Scientists are extremely concerned that the Florida manatee, Trichechus manatus latirostris, does not have a sufficient population number nor reproductive rate to ensure long-term species viability. This research was done to investigate aspects of boater behavior in an effort to determine measures that might decrease boat-manatee collisions and help researchers plan intervention strategies in related areas. Initially, boat data was collected over a period of several months at a Miami waterway. Next, a detailed phone survey of boat owners was conducted. Although most boaters were found noncompliant with the speed zone, several questions from the survey showed that most valued manatees and almost half wanted them to remain listed as endangered. This is very encouraging as boater support for the manatee is possibly one of the most important indicators of manatee chances for survival. Suggestions included requiring mandatory boating classes and informing boaters of faster routes to their destinations.

This thesis draws from data collected over thirteen months of fieldwork working with “Boaters”, a boat-dwelling itinerant group on the waterways of Southern England. In the first of three parts, the thesis focusses on the individual motivations (economic, personal and political) behind becoming a travelling Boater, and on how one acquires the requisite skills and knowledge to become part of a community of practice on the waterways. Boaters on the whole do not have a sense of being an ethnically distinct group and, as such, this thesis interrogates what kind of an identity is being created or reinforced when individuals recognise themselves as Boaters. This part further deals with the specific temporal experience of boating (commonly known as “boat time”) that creates a shared experiential pattern between Boaters, and also examines the informal networks of trade, exchange and barter which enmesh Boaters in a web of reciprocal relationships. In the subsequent part, the focus of the thesis widens to take in the boating “community” as it is imagined. It asks how the concept of community is rhetorically constructed and corporately enacted on the inland waterways and identifies the creation of an emic and local conception of community. In the third part, the focus widens further still in order to interrogate the troubled relationships between Boaters and sedentary populations and between Boaters and agents of the State. By looking at Boaters’ different (essentially nomadic) understandings of locality and political organisation, this thesis attempts to more broadly explain the fraught relationship between state agencies and itinerant populations. The thesis concludes that the community of Boaters is constructed through the shared understandings which emerge due to the Boaters experiencing much of their world as being flexible, fluid and unfixed. Boaters are bound by acts of dwelling together on the waterways, acts that emerge from the specific material conditions of boat life, and further from acts of support where Boaters bind together for the security of the group against antagonistic outsiders and the interventions of agencies of the state.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2009. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-118). Also available on the World Wide Web.

The purpose of this study was to describe and evaluate the consumer characteristics of boaters in Utah and Idaho. This has entailed a descriptive analysis of boater's socio-economic profiles, facilities and equipment, preferences and attitudes, and activity patterns. Concomitantly a test of the hypothesis that boating is not a homogenous recreational activity was attempted. Two statistical analyses were carried out. The first test was to determine whether the profiles of boaters having different activity specialities differed. This was accomplished by finding the means of selected boater characteristics (i.e., income, children, length of boat) for each boating speciality. The L.S.D. multiple means comparison test was then used to determine if a statistically significant difference existed between the means of each activity. The second test determined whether the effect of selected boater characteristics on activity levels was the same when regressed on the three dependent variables of hours fishing, hours skiing, and hours pleasure boating. Boaters were found to have higher incomes, more education and higher percentages of household heads working in the highest paying professional, technical, and managerial occupations. The results of the multiple mean and regression analysis support the hypothesis that boaters specialyzing in the different boating activities are not homogeneous. Boaters specializing in water skiing, pleasure boating and fishing were found to take different types of boating trips, have different socioeconomic levels, and own different kinds of boating equipment. Fishermen were the most divergent group. They took fewer trips but raveled longer distances than skiing enthusiasts. Fishermen were found to own smaller boats with less horsepower. Boaters specializing in fishing were also found to have lower socioeconomic levels.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of boat density on boaters' satisfaction at Hyrum Lake State Park, Utah. The study evaluated relationships between boaters' satisfaction with their Hyrum Lake experience and density of boats at different locations on the lake and among participants in different boating activities. The participants in this study were boaters who used Hyrum Lake between May and September of 1996. An oral, onsite interview survey was randomly given to 282 boaters as they left the lake for the day. The surveys were conducted on high-density days (weekends) and low-density days (weekdays) , which were also randomly selected. Correlation analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were performed . The study found no significant relationships between density and satisfaction associated with either lake location or activity. Satisfaction did not differ between activities; however, participants in two activities (fishing and water skiing) did report higher satisfaction while using the boat ramp than for other locations on the lake. When a Welch t' test was performed comparing boating density ≤ 44 with boating density ≥ 45 boats, even though there was no statistically significant difference, a suggested trend did appear . The results indicate a slightly higher satisfaction rating among water skiers when density was 44 or fewer boats. Conversely, personal watercraft (PWC) users indicated that their satisfaction levels were higher when boating density was ≥ 45 boats. This would suggest that PWC users may be satisfied at boat densities much higher than other users could accept. Although 74% of all the boaters surveyed wanted to set a limit (carrying capacity) on the number of boats allowed on the lake at one time, the carrying capacity will not be immediately implemented, because the data found no statistically significant difference in satisfaction levels with higher boat densities.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Florida, 2004. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on July 7, 2005). Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-85).

