Hi Bruce and all, Figuring out the carrying capacity is certainly difficult. As for the impact on wildlife, you'd have to do a "head count" of the wildlife first. This isn't easy and it's very time-consuming to do it right. Then you take a rather large number of people to the site a few times, then do another "head count". After doing this a few times, you HOPE that you're right! Luckily in the Phang Nga bay situation I referred to, the animals don't seem to be affected that much. They simply move up the cliffs or around the corner. Having said that, I could be very wrong. Perhaps they are being denied food. Perhaps the trees in fruit are few and far between and the animals need to be in the same areas where the tourists are going. It's not easy buddy. Our company has a volume limit of 6 guests. Plus, we don't go into what we consider extremely sensitive areas. We still keep records of what impact we appear to be having. Bruce wrote: << I do not approve of the current practices regarding use permits in some of our more special areas. Ex. block permitting to commercial outfitters thereby excluding independent travelers. One of the reasons that I think many people resent outfitters in general.>> Well, I hope you're wrong about people "resenting outfitters in general", but I think you're right. Permitting is a very touchy issue. Denying paddlers the opportunity to go paddling where they want and when they want is uncool to say the least. However, since we've been fruitful and multiplied, something has to be done. Permitting is one answer. Bruce wrote: <<I choose to paddle less traveled waters.>> That's the other answer! Cheers Bruce and all, Dave Dave Williams dave_at_paddleasia.com http://paddleasia.com Phuket, Thailand *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Sep 22 1999 - 20:44:31 PDT
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