1998 Year of the Ocean Coastal Tourism and Recreation 



Commercial cruises to observe and "feed wild dolphins" operating in such areas as Texas, South 

 Carolina, and Florida, were found to harm dolphins by making them reliant on accepting food 

 from humans and decreasing their ability to survive in the wild. Threats to the marine mammal 

 populations and to humans in these situations include: (1) substantially altering the natural 

 behavior of marine mammals, including foraging for food and migration, (2) the loss of wariness 

 by humans, which places the animals at increased risk of injury or death from interaction with 

 vessels, (3) animals receiving inappropriate or contaminated food, and (4) increased injuries to 

 humans as the habituated animals become predictably more aggressive when they lose their 

 wariness of humans and compete for handouts (NOAA/NMFS/OPR, 1994, 1995, and 1998). 



Management of Coastal Recreation Activities 



The last decade has seen a great increase in the nature and magnitude of coastal recreation 

 activities, which as has been shown, generate billions of dollars in economic activity. 

 Recreational uses of a consumptive nature include hunting, fishing, shellfishing, shell collection, 

 and the like, while non-consumptive uses include swimming, surfing, sun-bathing, boating, 

 wind-surfing, jet skiing, bird watching, snorkeling, diving, glass-bottom boating, and many 

 more. As coastal recreation activities have proliferated, the need for active management has 

 increased as well. 



At least three sets of concerns related to the management of coastal recreation activities 

 must be dealt with, namely, environmental/resource concerns, amenity concerns, and safety 

 concerns. Environmental/resource constraints include the maintenance of good water quality, and 

 habitats and living resources which are free of health hazards, and which have good air quality, 

 healthy coral reefs, healthy shellfish areas, etc. Amenity concerns include adequate controls on 

 congestion, noise, landscape degradation, and the like. Safety concerns include adequate 

 lifeguard systems, first aid facilities, telephones, codes of conduct for beach users, and notice 

 systems for beach and water hazards (such as jellyfish, underwater obstructions, etc.) and for 

 weather-related risks (such as high waves, undertows, dangerous currents, etc.). 



In most cases, the responsibility for meeting these concerns is divided between the beach 

 "owner" (often a local government or state government, but sometimes federal or private), resort 

 and/or recreation facility operators, and state environmental or health departments. In general, 

 nationwide standards for recreational beach operation do not exist, even with respect to beach 

 closings. This would appear to be an area where additional attention at the national level is 

 needed. 



A promising start in this area is a new program recently launched by the EPA and 

 designated the Beaches Environmental Assessment, Closure, and Health (BEACH) Program. 

 This program is designed to encourage government agencies at all levels to strengthen beach 

 water quality standards and testing methods using predictive water pollution models, to better 



F-17 



