Apologies for cross-postings. Call for Papers for Special Issue of the journal Tourism in Marine Environments Crowding, Use Levels, and Social Capacity Issues in Coastal and Marine Environments Guest Editors Mark D. Needham, Ph.D. Oregon State University mark.needham@oregonstate.edu<mailto:mark.needham@oregonstate.edu> Brian W. Szuster, Ph.D. University of Hawai'i szuster@hawaii.edu<mailto:szuster@hawaii.edu> By 2015, half of the world's population will be living within 100 km of the coast, and this trend has contributed to the growing popularity of coastal and marine areas for tourism and recreation activities such as scuba diving, snorkeling, boating, and whale watching. Over 80% of tourists visiting Hawai'i, for example, participate in some form of marine recreation during their trip and popular marine protected areas in this state receive up to 1.75 million users per year. Similarly, visitation to Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park has increased more than tenfold since the 1980s. Numerous studies have examined the biophysical impacts of coastal and marine tourism and recreation, including damage caused by users handling coral, standing on reefs, or getting too close to marine mammals. In contrast, social impacts such as crowding and conflict have received comparatively less attention in these areas. Investigation of use levels, crowding, encounters, and other social carrying capacity indicators represents an emerging area of research in coastal and marine environments as the popularity of these areas continues to increase. This special issue aims to present cutting edge research applications that advance the applied, conceptual, and theoretical understanding of crowding, use levels, and other social carrying capacity issues in coastal and marine environments. Guidelines * Potential authors must first contact the guest editors by November 15, 2011 to discuss interest in submitting an article and provide a 200-300 word abstract outlining their proposed article. Selected authors will then be asked to submit a full article for potential publication subject to a favorable peer-review process. * Full articles must be received by February 15, 2012 following the journal's standard article submission process. All articles must comply with the journal's style guidelines (see "submitting articles" at: https://www.cognizantcommunication.com/journal-titles/tourism-in-marine-envi...). Manuscripts should be between 5,000 and 7,000 words long, and submitted as Microsoft Word attachments. * All initial abstracts and full articles should be sent to: mark.needham@oregonstate.edu<mailto:mark.needham@oregonstate.edu>. * All articles will be subject to a blind peer-review process and the standards of quality that are customary for this journal. Important Dates * Abstract deadline: November 15, 2011. * Submission of full article deadline: February 15, 2012. * Special issue publication: Tentatively mid-2013. For questions, please contact Dr. Mark Needham (mark.needham@oregonstate.edu<mailto:mark.needham@oregonstate.edu>, +1 541-737-1498).