New research shows the value of the blue economy
In June, when I was in the Keys, the reefs were in rough shape. It had been a while since I had been down there, at least a decade, and I was surprised.
For the story I did for NPR, I learned they are 97% damaged. But the one strength of the Florida Keys, as I learned in a conversation with my friend Alex Brylske, is the ocean life. Even though the reefs looked sad, there were plenty of fish.
“Our saving grace, and you alluded to it, is we still have a lot of fish,” Brylske said. “We have a relatively well managed fishery. We don't eat parrot fish anyway. And so you one of the things about the keys that, in a positive sense, that's unique, is we do have really good parrotfish populations.”
Parrotfish clean the algae that grows on corals keeping them relatively healthy. The problem facing the Keys, and about 50% of the corals worldwide, is ocean acidification and ocean temperatures.
I was just reading a story about new research that has just been released showing the recreational scuba diving industry is worth up to $20 billion a year world-wide. That includes diving, but it also includes travel and lodging which makes up several times more than the diving itself.
The story, on the Scripps Institute of Oceanography website, has this quote from the study author.
“Scuba diving is pretty unique because it makes you spend time underwater,” said Fabio Favoretto, who co-authored the study as coordinator of Atlas Aquatica and as a postdoctoral researcher at Scripps. “You can sail or surf above a dead ocean, but scuba divers notice if there are no fish — it’s really an activity that is dependent on the health of the system. That’s a positive for conservation because it makes divers allies.”
I’ve always said, when I started writing my novels, I wanted to turn my readers into divers, or at least expose them to the beauty of the ocean. I’ve prided myself on making the diving scenes as realistic as possible. I never wanted my main character Mike Scott to be doing ridiculous things in the water. My diver friends know what I’m talking about.
Here’s another tidbit from the research.
Scuba divers’ preference for marine protected areas (MPAs) is also supported by data showing that roughly 70% of all marine dives currently occur within MPAs.
MPAs are essentially national parks in the ocean. Fishing is either limited or not allowed at all. Every time one is proposed, the local fishing community gets up in arms. But then, a couple years later, their catch has improved outside the MPA and they are doing better. Often, those fishing captains start running dive boats and make as much, if not more, money with less work.
All of this points to the strength of the blue economy. Protecting the ocean, especially the parts that aren’t resources to be extracted, makes good financial sense.
One last note from the article, roughly 80% of the people working in those services (diving, hotels, bars, restaurants) are local. I can think of a few places where the dive guides are from outside, but even that is slowly changing.
Still that is a huge multiplier for local economies. Which is why this research is so important. Protecting the ocean, supporting reefs and marine life, is good for business.
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