[Coral-List] Question: Human Coral Reef Dependance in the U.S States & Territories

[Miguel G Figuerola Hernandez]

Dear Coral Listers,

I am a graduate student from the University of Puerto Rico working on coral
community ecology in La Parguera. Lately, I have been paying more and more
attention to socio-ecological dynamics and governance cycles that influence
management decision-making. For understanding this in developed world
societies, it is imperative to talk about corals by the numbers [as
dangerous as it might be].

It has been accepted that about 500 million humans depend [at different
levels] on coral reefs (Wilkinson, 2004). That is one of the most cited
facts in research proposal and paper introductions that aim to justify the
investment on coral reef projects.

However, teasing apart the *human dependency* *metric for the U.S States
and Territories* is something I'm interested to produce a fact sheet of
"CORALS BY THE NUMBERS" to improve communications with Congress and the
general public. This can help understand how resource allocations and
public engagement in coral reef conservation can be improved. It might
reveal an ugly truth due to the population density proportion in tropical
coastal areas to inland and subtropical/temperate coasts.

*Does anybody here can shed light on the approximated number of people in
the U.S State and Jurisdictions that actually depend [protein, tourism,
education, coastal protection, recreation, etc.] on coral reefs?*

I will keep looking for sources but if anyone here can point out specific
sources to focus my data mining that would be of great help.

Thanks!