[Coral-List] First survey results

Christopher Hawkins chwkins at yahoo.com
Fri Jan 20 13:57:11 EST 2012


Hello all-
 
When we conducted a broad and encompassing survey of Florida Keys divers and snorkelers a few years ago for the Florida Reef Resilience Program, we found that in general:
 
Most respondents would recommend or strongly reccomend that a friend visit the same reef they had most recently visited (mean = 4.35, 1-5 scale)
 
Most respondents would return to the reef they had most recently visited (mean = 4.69)
 
With one exception, means were all in the 3+ range for satisfaction with various coral reef attributes (e.g., "seeing a healthy reef")
 
The mean aggregated response for the question asking respondents to rate the current ecological condition of coral reefs in the Florida Key was lower (between fair and good, more towards fair - mean = 2.20) 
 
These are general results; we also asked about levels of diver specialization and results can be interpreted according to specialization level (i.e. more highly specialized divers should differ in the perceptions, etc. than those with less experience).  Sample size was almost 1,600 combined divers + snorkelers.  Much effort was made to survey by season (we were in the field every three weeks for 13 months), by region (lower Keys, middle Keys, upper Keys), and by reef area (patch reefs, bank barrier reefs, etc).
 
The PIs have since moved to the East Carolina University and the University of Hawaii, but the reports can be still be accessed here:
 
http://www.umass.edu/hd/research/FRRP.html
 
Best,
Chris
  

--- On Fri, 1/20/12, Barbara Kojis <bkojis at hotmail.com> wrote:


From: Barbara Kojis <bkojis at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] First survey results
To: helder.perez at gmail.com, bastiaan.vermonden at gmail.com
Cc: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Date: Friday, January 20, 2012, 12:05 PM



Note that the survey concentrated on presence of specific fish families, large fish and turtles.  There were no questions about the condition of the coral, gorgonians, etc. on the reef.  The status of coral diversity and abundance does not affect the presence or abundance of most reef fish species.  Fish generally require structured habitat and their presence and abundance does not decrease if the coral declines as long as the habitat structure remains.  So while someone may respond that the dive site is overall "good" because fish are still present in reasonable numbers and diversity, if asked about the state of the reefs themselves they may have a different response. Barbara

Dr. Barbara Kojis 
St. Thomas, USVI 00803 

> Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:53:51 -0600
> From: helder.perez at gmail.com
> To: bastiaan.vermonden at gmail.com
> CC: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] First survey results
> 
> Interesting results, Bastiaan. Do most of the diving destinations fall in
> one or two regions or do you think they represent well enough the coral
> reefs around the world?
> 
> 
> Helder I. Pérez
> 
> 
> On 20 January 2012 04:27, Bastiaan Vermonden
> <bastiaan.vermonden at gmail.com>wrote:
> 
> > Dear coral listers,
> >
> > First I would like to thank all the coral listers who (already) contributed
> > a survey, thank you! Right now I have 115 surveys. I was wondering whether
> > some people might be interested in the inititial results. If you send me an
> > email I will be happy to provide the data I have right now.
> >
> > One interesting result I found is that while we talk about the coral reef
> > crisis nearly all divers still consider the diving destinations in good
> > shape. On a range of 1 to 5 with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best the
> > average rating divers gave for diving destinations was 4.28. Of course the
> > survey data is not random and it could be that right now I am attracting
> > the biggest optimists but I still think it raises some interesting
> > questions. Also not every destination had coral reefs but definitely the
> > majority.
> >
> > If you would still like to contribute a survey or you know someone who
> > would like to then you can find my survey here.
> >
> >
> > https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFVTMENIbWhSanNxRVJQaS1vSUgxbXc6MQ
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Bastiaan Vermonden
> > _______________________________________________
> > Coral-List mailing list
> > Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
> >
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