I have already taken the survey and it is quite painless yet very interesting. It will ask us to talk about acceptable tradeoffs....such as dive areas allowing fewer divers in them in exchange for an education seminar or perhaps a higher fee.
Would anyone else like to participate? I think it would be a great opportunity for SingleDivers.com to help make a difference in the diving community! -ww
Ok here is the deal....
If you want to participate in this valuable study you will need to email Michael Sorice (michael.sorice@tamu.edu) with your mailing address and the survey will be mailed to you. (This is to ensure quality control in response measurements.)
You fill it out and mail it back to Michael Sorice, PhD candidate and principal investigator for this project. Upon completion of the study your contact informtion will be destroyed as per the requirements of Texas A&M.
A&M needs 100 more respondents and I think we can provide them that just from Single Divers alone! Please consider helping out! -Kamala aka Wreck Wench
Letter from Michael:
Little research has been done on SCUBA divers and their preferences for various management alternatives for protecting underwater resources like corals. As a result, managers often take action on their own and without input from the diving community.
I'm a Ph.D. candidate at Texas A&M University (USA) doing research on SCUBA diver preferences for coral reef management. We're looking for U.S. residents over 18 yrs. old and who have saltwater diving experience to participate.
Participation consists of filling out a questionnaire. It should take less than 15 minutes to complete. If you are interested in participating, please send your snail mail address in an email to michael.sorice@tamu.edu. This research is being conducted by Texas A&M University so any information you provide will be strictly confidential and used solely for the purpose of this project.
If you want to know more about the project, check out:
http://lutra.tamu.ed...atprefflyer.htm
This is your chance to provide reef managers with input from the SCUBA community!
Thanks for your help!
Mike
Michael Sorice
Texas A&M University
Department of Wildlife & Fisheries Sciences
Human Dimensions Lab
2258 TAMU
College Station, TX 77845-2258
Summary of the Study:
Understanding SCUBA Diver Preferences for Coral Reef Conservation
As an increasing number of SCUBA divers impact coral reef resources, managers are faced with the need to take action to reduce or eliminate the problem. The aim of this project is to help decision makers understand SCUBA diver preferences for protecting coral resources, how divers decide between management measures, and which combinations of management measures would have the most overall support in the sport diver community.
The study’s objectives are to (1) identify realistic management measures for protecting coral resources salient to SCUBA divers, (2) evaluate the relative importance of each measure to divers, (3) estimate the importance of options for each management measure, (4) estimate the aggregate importance of management scenarios based on various combinations of the management measures, and (5) examine the potential for applying this type of research in specific marine protected areas.
Traditional research designs for evaluating management preferences ask respondents to indicate the extent to which they prefer each individual management option. This can result in a lack of understanding of the relative importance of one attribute to another (i.e., how divers make tradeoffs) and as a result provides little insight to participants’ actual management preferences. Stated Preference conjoint models are based on the assumption that complex decisions are based not on one factor or criterion but on several factors considered jointly and make use of hypothetical scenarios to derive recreationists’ preferences.
This research project is being conducted using a community-based context. We have met with a group of stakeholders from the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) to better understand the potential SCUBA diving impacts on coral resources and the various management alternatives available for dealing with the impacts. From this, we identified salient issues and management techniques. Now, we are in the survey phase of this project.
Management of marine protected areas (MPAs) and coral reefs is moving toward a new paradigm in which the greatest challenges faced involve the management of people as well as resources. This will require a much greater understanding of users, their use of MPA resources, and their support for various management alternatives. An understanding of the relationship between people and MPAs is essential for both protecting resources in an unimpaired state for future generations and providing recreational opportunities for present generations.
This project is titled “Using Stated Preference Choice Experiments to Analyze SCUBA Diver Preferences for Coral Reef Conservation” and has been funded by the Coral Reef Management Program of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in Washington, D.C. with additional funding support from the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Texas A&M University System.
The project began on January 1, 2004 and will conclude on December 31, 2004. Dr. Robert B. Ditton (r-ditton@tamu.edu) is the Principal Investigator for this project and Michael Sorice (m-sorice@tamu.edu) is the Research Assistant. Both are affiliated with the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences at Texas A&M University, College Station, TX.
Edited by WreckWench, 07 June 2004 - 10:09 PM.
