Abstract
Recent marine spatial planning efforts, including the management and monitoring of marine protected areas (MPAs), increasingly focus on the importance of stakeholder engagement. For nearly 15 years, the California Collaborative Fisheries Research Program (CCFRP) has partnered volunteer anglers with researchers, the fishing industry, and resource managers to monitor groundfishes in California’s network of MPAs. While the program has succeeded in generating sustained biological observations, we know little about volunteer angler demography or the impact of participation on their perceptions and opinions on fisheries data or MPAs. In this study we surveyed CCFRP volunteers to learn about (a) volunteer angler demographics and attitudes toward groundfish management and stock health, (b) volunteer angler motivations for joining and staying in the program, and (c) whether participation in the program influenced volunteer angler opinions on the quality of fisheries data used in resource management and the establishment of MPAs in California. CCFRP volunteers were older and had higher fishing avidity than average within the California recreational angling community. Many self-identified as more conservation-minded than their peers in the recreational fishing community and had positive views of California groundfish management and stock health. Participation in science and giving back to fisheries resources were major motivating factors in their decision to become and remain CCFRP volunteers. Angler opinions toward MPAs were more positive after volunteering with CCFRP. Those who had volunteered for seven or more years with CCFRP were more likely than not to gain a positive opinion of MPAs. Our survey results provide evidence that long-term engagement of stakeholders in collaborative research positively influences stakeholder opinions regarding marine resource management, and highlights CCFRP’s success in engaging citizen science stakeholders in collaborative fisheries research.
Highlights
Stakeholder engagement is an important part of marine resource protection and management (Pomeroy & Douvere, 2008)
We used an online survey of current and former California Collaborative Fisheries Research Program (CCFRP) volunteer anglers to learn about (a) volunteer angler demographics and attitudes toward groundfish management and stock health, (b) volunteer angler motivations for joining and staying in the program and (c) whether participation in the program influenced volunteer angler opinions on the quality of fisheries data used in resource management and the creation of marine protected areas (MPAs) in California
Volunteer opinion change relative to measures of participation To evaluate volunteer opinion change relative to levels of volunteer participation, we focused on three measures of CCFRP volunteer angler participation: (a) number of years since becoming a volunteer angler; (b) the number of CCFRP Volunteer Angler Appreciation and Data Workshops an angler had attended; and (c) approximate number of CCFRP sampling trips attended
Summary
Stakeholder engagement is an important part of marine resource protection and management (Pomeroy & Douvere, 2008). Benefits of such engagement include the incorporation of local knowledge into policy, and the potential to build stakeholder trust in management decisions (Yochum, Starr & Wendt, 2011). California’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) of 1999 (Fish and Game Code § 2850–2863) directed the state to redesign California’s marine protected areas (MPAs) to function as a network and increase protection of the state’s marine habitats, wildlife, and cultural sites.
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