Coastal Recreation Management

The sustainable development of maritime leisure

Tim Goodhead, Johnson

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781136741920
• Edition: 1

The maritime environment includes both the water resource of the terrestrial coast and estuarine and coastal inshore waters. This book, for undergraduate students and those training in the field, relates the need to manage water-based leisure activities with the need to manage the maritime environment on which they depend.

PART ONE

Concepts

Maritime Leisure		1

1.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter introduces the concept of maritime leisure, the historical development of water based leisure and current water sport participation patterns.

The maritime environment provides a rich resource for the pursuit of our leisure. No matter how active or passive the activity may be, recreational opportunities provided by coastal, estuary and inshore waters are increasing. Maritime leisure includes an expanding range of contrasting activities and local environments, such as surfing in Newquay, water skiing in a sheltered harbour, bird-watching on mud flats in a river estuary, building sandcastles on the beach at Skegness, racing round the world in a maxi yacht, learning to canoe in the Menai Straits, jet skiing in the London Docklands, diving off the South West Coast of Scotland, and just gazing at the sea from a clifftop static caravan in Devon.

A clear summary of the scope of coastal recreation is given by Laffoley (1991). He states that

Recreation can be divided into major infrastructural developments and into the individual sports and recreational pursuits. Major infrastructural developments can take the form of marinas, non marine moorings, dinghy and boat parks and leisure centres, complexes and piers. Sports and recreational pursuits can be divided into those that are predominantly aquatic based, those that occur on the inter tidal or terrestrial coastal fringe and those that are air based. Aquatic based recreation can be categorized into angling, bathing, canoeing, jet skiing, non commercial fishing other than angling, leisure barges, power boating, towing, sailboarding, sailing. SCUBA diving, snorkelling, surfing, tourist

Coastal Recreation Management Edited by Tim Goodhead and David Johnson. Published in 1996 by E & FN Spon, London. ISBN 0 419 20360 5

boat trips, water skiing and windsurfing. Terrestrial and inter tidal based recreation consists of all purpose terrain vehicles, bird watching, car sand racing, clay pigeon shooting, four wheel drive vehicles, golf courses, horse riding, hovercrafts, sand yachting, trail biking and walking. Air based recreation occurs in the form of overflying by hang gliders, microlights and light aircraft. Parascending may also occur.

Although it is impossible to estimate how many people visit the maritime environment as part of their leisure time what is obvious is that the numbers visiting and taking part in activities have increased greatly in recent years (O’Neil, 1993). Maritime leisure participation includes the activities of people who choose to spend their free time outdoors beside, in or on water. Throughout this book the focus is on the management of those who spend their time on the water actively pursuing a recreation or sport. We are more concerned by those who use some type of craft or vessel in a maritime environment and consequently less concerned with major leisure activities such as shorebased fishing, swimming and general beach activities. The emphasis is therefore on coastal watersports.

1.2 WATERSPORTS AS A LEISURE ACTIVITY

Between three and four million people are involved in watersports in the UK (Mintel, 1992). Watersports participation is a leisure activity that takes place on a daily basis from home, or as part of short breaks and longer holidays in Great Britain and abroad. Watersports may range from less active to more active, from non-competitive to competitive, from solitary to group activities, from casual to highly organized. The main motivation to undertake them may range from challenge and exhilaration to peace and solitude.

The watersports industry is diverse, widespread and fragmented. There is evidence of approximately 5000 companies catering for this market (Sells, 1993). The British Marine Industries Federation, the trade association for 75% of companies operating in the small-craft and watersport sector, claims that 35 000 craft were constructed in 1993 with a turnover of more than a billion pounds. Worldwide water-based recreation is big business. The export market is becoming increasingly significant to British boatbuilders with sales in the Middle and Far East in the mid 1990s (Tate, 1994).

There are obviously both positive and negative impacts of the growth of leisure in the maritime environment. The interface of leisure activities with the maritime environment is both ‘an enormously complex and powerful phenomenon’ and ‘ubiquitous and complicated’ (Miller and Ditton, 1986). This can be assessed by numbers of people involved, types and nature of activities, capital invested, the potential for conflict and the differential sensitivity of the resource itself. The benefits are usually assessed in economic terms. In addition to environmental problems, social systems can also be disrupted with evidence of increased crime, dislocation, racism and stratification in maritime communities.

