Mo'orea Coastal Use Monitoring Protocol

Have two team-members start a track on GAIA GPS. Make sure both members have full battery.

After starting track recording, with the GAIA-App take a picture of the group’s hand-watch with seconds showing on the hand-watch (will help make sure time on watch and GPS time are synced).

When done tracking, save and export the track as a .gpx file.

When you see a bird, record the number and identify whether the bird(s) is an egret or heron. Refer to the bird ID sheet, linked here.

Record the timestamp at the time you spotted the bird.

Start time-stamp as soon as the coastal profile changes or as soon as you are no longer able to monitor.

Record the coast types on the data sheet using the following categories: unArmored (no apparent human-made alteration), armRocks (armored coast w/ piles of rocks/stones), armSeaWall (armored coast cement/concrete wall), and armOther (other category of armored coast). When you encounter a perpendicular structure (dock/over-water bungalow/stone alignment), record a time-stamp and the type of perpendicular structure on the data sheet.

Estimate the distance in meters from the coastal armoring to the shoreline and record on the data sheet.

Start a time-stamp if backtracking or if you left the coast and make note.

Walking along the shore, take a timestamp of any boats, canoes, jet skis, or other vessels on the water that are visible to you. Record under Time-Stamp using military time up to the millisecond.

If a fishing vessel, ID each vessel as one of the following under fisherBoat: outrigger, motorboat, swim on-foot. Leave this section blank if not a fishing vessel.

If applicable, note the type of fishing gear under fisherGear: spear, line, or net.

Under fisherN, record the number of fishermen in the crew if applicable.

Under vesselType, regardless of if the vessel is for fishing, ID the vessel from the following categories: closed-cabin motorboat, opened-cabin motorboat, tourist-operator motorboat, sailboat, jet-ski [indicate number of jet skis in ()].

Under anch-navigating, indicate whether the vessel (regardless of if it is fishing), is anchoring or navigating.

Repeat for each new vessel spotted. Use a single entry for each vessel unless it is a group of jet skis which pass at the same timestamp. Indicate if you cannot see the gear in the fishing boat.

Walking along the shore or as close to the shore as possible, write down the timestamp of every water outlet walked by.

Try estimating the width of the outlet (in feet or meters. Write down the estimate.

Mark if the water outlet is flowing and any other relevant observations about it.

At the end of the day, take a picture of your notebooks before data entry.