Spatio-temporal Patterns of Recreational Boating Use in a Caribbean Marine Protected Area

Abstract

Abstract Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) defined by The International Union for Conservation of Nature as areas of Ocean set aside for long-term conservation aims are a growing management resource in the world. But their expansion along with the rising population and growing access to goods and services means the number of users within MPAs is increasing. With more people using MPAs, new impacts and pressures are being introduced to marine ecosystems. An important pressure is that of recreational boating which can incur chemical and mechanical impacts to the marine environment. In this study, we focused on describing the spatial and temporal patterns of recreational boating within La Parguera Natural Reserve, an MPA in the Caribbean Island of Puerto Rico. In addition, we calculated the optimal boating use and calculated percentage of use at peak usage. We determined the optimal number of boats for 6 cays in the reserve and found most of the cays (Caracoles, Mata la Gata, Enrique and Collado) are being subjected to a high intensity of use, experiencing up to 857% of their optimal capacity during peak usage. These findings underscore the urgency of implementing management measures to minimize the environmental impacts of recreational boating while still allowing for sustainable social use within the system.