Measuring Individuals' Knowledge, Attitude and Behaviour on Specific Ocean Related Topics

In order to measure the effectiveness of Ocean Literacy (OL) tools we can measure people’s knowledge of, and attitude and behaviour towards, specific ocean-related topics, both before and after their use of the tool. The research described in this paper aims at development of more accurate, focused survey tools. In particular we are interested in ensuring that we can accurately assess knowledge on specific topics, rather than assessing broad ocean literacy levels. Surveys were created to measure the levels of knowledge, attitude, and behaviour of university students. The topics which the surveys focused on were micro-plastics, coastal tourism, and sustainable fisheries. The knowledge, attitude, and behaviour questions in the surveys are based on work carried out as part of the H2020 ResponSEAble project on Ocean Literacy. The results show that while the students have a high level of pro-ocean-environmental attitude, their existing behaviour is low to medium, and their future intended behaviour is at a higher level than their existing behaviour. The findings provide useful pointers on how to improve both the ocean literacy tools (no statistically significant correlation between knowledge and either attitude or behaviour) as well as the design of the survey and questions themselves.