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Valorização ecológica de trilhos subaquáticos no ZEC Caloura - Ponta da Galera
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Orientador(es)
Resumo(s)
Tourism in the Azores is an emergent economic activity. The natural and cultural activities
provide good opportunities of keeping on with the tendencies of developing tourism and new
segments in its activity, especially the ones related with nature, culture and rural areas.
There has been a development of tourism activities based on having a low impact on nature.
This tourism segment is important for the economy of subsistence of the local communities
by creating jobs and also by conserving natural areas. Scuba diving is an activity that is
included in nature tourism also being considered an ecotourism activity since it makes
possible having learning experiences and gaining respect for the natural environment. In this
work I wanted to draw two scuba trails on the Special Area of Conservation (SAC) of Caloura
- Ponta da Galera located in the Island of São Miguel. To do so and knowing the importance
of a structured touristic product focused on its user, inquiries were done to the scuba divertourists
of this area.
That being, we can confirm that scuba diver-tourists of the Island of São Miguel are
essentially of the male gender and in general European. Their average age is 35 years, have
a degree and a monthly income more than 2500€. The majority of them are Advanced Open
Water Diver. These tourists are here classified as structured ecotourists since they don't go
to their vacation destination with the sole intent of an encounter with nature, but complement
their vacation with nature based tourism and adventure tourism.
The scuba trails were defined after collecting information from diving operators. Two places
where defined: The Arcos do Hotel da Caloura and the Panela da Ponta da Galera. When
drawing these trails, special attention was paid to the presence of emblematic species from
the touristic point of view, the possible difficulties of the dives and the maximum depth
reached, so both feature the iconic fauna and flora of the Azorean seabed. The ecological
valuation focus on the presence of species under regional, national or international protection
and, also, on the presence of the habitats which characterized the area as SAC of Natura
2000 Network.
The Arcos do Hotel da Caloura are named like this due to their location that is in front of the
Caloura Hotel Resort. The feature of this location is the abundance of arcs and small tunnels
filled with fascinating sea life for the diver. These formations where a result of lava flows that
also made possible the formation of galleries and caves of various dimensions. The rocky
surface is usually rugged or irregular. In it we can find algae, sponges, bryozoans, annelids,
among others. This dive is an easy one since it is located in an accessible depth to any diver
even for those with basic levels of instruction. But it can also be considered with the difficulty
of medium due to the existence of arcs and tunnels which exploration depends of each diver.
VI
The spot Panela of Ponta da Galera is named this way for its similarity with a pot (panela =
Pot). It is a structure of a vertical cave, or cavern, down to 18.5 meters of depth with a
diameter of approximately 10 meters. The walls are rugged, covered with sponges,
encrusted coralline algae, tiny corals (Caryophyllia sp.) and nudibranchs, like Discodoris
atromaculata. Panela has series of cracks where can be found Gymnothorax unicolor,
Scorpaena maderensis or Apogon imberbis. This dive is of a medium difficulty because it
implies going through tunnels and entering a cave (that may have a low luminosity
depending on the exterior luminosity). Besides the dive itself is conditioned by the sea flow
and sea movement that may make this dive dangerous.
With the scuba trails draw in this study we intended to obtain a touristic resource that is
favorable to the conservation of nature following the legislation of the study zone and
performing important functions of public interest in various fields such as cultural, social,
environmental and ecological. The scuba trails are in conformity with the criteria of Weaver
(2008) by building a sustainable and educational touristic product with socio economic
benefits to the local community. Consequently, this is an ecosystem-service since it is
possible to outtake an economic income from the resource and, at the same time, improve
the tourist's awareness towards conservation, making them involved in species conservation
while alerting them to their protection status. According to Armsworth et al. (2007) society will
demand greater environmental management if human dependence on nature becomes
widely recognized.
This study allowed to obtain a perception of the profile of a tourist-diver on SAC Caloura,
where the subaquatic tourism is now in exploration. Yet it is important to mention that this is
a preliminary study of the profile mentioned above and that continuing this study would be
important for the tourism sector and for the conservation of the scuba trails.
Finally it will be worthwhile to compile the trails with others that will be drawn around the
Archipelago, as well as a guide of good methods of diving for the tourists and for the Sea
tourism companies.
Descrição
Mestrado em Gestão e Conservação de Recursos Naturais - Instituto Superior de Agronomia / Universidade de Évora
Palavras-chave
ecotourism Natura 2000 network tourist-diver profile scubatrails ecological valuation Azores
Contexto Educativo
Citação
Grilo, Maria Rita Marques Lito Velez - Valorização ecológica de trilhos subaquáticos no ZEC Caloura - Ponta da Galera. Lisboa: ISA, 2011