Background
The Situation
Recreational boaters are a large, diverse population of ocean users and, as we learned during development of the MA Ocean Plan 1.0, more needs to be understood about their use patterns. Their activity (e.g. cruising or recreational fishing) varies widely over time, location and type of craft (e.g. sail or motor boating). Their economic impact is substantial and presumably dispersed over a wide geographic region. And, since significant potential conflicts exist with emerging ocean uses, effective ocean resource management requires comprehensive and detailed boater data to make informed siting decisions.
The Project
This study assesses the characteristics of recreational boating in Massachusetts and adjacent waters. Resultant temporal, spatial and economic data gathered through this study will supplement previous information collected on recreational boating and will be used by resource managers, the boating industry and others to reduce resource/use conflicts, improve business planning and assist in the decision making process for permitting emerging uses such as wind farms and aquaculture operations.
Role in Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning
Recreational boating data is used in marine spatial planning to inform economic valuations, cumulative human-use impact analyses and ecosystem services tradeoff modeling. Results from this study will be incorporated in Massachusetts Ocean Plan updates and likely inform future Plan revisions.
Challenges & Applications
The survey and analysis methodology has wide applicability to boater recreation in many regions of the United States, and is generally applicable to other vessel-based activities, such as commercial fishing, and other recreational activities. Furthermore, the open-source online mapping tool used to gather spatial human use information could be adapted for use in other recreational boating studies or research efforts.
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Knowing where and when people boat, the activities they engage in and the economic value this generates helps resource managers and businesses reduce use conflicts while improving the quality of this socially and economically significant recreational activity. |
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Marine Consulting Services |
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