Vandenberg Reefing

[scuba.dude]

Amaze - your OP states an economic valuation impact survey & wreckdivingfool referenced environmental impact, which you subsequently agreed is included - which are you studying?

 

[amaze]

I find one aspect of your questionnaire lacking in clarity. You define "Key West Area" and, throughout most of the questionnaire, carefully using that phrase. But, questions #13-19 refer to only Key West, rather than the bigger area. Do you intend to refer only to Key West in those questions? If not, I would have given some different answers.

It is all geared to the broader key west area.

 

[amaze]

Amaze - your OP states an economic valuation impact survey & wreckdivingfool referenced environmental impact, which you subsequently agreed is included - which are you studying?

We are measuring the economic demand for diving the vandenberg using what is termed a travel cost model. That measure allows for an economic impact measure as well. The environmental aspect is the measure of the extent to which the artificial reef reduces diving demand for the natural reefs. We are measuring that also. If you take the survey and agree to the followup that aspect will be very clear. Bill

 

[amaze]

I took your survey and expected a broader range as well. I thought you would have compared it to Key Largo. The problem is Key West for us Miami locals is a tad bit of a drive so it has to be a well planned trip (almost an overnight stay). The majority of divers that I know will still flock to the closer reefs and wrecks inside/outside of Pennecamp.

I am sure I will venture down south to experience the dive in Key West, but travel prohibits this from a weekly thing.

Actually the travel cost aspect will pick this up. The other dives in the keys are substitute goods fopr the vandenberg. This survey is what we call stated preferences as people are expressing intentions which are often not realized. In the next survey, if you choose to participate we will get what we call "revealed preferences" or what was actually dived. Thanks fo filling it out. Bill

 

[Hoomi]

I think your survey should have also addressed potential impact farther out than one year. My wife and I are new divers, but we both have an interest in wreck diving and a desire to visit Florida sometime in the next few years. For this next year, though, our attention is focused on our trip to Fiji next February (30th Wedding Anniversary dive trip).

We think a trip to the Oriskany in a couple of years would be awesome, and I'd expect if we've traveled from Arizona to Pensacola for diving, we'd go ahead and cover the extra distance from the Panhandle down onto the peninsula for some more. The Vandenburg would certainly be an attraction, and a possible major factor in deciding just where we'd end up staying and diving.

So much of the survey addressed folks who have already been diving in the Keys. I would think the potential for attracting new visitors to the Keys would be one of the big questions, and especially in a long-term economic plan. I've never been farther into Florida than Pensacola (and that over thirty years ago, when I was in Mississippi for USAF tech school), and I won't likely be heading there in the next year, but the artificial reefs projects such as the Vandenburg will definitely weigh into the decision to go there, probably within the next five years.

 

[amaze]

I think your survey should have also addressed potential impact farther out than one year. My wife and I are new divers, but we both have an interest in wreck diving and a desire to visit Florida sometime in the next few years. For this next year, though, our attention is focused on our trip to Fiji next February (30th Wedding Anniversary dive trip).

We think a trip to the Oriskany in a couple of years would be awesome, and I'd expect if we've traveled from Arizona to Pensacola for diving, we'd go ahead and cover the extra distance from the Panhandle down onto the peninsula for some more. The Vandenburg would certainly be an attraction, and a possible major factor in deciding just where we'd end up staying and diving.

So much of the survey addressed folks who have already been diving in the Keys. I would think the potential for attracting new visitors to the Keys would be one of the big questions, and especially in a long-term economic plan. I've never been farther into Florida than Pensacola (and that over thirty years ago, when I was in Mississippi for USAF tech school), and I won't likely be heading there in the next year, but the artificial reefs projects such as the Vandenburg will definitely weigh into the decision to go there, probably within the next five years.

Down the fl peninsula from pensacola is a trip...i live in pensacola and i can drive to chicago quicker then i can to miami or the keys. It is one thing to measure economic impact and another to measure demand (in this case diving demand for what in economics is termed a public good). To capture future interest we will be repeating the survey. Here we are estimating a travel cost model of demand. Future work might well look at willingness to pay and that includes measures for what is called "existence" value. You might be willing to pay to preserve the grand canyon even though you might have never visited it. The survey that you take to get the data must be different then what we are doing here. Granted this is a convenience sample but we can argue that it is representative of "divers." Bill

 

[Hoomi]

I know it's quite a trip from Pensacola down to the Keys, but after driving across the final third of Arizona, then New Mexico, all the way across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and then to Pensacola, the final leg down the peninsula wouldn't seem like that much farther. Face it; crossing Texas along I-10 is itself one LONG drive.

According to Yahoo maps, Pensacola to Miami is app. 680 miles, whereas I would have already driven about 1600 miles to reach Pensacola from Tucson. On the model of travel cost/demand, this is what I was addressing. If I were planning a diving vacation to Florida (which I would like to do sometime after Fiji), would the Vandenburg be an attractive enough incentive to extend my vacation by an extra 1400 - 1500 miles round trip? Or, if I were planning to fly, would I have chosen Pensacola with the Oriskany over the Keys without the Vandenburg? Very likely, as the Oriskany is a very big draw (no pun intended). Adding the Vandenburg to the other attractions of the diving in the Keys, however, would certainly make a very persuasive case to skip Pensacola and head to Keys instead.

What I took as the overall theme of the survey was this: Would I be more willing to come and spend some of my hard-earned dollars in the hotels, restaurants, dive shops, etc. of the area in order to dive the Vandenburg, over how willing I would be if the Vandenburg were not sunk as an artificial reef? The answer is "Yes, I would be more willing." Reading the magazines and these forums, it's abundantly clear that there are no shortage of incredible dive sites in the world. If money were no object and I had many healthy years ahead for diving, I would probably still not manage to visit them all. Attractions such as the Vandenburg move a site up the priority queue for ones I want to get to.

 

[amaze]

What I took as the overall theme of the survey was this: Would I be more willing to come and spend some of my hard-earned dollars in the hotels, restaurants, dive shops, etc. of the area in order to dive the Vandenburg, over how willing I would be if the Vandenburg were not sunk as an artificial reef? The answer is "Yes, I would be more willing." Reading the magazines and these forums, it's abundantly clear that there are no shortage of incredible dive sites in the world. If money were no object and I had many healthy years ahead for diving, I would probably still not manage to visit them all. Attractions such as the Vandenburg move a site up the priority queue for ones I want to get to.

We are just measuring the diving demand for the Vandenberg...using a travel cost model. The expenditures we ask for are part of that cost. We also recognize the existence of substitutes for the Vandenberg (the oriskany is one). The theme is to value the artificial reef as a public good so that policy decisions can be made with regard to put more of them, a cost benefit measure if you will. Be sure to stop and dive the blue hole in Santa Rosa NM on your way. Bill

 

[amaze]

Well the Vandenberg is on the bottom...from the sounds of things and the video it went well.

 

[Hoomi]

Huzzah!

Is the video posted on Youtube, or somewhere else yet?