Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong.
Environ Manage. 2013 Apr;51(4):824-37. doi: 10.1007/s00267-013-0023-y. Epub 2013 Mar 8.
Diving-related activities may constitute a major threat to coral reefs. This study aimed to quantify the impact of diving in Hong Kong on hard corals and understand how socio-economic characteristics and experience level of divers influence diver-inflicted damage. We recorded and analysed the underwater behaviour of 81 recreational divers. On average, a diver was in contact with marine biota 14.7 times with about 40% of contacts involved corals and 38% were damaging contacts with corals or other biota in a single dive. The most harm-inflicting groups included inexperienced and camera-carrying divers. Although Hong Kong divers did not make many damaging contacts with corals, there is still an imminent need to determine the scale of damage from diving activities on the marine ecosystem given the rapid development of marine-based tourism and the limited coral-inhabited areas in Hong Kong where the marine environment is already under stress from anthropogenic activities.
潜水相关活动可能对珊瑚礁构成重大威胁。本研究旨在量化香港潜水活动对硬珊瑚的影响，并了解潜水员的社会经济特征和经验水平如何影响潜水员造成的损害。我们记录和分析了 81 名休闲潜水员的水下行为。平均而言，潜水员每潜一次与海洋生物接触 14.7 次，约 40%的接触涉及珊瑚，38%的接触是对珊瑚或其他生物的破坏性接触。伤害最大的群体包括经验不足和携带相机的潜水员。尽管香港潜水员与珊瑚的破坏性接触并不多，但鉴于海洋旅游的快速发展以及香港珊瑚礁栖息区有限，海洋生态系统受到人为活动的压力已经很大，因此仍有必要确定潜水活动对海洋生态系统的破坏程度。
