Engaging recreational scuba divers in marine citizen science: Differences according to popularity of the diving area

Abstract

1. Characterizing the composition of divers visiting different diving areas could help to design marine citizen science (MCS) projects that support biodiversity monitoring and marine conservation. 2. Recreational scuba divers mostly prefer warm and clear waters with coral reefs, and based on the Duffus and Dearden's wildlife tourism framework we hypothesized that a more popular diving area is visited mostly by generalist divers, whereas in a less popular diving area a higher proportion of specialist divers would be found. 3. Recreational scuba divers were surveyed in diving centres at two diving areas, Rapa Nui (more popular, with warm and clear coral-reef waters) and the Chilean mainland (less popular, with productive and temperate-cold waters), to determine their diving profile, visiting profile, marine species knowledge, and interest and participation in MCS. 4. Support for our hypothesis (generalist divers on Rapa Nui and specialist divers on the mainland) was weak, but recreational divers on Rapa Nui were mostly foreign visitors who come for single visits, whereas divers from the mainland were predominantly Chileans who return repeatedly to the diving area. In both diving areas the divers expressed a strong interest to be trained and to participate in MCS, but divers from Rapa Nui were interested in brief pre-dive inductions, whereas divers from the Chilean mainland preferred intensive training courses. 5. Based on these findings we recommend specific MCS strategies for divers in both types of areas, e.g. simple protocols in more popular diving areas, with short pre-dive briefings for divers, and medium or long-term programmes in areas where most divers are local with high return rates. In these latter conditions more extensive training will be useful, which allows divers to gain more experience and assume higher responsibilities within an MCS project.

Ocean Literacy and Surfing: Understanding How Interactions in Coastal Ecosystems Inform Blue Space User’s Awareness of the Ocean

“…Instead, a sample size of 249 reduces the confidence interval to 6.21% and a confidence level of 93.79%. The sample is considered sufficient as statistical researchers work with a confidence level of 90% and above [ 50 ] (p. 168).…”

Restorative practices, marine ecotourism, and restoration economies: revitalizing the environmental agenda?

“…Although marine restoration efforts are commonly more costly and marine ecosystems pose the added technological and logistical challenges of operating underwater (Bayraktarov et al 2016) and are affected by the "out of sight, out of mind" syndrome (Raffaelli et al 2005, Riera et al 2014, they promise to have similar effects and to bring restoration economies much closer to marine tourism hotspots. Alongside efforts in conservation areas, volunteer and conservation tourism initiatives have become increasingly popular among marine and coastal tourism operators, especially in the SCUBA diving industry through citizen science (CS; e.g., Cerrano et al 2017, Hesley et al 2017, Hermoso et al 2021. A key challenge in supporting and extending these initiatives is to develop strategies and institutional arrangements that coordinate efforts across diverse actors, from marine scientists to government officials, community members, and tourism businesses (Borja et al 2022).…”

“…Although the reliability of tasks performed and data collected by non-specialist volunteers has been questioned (Greenwood 1994), many studies highlight the potential of CS projects to fund scientific activities through voluntary labor, socialization of environmental knowledge, and scaling-up conservation/ restoration effort, especially when volunteers are guided by experts (e.g., Foster-Smith and Evans 2003, Cerrano et al 2017, Howlett et al 2022. The incorporation of conservation initiatives into ecotourism is being seen as a space ripe for developing CS in marine areas (e.g., Cerrano et al 2017, Hermoso et al 2021). Yet realizing its potential value to generate restorative outcomes or new marine tourism experiences remains largely untapped by operators, scientists, and development agencies alike (Schaffer and Tham 2020).…”

Making a place special—The development of Restorative Marine Ecotourism at a dive destination village

“…Marine ecosystem restoration poses additional challenges due to underwater operations (Raffaelli et al, 2005), higher costs (Bayraktarov et al, 2016), and the "out of sight, out of mind" syndrome affecting many elements of society when it comes to marine threats and challenges (Riera et al, 2014). Ecotourism operators and staff can contribute to longitudinal research and conservation planning, maintain continuity in conservation projects, and offer important interpretative experiences (Cerrano et al, 2017;Ward-Paige et al, 2020;Hermoso et al, 2021). Importantly, when restorative actions come from stakeholders that directly benefit from the restored marine environments, this can also lead to social-economic benefits.…”