(Photo credit: Kevin Weng) During August 2019, more than 40,000 tourists visited Hawaiʻi's Molokini island—off of Maui's southwestern coast—to snorkel or dive. In March 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic dropped that number to zero. The sudden and prolonged drop in visitors to one of the world's most popular snorkeling spots provided scientists with a novel opportunity to study how underwater tourism impacts marine fishes. The results of the study, published in PLOS ONE , will help resource managers better care for Molokini and other threatened marine habitats.

https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2023/04/13/visitors-to-molokini-maui/

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