Engaging recreational scuba divers in marine citizen science: Differences according to popularity of the diving area

Abstract

Abstract Characterizing the composition of divers visiting different diving areas could help to design marine citizen science (MCS) projects that support biodiversity monitoring and marine conservation. Recreational scuba divers mostly prefer warm and clear waters with coral reefs, and based on the Duffus and Dearden’s wildlife tourism framework we hypothesized that a more popular diving area is visited mostly by generalist divers, whereas in a less popular diving area a higher proportion of specialist divers would be found. Recreational scuba divers were surveyed in diving centres at two diving areas, Rapa Nui (more popular, with warm and clear coral‐reef waters) and the Chilean mainland (less popular, with productive and temperate–cold waters), to determine their diving profile, visiting profile, marine species knowledge, and interest and participation in MCS. Support for our hypothesis (generalist divers on Rapa Nui and specialist divers on the mainland) was weak, but recreational divers on Rapa Nui were mostly foreign visitors who come for single visits, whereas divers from the mainland were predominantly Chileans who return repeatedly to the diving area. In both diving areas the divers expressed a strong interest to be trained and to participate in MCS, but divers from Rapa Nui were interested in brief pre‐dive inductions, whereas divers from the Chilean mainland preferred intensive training courses. Based on these findings we recommend specific MCS strategies for divers in both types of areas, e.g. simple protocols in more popular diving areas, with short pre‐dive briefings for divers, and medium or long‐term programmes in areas where most divers are local with high return rates. In these latter conditions more extensive training will be useful, which allows divers to gain more experience and assume higher responsibilities within an MCS project.