Fishing, Diving and Other Uses Focus Area
The Fishing, Diving and Other Uses (FDOU) focus area was identified by the original SEFCRI Team in their 2004 Local Action Strategy (LAS) as one of the four main issues facing southeast Florida’s coral reefs. The focus of FDOU is to address the impacts caused by activities such as fishing, diving, and boating. Actions associated with these activities often result in unseen and unintended impacts that alter reef ecosystems. The FDOU focus area's primary purpose is to identify these impacts and assess how they affect marine organisms and their reef habitats. Projects were developed to address these impacts by focusing on five main issues: identifying the conservation ethics of different reef users; examining the direct and indirect impacts of fishing, diving and boating to the reef; determining the benefit and proper deployment of artificial reefs; and locating reliable funding sources that will assist future FDOU projects and goals.