ABSTRACT
Marine recreation represents one of the most important uses of our marine and coastal environments. Marine recreation is a natural result of three things: population density in coastal areas, increasing interest in outdoor recreation throughout the country, and the special lure of the sea. For, in the many forms of marine recreation, people tend to do things that are quite different from what they do at work. And in the active forms, the body as well the mind gets workout. In the passive forms of marine recreation the sensory stimulus ranges from the euphoria of floating on barely undulating sea surface which truly suggests the ocean as the cradle of life, to the bracing experience of absorbing the onslaught of sounds and sights that are a coastal storm. Whether marine recreation will continue to grow and whether that growth will benefit the participants will depend great deal on our ability to formulate and carry out reasonable policies for coastal use.
