Recreational Boat Traffic Pressure

One result of the population boom in coastal Florida has been the establishment of a large population that has both disposable wealth and ample free time. Concurrent with this population growth has been technological advances in materials and techniques that make boats affordable to hundreds of thousands of people. The combination of these two factors have resulted in recreational boats using Florida's waterways in numbers that have never been seen before. There has been a 100% increase in the number of registered recreational boats nationwide between 1973 and 1989, and a 300% increase in the southwest Florida coastal counties in this time (Antonini and Box, 1996).

There is still much debate about what impacts recreational boats have on their environments when they are used for various recreational activities. Some, such as scarring of seagrass by motorboats, are obvious and readily quantifiable (Folit and Morris, 1992). Others, such as emissions of oils in the water or wake damage to sensitive shore habitat are well documented (Bradbury et al., 1995; Bromhead and Beckwith, 1994; Milleman, 1990; Pygot, 1987); these can be objectively extrapolated if information such as the location, speed, and size of the boat are known (Bhowmik et al., 1990; Pygot, 1987). Other impacts, such as noise or invasiveness to shore residents are subjective but still very real and inevitably will contribute to any attempt to manage recreational boat traffic (Antonini and Sidman, 1994; Sidman, 1996). While factors such as these can be identified, the severity and need for consideration of each factor will be different according to who is asked (Antonini and Box, 1996).

Recreational boating impacts the environment, though the exact nature of these impacts are debated. These impacts are a result of the boats' presence and activities. To manage resources affected by recreational boat traffic, some basic information is needed about their location and activities. As the coastal population grows and shore development increases, the boating environment will become more crowded. Impacts that were previously considered negligible will become larger issues as competition for scarce coastal resources increases.

Regulation of boating activities is inevitable as competition leads to use conflicts. Regardless of what activities are regulated, who takes responsibility for this regulation, and what method is used for regulation, some basic information will be required if the resource is to be managed effectively. These include:

1.

number and location of boats

2.

types of activities

3.

how these activities affect resources

Information can be obtained on the first two items by monitoring boat traffic. Without this information, it is very likely that regulation would be imposed by arbitrary criteria.