Does use of tropical beaches by tourists and island residents result in damage to fringing coral reefs? A case study in Moorea French Polynesia

► In this study, we investigated five sites on the northern shore of Moorea, French Polynesia, and quantified the number of visitors on the beach and in shallow water. In field surveys, we measured total coral cover and colony sizes of two common genera, Porites and Acropora, a massive and branching morphology, respectively. ► The high use site, which hosted over an order of magnitude more people than the other four, had significantly less total coral cover and supported very little branching Acropora. ► At the high use site, size frequency distributions of both the branching and massive genera were skewed toward smaller colony sizes.