Hooking recreational fishers on sustainable fishing: Consistent psycho-social determinants raise potential for broad scale interventions.

Abstract

The establishment of marine protected areas with high levels of compliance is a cornerstone of global marine conservation. Previous studies highlight the importance of psycho-social mechanisms (e.g. attitudes, social norms) for driving self-compliance amongst recreational fishers. However, our ability to put these fishery-specific insights into broad-practice requires understanding how transferable they are across locations. In this study, we find that psycho-social determinants of sustainable fishing practices are consistent across three contrasting marine protected areas spanning the Australian continent (separated by up to 3500 km). Intentions to promote sustainable fishing practices were stronger for fishers who were aware of zoning, were positive towards regulations, and whose peers supported sustainable fishing practices. Most of the variability in these factors was linked to intangible fisher characteristics, especially fisher motivations. Consistency across our national sample raises the potential for a national approach to tackling self-compliance of recreational fishers with marine protected area regulations.