EFFECT OF BRIEFINGS ON RATES OF DAMAGE TO CORALS BY SCUBA-DIVERS

Observations were carried out in the Pas Mohammed National Park (Sharm el Sheikh, Sinai, Egypt) both to determine the rates of damage to cor als by SCUBA divers and to assess the effectiveness of environmental e ducation in reducing these. A single environmental awareness briefing reduced the rate of divers' contact with reef substrates from 1.4 to 0 .4 contacts per diver per 7 min observation period. At the same time, the proportion of contacts that were voluntary, and so mainly directed at non-living substrate, increased to 63.8%. As a result, the rates o f contact with living corals (as opposed to nonliving substrates) decr eased from 0.9 to 0.15 instances per diver per 7 min. This rate of con tact prior to briefings is estimated to correspond to c. 500 potention ally damaging contacts per day at the most heavily used dive sites, eq uivalent to c. 15 incidents m(-2) year(-1). Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevie r Science Limited