Abstract

Marinas are a critical component of The Bahamas tourism economy, and the size and services of marinas are expanding throughout the archipelago. Of the 7.2 million visitors who travelled to The Bahamas in 2019, over 5.5 million came by sea, including cruise ships and boaters who paid for cruising and fishing permits to enter the country or chartered vessels. With the proliferation of marinas, this study outlines “Best Management Practices” (BMP) for marina construction and operations that will allow coastal ecosystem functioning that supports healthy fish populations. Our study examines four marinas on the island of Great Exuma of varying size and age since construction to understand the impacts on coastal fish habitats and fish assemblage diversity. The construction (acute) and operational (chronic) impacts were ranked for each marina site. We predicted that marinas with high ecological impacts would have low fish diversity and abundance. Roving Diver Fish Surveys at a low-ecological impact marina and a high ecological impact marina showed large differences in fish diversity and abundance, indicating that fish surveys would be a good measure of success for remediation and management improvements. We present BMPs for the four marinas on Great Exuma, The Bahamas as viable options to improve the functioning nearshore ecosystems, and by extension, improve the tourism product and increase climate resilience of the marinas.