Underwater Impact and Intention–Behaviour Gap of Scuba Divers on Coral Communities in Hong Kong SAR, China

Abstract

Recreational diving, under the continual growth of the scuba diving industry, may escalate coral reef damage as one of the substantial anthropogenic impacts and is of pressing concern. Besides unregulated and excessive diving activities, accidental contact with corals by inexperienced divers can cause recurring physical damage and heighten the pressure on coral communities. Understanding the ecological impacts of underwater contact with marine biota will thus be crucial to develop more sustainable scuba diving practices in Hong Kong. To probe the scuba diving impacts of divers’ contact with coral communities, WWF-Hong Kong started a citizen science monitoring programme and invited 52 advanced divers to conduct direct underwater observations. Questionnaires were also developed to examine and address the research gap between the associated attitudes and the perceived contact rate of divers. Results from analysing the underwater behaviours of 102 recreational divers showed inconsistent perceived and actual contact rates. It was revealed that recreational divers might often overlook the ecological effects of their activities underwater on coral communities. The questionnaire findings will be utilised to improve the framework of the dive-training programmes and enhance divers’ awareness to minimise their influence on the marine environment.

Anti-Corruption Education Policy Outputs for Combatting Corruption in Indonesia: Applying the Theory of Planned Behaviour

“…As a result, not all differences that occur in behaviour are explained by intentions (Conner & Norman, 2022). Existing literature labels this phenomenon as the intention-behaviour gap (Conner & Norman, 2022;Faries, 2016;So et al, 2023). This study's results strengthen the existing literature's findings that PBC significantly affects behaviour intention (Ajzen, 2015;Soorani & Ahmadvand, 2019;Troise et al, 2020).…”

Exploring the Role of Determinants Affecting Responsible Underwater Behaviour of Marine-Based Tourists

“…In addition, the present study mainly used a questionnaire to assess the impact of proposed variables on divers' responsible diving behaviours, which may not function objectively in response to discovering changes in divers' diving behaviours. However, previous studies have assessed divers' responsible underwater behaviour using interviews and underwater observation methodologies, yielding significant study findings across many research sites [5,8,18,23]. As a result, future studies may apply quantitative and qualitative methods to achieve a complementary scientific analytical approach to thoroughly examine the elements associated with impacting divers' responsible underwater behaviour in Hong Kong.…”

“…In particular, a study conducted by Chung, Au and Qiu [18] using divers' diving experience and demographic attributes to understand divers' diving behaviour in Hong Kong was based on the direct observation method with a sample size of just 81 recreational divers. Likewise, the latest study by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) examined the responsible diving behaviour of local divers in Hong Kong, which is more focused on direct observation through a citizen science approach to collect the research data [23]. In addition to the difference in methodology design, little has been reported in examining a structured relationship between divers' diving experience and their responsible diving behaviour utilising diving attitude as a mediator in studying Chinese scuba divers in Hong Kong.…”