分钟内对珊瑚礁造成的影响数量和类型，以及濒危的Acropora spp的发生情况，最常见的影响是在淡季最浅的地方“触摸珊瑚”和“形成沉积物云”。根据调查结果，公园采用了预警系统。为决策提供这些信息对于确保旅游业的可持续管理至关重要，有助于保护脆弱的珊瑚礁生态系统，并确保依赖它们的生计的可持续性。

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来源期刊

Journal of Ecotourism Social Sciences-Geography, Planning and Development

CiteScore

6.40

自引率

12.50%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Ecotourism seeks to advance the field by examining the social, economic, and ecological aspects of ecotourism at a number of scales, and including regions from around the world. Journal of Ecotourism welcomes conceptual, theoretical, and empirical research, particularly where it contributes to the dissemination of new ideas and models of ecotourism planning, development, management, and good practice. While the focus of the journal rests on a type of tourism based principally on natural history - along with other associated features of the man-land nexus - it will consider papers which investigate ecotourism as part of a broader nature based tourism, as well as those works which compare or contrast ecotourism/ists with other forms of tourism/ists.