Chaque année, une augmentation des opérations des sauveteurs en mer est observée. En 2015, une hausse de plus de 5% est constatée par rapport à l'année précédente. Des études révèlent que "la prudence n'est pas systématique" et qu'il existe un réel "déficit de conscience du danger". Il est souvent fait état de comportements qualifiés "d'irresponsables". Malgré de multiples actions de prévention déjà engagées depuis plusieurs années, le nombre d'accidents ne cesse de croître. Il semble donc qu'il faille d’abord comprendre et prévenir cette irresponsabilité, avant de faire appel de manière efficace à la responsabilité des plaisanciers. Or, la connaissance du concept même d’irresponsabilité, extrêmement parcellaire en Sciences de gestion, notamment en marketing, reste à réaliser ainsi que la compréhension des motivations à s’engager dans un comportement irresponsable. Cette recherche a pour objectif d’expliquer l’adoption de comportements irresponsables par les motivations qui les soustendent. Le premier chapitre présente le contexte maritime actuel ainsi qu’une revue de littérature pluridisciplinaire sur la notion d’irresponsabilité. Un cadre conceptuel de l’irresponsabilité est ensuite présenté dans le second chapitre permettant d’aboutir à un premier modèle théorique. Ce dernier sera progressivement enrichi dans un troisième chapitre par une analyse thématique de contenu de 16 entretiens semi-directifs. Le quatrième chapitre traite de la méthodologie employée pour tester ce modèle et le cinquième chapitre est consacré à la création d’une échelle de mesure des motivations à s’engager dans un comportement irresponsable ainsi qu’à la validation des autres instruments de mesure. Enfin, le sixième chapitre s’attèle au test du modèle et à l’approfondissement des résultats à travers une analyse typologique notamment. Les principaux apports théoriques et méthodologiques de notre recherche consistent en un enrichissement de la littérature du concept d’irresponsabilité et en la création d’une échelle de mesure des motivations à s’engager dans un comportement irresponsable. Sur le plan managérial, cette recherche permet une meilleure compréhension des plaisanciers et l’élaboration de préconisations dans le domaine du marketing stratégique et opérationnel afin d’améliorer l’efficacité des campagnes de prévention maritime. / Every year, rescue operations at sea are increasing. In 2015, there was 5% more rescues than the previous year. Studies reveal that "caution is not systematic" and that there is a real “dangerconsciousness deficit". Usually, they are often referred to "irresponsible" behaviours. Despite of many prevention actions over the past several years, the number of accidents continues to grow. Therefore, it seems important to understand and prevent this irresponsibility first, in order to use the responsibility of boaters more efficiently. The concept of irresponsibility and its motivations are poorly understood in management sciences, and especially in marketing. The purpose of this research is to explain irresponsible behaviours of sailors through their motivations. A review of the literature and two empirical studies have been conducted. The first chapter presents the current maritime context as well as a multidisciplinary literature review on irresponsibility. A conceptual framework of irresponsibility is presented in the second chapter, explaning how it leads to a first theoretical model. This model is improved in the third chapter through the qualitative study : a thematic analysis of content of 16 semidirective interviews. The fourth chapter presents the methodology used to test the model. The fifth chapter is about the creation of « the motivations to irresponsible behaviours » scale, and the validation of the other measuring instruments. The final chapter presents the test of the model and a typological analysis. This research brings a contribution to the literature about the concept of irresponsibility and the measurement of its motivations. This research allows a better understanding of boaters behaviours and suggests some improvements of the maritime prevention campaigns.

No description available.

Invasive species are second only to habitat loss as a leading cause of native species displacement and the management of invasive species costs hundreds of billions annually. Invasion is often conceptualized as a series of stages (Transport, Introduction, Establishment, and Spread), which encourages ecologists to isolate factors that might enable a species to pass from one stage to another and therefore guide prevention or impact management. This thesis addresses each stage of invasion and attempts to determine where management might succeed in preventing invasion or minimizing impacts. The transport and introduction of aquatic invasive species (AIS) was analyzed by conducting a three tier human subjects survey at Tenmile Lake, Oregon over a two year period in which a public boat wash station was built and installed. Assessing boater knowledge of AIS and understanding proper boat cleaning procedure is useful in determining the threat of transport and introduction as overland boater movements is a major vector of AIS. The comparison between pre- and post- boat wash surveys indicate that there is a disconnect between what boaters say they will do and how they actually behave. While 75.9% of boaters from the pre-survey claimed they would use a boat wash station at Tenmile Lake, only 38.5% of post-survey boaters were observed using the station. Furthermore, the surveys identified knowledge gaps of boaters' awareness of AIS. More than 20.0% of boaters surveyed could not verbally name any AIS. To better understand the establishment and spread stages of invasion, I examined the influence of a specific AIS, the New Zealand mud snail (Potamopyrgus antipodarum; NZMS), on benthic food webs throughout three very different aquatic ecosystems (lakes, rivers, and estuaries). Samples of benthic lake, river, and estuarine invertebrates were collected, identified, and counted, and stable isotope analyses (SIA) were conducted on several components of the food web. NZMS densities were found to be dynamic, with population densities fluctuating over time and between locations. A significant negative relationship between NZMS density and community diversity across all ecosystems was found. However, the densities of specific feeding groups had varying positive (omnivores) and negative (herbivores) correlations with NZMS densities. Furthermore, SIA indicated that NZMS don't appear to be competing with native macroinvertebrates for the same food source. NZMS were found to have different influences on each invaded ecosystem, thus management of this particular AIS is difficult once established and spreading. The results of this thesis suggest that prevention of the transport and introduction of NZMS needs to be the focus for future management. Preventative management should include public outreach regarding AIS and proper boat cleaning procedure, and management should also emphasize the need for regional policies and regulations on the transport of AIS rather than site or state specific policies and regulations.