Can Artificial Reef Wrecks Reduce Diver Impacts on Shipwrecks? The Management Dimension

Abstract

Managers have been advocating the use of artificial reef wrecks to diversify the experiences of recreational divers and thereby reduce the well-known impact on reefs. To examine whether artificial reef wrecks can serve as substitutes for historic shipwrecks this paper discusses the attitude of Australian divers to wreck diving in general and to artificial reef wrecks in particular. While the overwhelming majority of divers surveyed accepted the need for control, the experienced divers were less interested in artificial reef wrecks and less prepared to tolerate controls over their perceived freedom to dive wrecks. We present projections that show that this legacy issue will have largely resolved itself by 2025 due to attrition and natural ageing.

Diving Deeper into Wreck Diver Motivations and Attitudes

“…Notably, preventing access to sites was not supported, suggesting that while there is in principle support for the protection of sites, divers want access. These findings are consistent with the Australian and Chuuk studies [17][18][19][20][21]. Other notable findings were that two controls commonly used to manage diver underwater behavior, i.e., the use of guides and pre-dive briefings, received low levels of support.…”

“…Until recently, the literature only contained one example of research specific to wreck divers, Holecek and Lothrop's [15,16] study, which examined the demographics, behavior, expenditure patterns and attitudes towards government regulation of underwater resources of wreck divers in the Great Lakes region of the United States. This study found a predominance of young people (63% aged [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] and males (86%), with high levels of income. Observing wrecks was overwhelmingly the most important activity to these divers (85%), followed by "treasure/trophy" (30%), photography (27%), and research (19%).…”

“…Other more recent studies of wreck divers are Edney's [17] study of wreck divers at Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia (survey administered in 2009), and Edney's study of Australian wreck divers (survey administered in 2010), reported in Edney [18,19] and Edney and Spennemann [20,21]. Both studies focused on wreck diver demographics and dive experience, motivations for wreck diving, and wreck diver attitudes to a range of management controls commonly used to manage diver impacts to shipwrecks.…”

Recreational Diving and Its Effects on the Macroalgal Communities of the Unintentional Artificial Reef Zenobia Shipwreck (Cyprus)

“…According to Kirkbride-Smith et al [83], among the different type of artificial reefs, shipwrecks and sunken vessels are preferred compared to other artificial shapes, such as tyres, concrete modules, break walls, piers, and platforms. Nevertheless, they remark the strong difference in the preference of diving sites between new and experienced divers: while the first ones prefer to dive on artificial reefs than natural substrates, experienced divers prefer to dive on natural reefs [83,84]. According to Kirkbride-Stolk et al [85] and Jakšić et al [86], the issue related to negative effect of recreational activities does not concern the tourism itself but tourists' responsibility and awareness which are at the basis of long-term effects and consequences.…”

Detecting Square Markers in Underwater Environments

“…Their remains are recovered to understand the culture of the sailors or learn about the history of the sites [1]. During last few decades, people started diving to experience an underwater view of these sites in such high numbers, that old ships were intentionally sunk to become artificial shipwrecks for tourists, to protect natural underwater sites [2].…”