Leisure is a prominent feature in people’s lives in industrialized countries (Henley, 1991). Rises in car ownership, increases in disposable income, demographic changes such as the decrease in family size, the changing role of women, increases in educational attainment, growth in leisure opportunity, choice and access, technological innovation and the influence of fashion, have all helped to popularize watersports over the latter half of the twentieth century.

Leisure is recognized as a right by most people in Britain. We have moved from a time when only a few had the chance to enjoy leisure, to a time when most of us have leisure opportunities, from a leisure class to a leisure society. Leisure used to be seen as the opposite of work but increasingly leisure and work are seen on a continuum. With higher unemployment, early retirement, longer life and greater leisure potential the work/leisure relationship is changing.

Leisure is important therefore in the rhythm of our lives. It is to do with activities, usually chosen for their own sake, and in relative freedom, and which bring intrinsic satisfactions. (Torkildsen, 1992)

Instinctively we are drawn to water whether it be ocean, lake or river. In Britain the earliest travel for pleasure was inspired by the desire to visit first inland spas and then the sea for medicinal purposes. Water has great value as a visual amenity. Urry (1990) has argued the need to travel today for pleasure is generated by a necessity to escape the pressures of everyday routine. Water has restorative qualities. Passive observation of the maritime environment in itself has been described as a fundamental tourism activity (Miller and Ditton, 1986).

As a nation we are also becoming more aware of health. This is due to more attention being paid to personal appearance and well-being, but also to the general ageing of the population. As people have more free time they will need to use less of it for rest and recovery and more of it for physical and mental activity. A specific trend has been an awareness of the need for quality use of leisure time – an active use of mind and body. There is increased understanding about different roles of leisure; for example the difference between consumerist, media-influenced and consumption-based leisure, and active, participative leisure. For quality leisure experiences people feel the need to gain expertise in activities. As there is more choice of leisure activities it may only be possible to become expert in a few of these activities – these experts or ‘leisure connoisseurs’ are becoming increasingly important to many markets. Many active activities lend themselves more to the ‘expert’ approach (Darton, 1986).

The most recent General Household Survey shows that nearly two-thirds of adults take part in at least one activity although gender, age, class and ethnic contrasts persist. Most popular of all are informal activities, especially outdoor, countryside, and individual as opposed to team-based sports.

According to the Sports Council,

The widespread popularity of these types of physical recreation supports the contention that there has been a divergence of trends between individual activity and group activity, reflecting broader trends towards a more personal type of leisure experience. (Sports Council, 1988)

Fastest growing are many of the newer, more adventurous and more glamorous countryside sports, and those associated with healthy lifestyles. Individuals will give more priority to outdoor sport and exercise due to their contribution towards personal and family health (Martin and Mason, 1993).

The range and diversity of leisure activities on the water are growing. Traditional favourites such as canoeing and sailing are being both challenged and complemented by a new generation of activities led by the windsurfer, but closely followed by a range of innovations, many of which depend on fuel rather than wind or human energy for propulsion (Chapter 7). Despite this it is important to recognize that coastal recreational management is concerned mainly with a small and specialized sector of the leisure market.

1.3 THE HISTORY OF WATER-BASED RECREATION

1.3.1 EARLY ORIGINS

The earliest types of craft were made from reeds, bark, logs, skins and then the ‘planked boat’ (McGrail, 1981). All over the world people using a variety of raw materials, methods and ingenuity have wanted to exploit the possibility for transport on water. It must be assumed that people have always pottered on the water, making use of whatever was available; the divide between work or survival, and play or leisure, must have always been blurred.

Until the Industrial Revolution there was no distinction between work and leisure for ordinary men and women. Agricultural production followed the rhythm of the seasons with times of intense hard work and quieter times. Sporting activities now known as folk games were played in the fields during the day. In medieval times travel on land and water was burdensome, unpredictable, dangerous and demanding. Travel for pleasure was inconceivable to most and was confined to day excursions, fairs, festivals and travelling to sport or entertainment.

1.3.2 THE BIRTH OF YACHTING

Before the eighteenth century then, water sport participation for pleasure was restricted to royalty and aristocracy. Monarchs of most coastal nations had some form of regal craft to carry them on occasions. In the sixteenth century a small craft named Rat of Wight was built for Queen Elizabeth I of England ‘for national entertainment’. Evidence of early yachting in household accounts of Hurstmonceux castle in 1643 made several references to ‘my Lords ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Contributors
• Preface
• Part One Concepts
• Part Two The Coastal Recreation Environment
• Part Three Operation and Safety
• Part Four Management
• Summary
• Index