For management of a relatively enclosed area, long-term boat counts are less useful than knowledge of the resident, or universe, population in the area. Many management policies for maintenance dredging, such as uniform dredging to an arbitrary depth, is based on the perception that the long-term averages of the boats passing through that area fit those characteristics. This can be a completely unsuitable policy for cases where the long-term averages don't apply. Antonini and Box (1996) found that this arbitrary depth policy, in this case dredging all canals to a depth of five feet, was inappropriate for many channels. In that case, knowledge of all of the boats resident in source areas, hence the needs of all boats that would feasibly use that channel, was known. In many cases, the entrance channel to a trafficshed had a controlling depth of three feet, but none of the boats resident in the area had greater than a three foot draft; in such a case maintenance dredging to five feet would be wasteful at best.
By the same token, knowledge of the universe population of boats moored in Sarasota Bay is also more useful than knowledge of specific paths taken by particular boats. When such information is available, effective planning based on the needs of the current population is possible. When such information is not available, counts of boats along key waterways can be a reasonable substitute, provided that they are sufficiently long term efforts to be useful.