Tourism centres efficiency as spatial unites for applying blue economy approach: A case study of the Southern Red Sea region, Egypt.

This study aims to assess and analyse the efficiency of the tourism centres in the Southern Red Sea region, Egypt to apply coastal tourism development through the blue economy perspective. According to this aim, the study used two efficiency methods: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Free Disposal Hull (FDH). A total of 29 tourism centres were selected to conduct the DEA and FDH methods. These efficiency methods (DEA-FDH) used inputs and outputs variables to estimate the efficiency of the tourism centres. The selected inputs were the length of the shoreline (km), area (ha), tourism investments (million EGP), quality of coral reefs, numbers of hotels, and tourism accommodation capacity. While the outputs were employees' number and tourists' number. The results indicate that, generally, the tourism centres in the Southern Red Sea region of Egypt showed high-efficiency scores, which reflects their good preparedness to implement the various coastal tourism development strategies from the blue economy perspective. The tourism centres in the Safaga-Quseir tourism sector were the most efficient ones, regardless of the efficiency models used. While the tourist centres representing the Ras Banas tourism sector were the least efficient centres in the whole sample (29 tourism centres).

Effects of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on coral reef fishes at eco-tourism sites in Bora-Bora, French Polynesia.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a global lockdown in mid-2020, leading to a rapid decline in international travel and tourism. In French Polynesia, marine-based tourism activities ceased in March 2020 with the suspension of international flights (i.e., 45 days - between 20th March and 04th May 2020), slowly restarting between May-July as domestic and international visitors returned. The impacts of this rapid change in human activity at reef tourism sites on associated reef fishes was examined at Bora-Bora Island through underwater surveys of five control and nine eco-tourism sites. Our results showed that fish density significantly increased from March to May (i.e., the overall density of fishes increased by 143% and harvested species by 215%), but returned to pre-lockdown levels by August 2020. At the usually busy eco-tourism sites, fish diversity, notably of piscivores, omnivores, and benthic feeders, was higher in the absence of tourists. The impact observed is almost certainly related to short term changes in fish behavior, as any density fluctuations at the population level are unlikely to have happened over such a short time frame. Overall, these findings highlight the influence of human activities on fish communities and underline the need for further research to evaluate the environmental impacts of eco-tourism.

Widespread bleaching in the One Tree Island lagoon (Southern Great Barrier Reef) during record-breaking temperatures in 2020.

The global marine environment has been impacted significantly by climate change. Ocean temperatures are rising, and the frequency, duration and intensity of marine heatwaves are increasing, particularly affecting coral reefs. Coral bleaching events are becoming more common, with less recovery time between events. Anomalous temperatures at the start of 2020 caused widespread bleaching across the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), extending to southern, previously less affected reefs such as One Tree Island. Here, nine video transects were conducted at One Tree Island, in the Capricorn Bunker Group, and analysed for community composition and diversity, and the extent of bleaching across taxa. Average live hard coral cover across the area was 11.62%, and almost half of this was identified as severely bleached. This bleaching event is concerning as it occurred in an area previously considered a potential refuge for corals and associated fauna from the risks of climate warming. Due to the global impacts of COVID-19 during 2020, this report provides one of potentially few monitoring efforts of coral bleaching.

Retirement risks: Invasive coral on old oil platform on the Brazilian equatorial continental shelf.

The objective of this study was to report, for the first time, the presence of an invasive coral (Tubastraea tagusensis) in an oil platform on the Brazilian equatorial continental shelf. This structure is located more than 1200 km north from other oil and gas structures colonized by this coral. We also discussed the retirement and decommissioning of old biofouling-encrusted oil and gas platforms (~62 platforms) from decreased production and the current oil crisis, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This presents an ecological concern due invasive coral range expansion and potential impacts to poorly studied ecosystems such as marginal shallow-water coral reefs and mesophotic ecosystems. It is imperative that mindful risk analysis and rigorous environmental studies must precede the installation of new oil and gas platforms. In addition, decommissioning of retired structures should take into consideration marine restoration and non-indigenous species dispersal, and more specifically, Tubastraea bioinvasion.