[Coral-List] access limitation for yatching

[Observatoire du Milieu Marin Martiniquais]

Hello all,

A new issue recently rose up in Martinique.
We have several popular bays for yatching. Consequently, most of seagrass
beds are damaged by anchors and regarding the tremendous degradation of
benthic communites in those area, we also highly suspect a bacterial and
organic pollution (although we never sampled in this area).
The idea of setting up an anchoring regulation in order to limit
boats'access in those areas is slowly taking shape and we're thinking about
installing buoys to avoid physical damages. Futhermore, a limitating number
of those would also allow to reduce pollution. And here come my question: I
presume some of you already have had that thinking or even had to regulate
yatching pressure  by a limitating access. What methods  did you use to
evaluate the number of buoys  to install (evaluation of carrying
?.........). I would appreciated any information.

regards,

Sophie Brugneaux
Marine Environment Observatory of Martinique
7 avenue Condorcet
97200 Fort de France
Martinique (French West Indies)
ommm at wanadoo.fr