Crowding norms in marine settings: A case study of snorkeling on the GreatBarrier Reef

Research on crowding in natural environments has traditionally been concern ed with encounters in terrestrial settings. Increased visitation to tropica l marine environments, however, has meant that evaluations of aesthetic qua lity are increasingly becoming issues for managers of marine parks. in this study, we used image-capture techniques to develop a series of above- and below-water images depicting different numbers of people snorkeling in a co ral reef setting. The presence of safety facilities in the above-water sett ings was manipulated to examine the influence of human-made structures on p erception of crowding, Four respondent groups-a scuba-diving club, focal re sidents, tourists, and US university students-representing different levels of experience in marine recreation on the Great Barrier Reef, were asked t o late the acceptability of each image. Ratings were significantly influenc ed by the number of people in the images, the prior experience and gender o f the respondents, and the presence of safety infrastructure. Experienced s cuba divers preferred scenes without people or infrastructure, while novice s regarded the presence of both as more acceptable. The results suggest tha t evaluations df social density and crowding may vary between below-water s cenes and the more familiar above-water setting. A tack of concordance betw een how respondents rated the images and their nominated preferences for th e number of other people in the settings highlights a need for more researc h on how perceptions of resource conditions should be measured-in marine en vironments.