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Dive, Snorkeling, & Swimming Tourism

Dive, Snorkeling, & Swimming Tourism

The Dive, Snorkeling, and Swimming Tourism sector includes businesses that provide equipment, instruction, and location to allow tourists to swim, snorkel, and SCUBA dive.

CMap

Sand production is the process by which calcified coral skeletons and invertebrate shells break down, forming sand which replenishes beaches. Biological Addition refers to anthropogenic inputs of a biological nature into the reef ecosystem, including artificial habitat, domestic animal waste, supplemental feeding, and escape or release of non-native species. Boating Regulations are restrictions placed on boating activities to promote safety for boaters and the natural environment, and can include mooring buoys, registration and licensing, and speed limits. Contact Uses, such as biological additions, physical damage, and biological harvesting, are activities in which humans create pressures through direct contact with the ecosystem. Cultural policies are responses that impact the distribution and functioning of cultural sectors, including tourism, recreation, education, and social organization. Cultural services are the nonmaterial benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, recreational opportunities, aesthetic experiences, sense of place, and educational and research opportunities. Culture sectors contribute to the social, emotional, and intellectual well-being of the community. Designated uses are a state's concise statements of its management objectives and expectations for each of the individual surface waters under its jurisdiction. The Dive, Snorkeling, and Swimming Tourism sector includes businesses that provide equipment, instruction, and location to allow tourists to swim, snorkel, and SCUBA dive. Ecosystem services are the benefits people obtain from ecosystems . Environmental education refers to organized efforts to teach about how natural environments function and, particularly, how human beings can manage their behavior and ecosystems in order to live sustainably. Infrastructural sectors provide the physical, organizational, and technical support for the economy to function, including construction, utilities, transportation, finance, manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, and technical services. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are Any area of the marine environment that has been reserved by federal, state, tribal, territorial, or local laws or regulations to provide lasting protection for part or all of the natural and cultural resources therein. The Reef Ecosystem includes a suite of abiotic variables that form the physical and chemical environment. Physical Damage to reef habitat and wetlands can occur from vessel groundings, dredging, trampling, boat movement, anchor drops, trawling, and fishing gear. Waterborne point source discharges are pollution from a discernible, confined conveyance, such as a pipe, vehicle, ship, or animal feeding operation that directly enter the aquatic environment into streams or direct discharge into coastal waters. Pressures are human activities that create stress on the environment. Provisioning services are the products or ecosystem goods obtained from ecosystems, including seafood, genetic and biochemical resources, pharmaceuticals, ornamental resources, and water resources. Aesthetic & recreational value pertains to the value derived from the visual beauty and recreational opportunities provided by a natural ecosystem, including an assemblage of diverse, healthy, colorful, or unique species. The state of the Reef Ecosystem is the condition, in terms of quantity and quality, of the abiotic and biotic components including physical, chemical, and biological variables. Reef Life is the abundance, distribution, and condition of the biological components of the coral reef ecosystem. Regulating Services are benefits obtained from ecosystem processes that regulate the environment, including erosion regulation, natural hazard regulation, and climate regulation. Resource use management pertains to responses to regulate or limit contact activities that may directly impact coastal species through harvesting or physical damage. Responses are actions taken by groups or individuals in society and government to prevent, compensate, ameliorate or adapt to changes in Ecosystem Services or their perceived value. Shoreline Protection is the attenuation of wave energy by reefs that protects coastal communities against shoreline erosion and flooding during storms, hurricanes, and tsunamis that can cause property damage and loss of life. Socio-Economic Drivers include the sectors that fulfill human needs for Food & Raw Materials, Water, Shelter, Health, Culture, and Security, and the Infrastructure that supports the sectors. Sunscreen is a lotion, spray, gel or other topical product that absorbs or reflects some of the sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation on the skin exposed to sunlight and thus helps protect against sunburn.. Supplemental feeding occurs when humans supply wild animals (e.g., fish, dolphins, etc.) with food, such as bread crumbs, to attract them and alter their behavior. Tourism & Recreation sectors operate facilities and provide services for the varied cultural, entertainment, and recreational interests of residents and tourists. Tourism and recreation policies can be use to control the distribution and intensity of recreational activities such as through advertising, incentives, or visitors centers. Trampling occurs when humans walk on, kick, bump into, or touch corals. Water resources reflect the quality and quantity of seawater available for human use, including swimming, navigation, and other uses. Water Transportation pertains to all transportation of people and goods via waterways. Waterborne discharges include direct and indirect discharges of pollutants into the aquatic environment, including chemicals, nutrients, sediment, and pathogens.

CMap Description

Dive, snorkeling, & swimming tourism and recreational activities may create pressures on the reef ecosystem through activities that cause physical damage to reef species, including walking on reef habitat or improper use of small boats that can lead to groundings, anchor damage, or resuspension of sediment. People may alter the behavior of fish through supplemental feeding, or release chemicals into the water, such as through wash off of suntan oil, although effects on reef species are likely minimal. Dive, snorkeling, & swimming tourism sectors directly benefit from many ecosystem services, including the aesthetic & recreational value provided by a diverse and healthy coral reef, clean and calm water for swimming, and formation of beaches and land from the calcium carbonate skeletons of coral and other species. Decision-makers can enact policies to increase tourism, alter the location or intensity of recreational activities, or educate the public to modify their behavior.

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