Folks swimming and picnicking on eastern St. Croix beaches this summer may encounter researchers, clipboards in hand, asking them a lot of questions for a new socio-economic monitoring project for the St. Croix East End Marine Park.
"One of the objectives is to determine what types and the location of recreational activities that are taking place in the East End Marine Park," said study manager Kim Ishida of the V.I. Resource Conservation and Development Council.
"We want to find out what they are doing, where they are doing it, what amenities they are using or could they use … Second, we are trying to understand how residents perceive the (park) and its resources – natural habitats, wildlife and ocean."
Council members and employees will survey users at beaches from June through August, collecting socioeconomic data, along with questions pertaining to the use of park resources. The data collected will be analyzed by Ishida and other researchers and used to assess park users’ perceptions of the socioeconomic, cultural, and political landscape of St. Croix as it relates to the park.
The information will be used to help increase community support and engage the community in managing and protecting the park, according to the council.
“The most significant part of the project is learning how residents are using the East End Marine Park so that future management strategies can be tailored to complement and co-exist with these activities, rather than competing against them, Ishida said in the grant announcement. "If we can better understand how residents perceive the state of our marine resources and their relationship to them, we can more effectively engage them in resource protection.”
There are four people working on this project—two research assistants who are trained survey takers and will be collecting all the data; a communications expert; and Ishida, the project manager.
They will be surveying at Green Cay, Southgate, Chenay Bay, Candle Reef, Coakley Bay, Carden Beach, Solitude Bay, Romney Point, Point Udall, Isaac Bay, Jack Bay, Turner Hole, Divi, Rod Bay, Robin Bay, Camp Arawak and Great Pond.
NOAA is paying for the survey with a $16,000 grant from its Fisheries Habitat Conservation Program. The Ocean Conservancy began this project before leaving the territory in 2009. When they left, the project was incomplete, and NOAA has just recently been able to re-assign the funds, according to the council. The data is both for immediate use, making the park more valuable to residents, and for the beginnings of consistent, long-term data collection.
"This is the just the beginning of an effort to study and understand the social aspects of conservation, not just the biological and ecological," said Ishida. "NOAA is interested in continuing to conduct social science work in the USVI."
The council describes itself as an independent, locally-administered, nonprofit whose mission is to enhance the quality of life for the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands through the conservation of natural and cultural resources, and the stimulation of growth and development.
For additional information about the monitoring project, or about the council’s projects and programs, contact their office at (340) 692-6932 x5 or vircd@usvircd.org or visit their website at www.usvircd.org.
