Abstract
This paper reviews management frameworks used in marine protected areas to limit the impact of SCUBA divers on coral assemblages, including the Carrying Capacity Approach and Limits of Acceptable Change. It notes their weaknesses, which can render them especially difficult to implement in developing countries. The paper proposes an alternative management framework that is procedurally and computationally simple, and can provide early warning of the deterioration of coral assemblages. With this approach, the abundance of coral injuries (broken branch tips and tissue abrasions) is monitored and compared concurrently at dive and reference sites. A requirement for further management action is triggered if the median abundance of coral injuries taken at a dive site equals or exceeds the 80th percentile of coral injuries estimated from reference sites. The primary assumption of this framework is that disturbance of a coral assemblage by divers manifests in a measurable increase in coral injuries before there is a decrease in the percent coverage of living coral. Other advantages are that it avoids the need to specify an absolute quantity considered ecologically important and the trigger criterion is regularly updated to reflect extraneous factors such as storm events.