Green Guide to the Cayman Islands 3: Sustaining our ocean and islands

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Fishers perceptions of ecosystem service change associated with climate-disturbed coral reefs

Understanding ecosystem service change necessitates an understanding of the social and ecological dimensions of ecosystem services and how they contribute to the well-being of different people. These empirical research gaps persist across the tropics and in coastal environments, posing a challenge for small island states that depend on ecosystem services associated with near-shore ecosystems like coral reefs. Perception-based approaches allow for a rapid appraisal of what constitutes ecosystem service change, providing insights into why these changes matter, and how experiences of change differ between individuals. To capture perceptions of change in four ecosystem services associated with coral reefs (habitat, fishery, coastal protection and recreation services), we conducted 41 semi-structured interviews with coral reef fishers from Seychelles, where reef ecosystems have been severely impacted by climate disturbance. We gathered quantitative and qualitative data to understand (a) if and what changes in reef-associated ecosystem services have been perceived; (b) if fishers’ characteristics are associated with differences in perceived changes and (c) which changes matter most in fishers’ lives. Using a three-dimensional approach to well-being, we sought to identify whether reasons behind the importance of change connect to fishers’ well-being. There have been noticeable changes across all four ecosystem services investigated. Changes include social, ecological and behavioural dynamics. Every fisher perceived at least one ecosystem service change but fishers who dive/snorkel or work from larger boats perceived a higher number of ecosystem services to have changed. Education, age and participation in snorkelling/diving were associated with fishers who identified changing habitat services as most important, whereas fishers from families with fewer livelihood alternatives and from smaller islands identified changing fishery services as most important. Different aspects of the subjective, relational and material dimensions of well-being were implicated in why changing services matter. Despite known ecological shifts in reef condition, this research is one of few studies to empirically show how changes across multiple ecosystem services are being perceived. These perceived changes are complex, engage both the social and ecological dimensions of services, and connect in multiple ways to how fishers feel about their lives, their relationships and material well-being. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article

Diving with Donna Haraway and the Promise of a Blue Planet

It has been two decades since Haraway spoke about the ‘promise of monsters’, and seventy years since a novel kind of sea monster was created through the Aqua-Lung, giving ‘underwater worlds’ better access to humans. By revisiting and examining the combinatory effects of these historical moments, this paper illustrates the ‘promise of scuba divers’ who are somewhat monstrous in their potential to disturb common ideas about being human and life on land. In exchanging ‘sacred ground’ for submersion beneath the sea, scuba diving redefines the limits of human experience and emphasises the historical and largely forgotten primacy of land-based coordinates in theorising human life. Under the sea, these coordinates are vastly altered so that even preconscious markers, like breathing, are transformed through a circuitry that includes humans, science, technology, and nature in a ‘body-incorporate’. ‘Immersion’ becomes a threshold beyond which humans and nature, society and space are discovered anew in the reversal of the significance of territory to planetary life

\u27Take a deep breath’: how recreational SCUBA divers negotiate in-water constraints

A significant body of work now exists on what constrains people\u27s leisure. While early theorizations of constraints focused on what prevented individuals from participating in leisure, the literature has expanded to include discussions on how constraints may be negotiated, overcome or substituted. This article explores constraints negotiation in the context of adventurous leisure. This study considers how leisure constraints are negotiated in the in-situ experience of recreational scuba diving. In-depth interviews were conducted with 27 recreational divers. Analysis revealed three interrelated negotiation strategies used to deal with in-situ constraints, namely consolidate, co-operate, or cancel. These negotiation techniques were influenced by factors including divers\u27 histories, perceptions of the severity of the constraint and in-water experience. Findings support the recognition of in-situ constraints negotiation in adventurous leisure. Results highlight the need to reflect on how individuals negotiate constraints during leisure, particularly in difficult environments which can present unpredictable and dangerous risks