IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/marpol/v47y2014icp1-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public perceptions of sharks: Gathering support for shark conservation

Author

Listed:
  • Friedrich, Laura A.
  • Jefferson, Rebecca
  • Glegg, Gillian

Abstract

With increasing evidence of the destructive impacts of human activities on the ocean there is a growing call for stronger public engagement in marine governance. An understanding of marine issues and pro-environmental values are key elements that influence an individual׳s engagement in conservation and pro-environmental behaviour. This paper presents a study on public perceptions of sharks and shark conservation in the UK. The study investigated knowledge of and attitudes towards sharks of a group of individuals with a clear interest in the marine environment, as well as possible factors that might influence their perceptions of sharks, in order to make recommendations on how to foster engagement in shark conservation. The key finding was that important prerequisites for engagement in shark conservation exist among parts of the UK public. However, this does not seem to be enough to motivate actual engagement. The study discusses a number of specific challenges with regard to sharks which might be influencing the way in which society connects to shark related issues. It concludes with priority recommendations for further investigation into potential catalysts for public engagement in shark conservation.

Suggested Citation

  • Friedrich, Laura A. & Jefferson, Rebecca & Glegg, Gillian, 2014. "Public perceptions of sharks: Gathering support for shark conservation," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-7.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:marpol:v:47:y:2014:i:c:p:1-7
    DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2014.02.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X14000360
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.marpol.2014.02.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Techera, Erika J. & Klein, Natalie, 2011. "Fragmented governance: Reconciling legal strategies for shark conservation and management," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 73-78, January.
    2. Worm, Boris & Davis, Brendal & Kettemer, Lisa & Ward-Paige, Christine A. & Chapman, Demian & Heithaus, Michael R. & Kessel, Steven T. & Gruber, Samuel H., 2013. "Global catches, exploitation rates, and rebuilding options for sharks," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 194-204.
    3. Frank Convery & Simon McDonnell & Susana Ferreira, 2007. "The most popular tax in Europe? Lessons from the Irish plastic bags levy," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 38(1), pages 1-11, September.
    4. Jefferson, R.L. & Bailey, I. & Laffoley, D. d′A. & Richards, J.P. & Attrill, M.J., 2014. "Public perceptions of the UK marine environment," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 327-337.
    5. Herndon, Andrew & Gallucci, Vincent F. & DeMaster, Douglas & Burke, William, 2010. "The case for an international commission for the conservation and management of sharks (ICCMS)," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1239-1248, November.
    6. Neff, Christopher L. & Yang, Jean Y.H., 2013. "Shark bites and public attitudes: Policy implications from the first before and after shark bite survey," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 545-547.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Garla, Ricardo C. & Freitas, Renato H.A. & Calado, Janaina F. & Paterno, Gustavo B.C. & Carvalho, Adriana R., 2015. "Public awareness of the economic potential and threats to sharks of a tropical oceanic archipelago in the western South Atlantic," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 128-133.
    2. Zanoli, Raffaele & Carlesi, Lorenzo & Danovaro, Roberto & Mandolesi, Serena & Naspetti, Simona, 2015. "Valuing unfamiliar Mediterranean deep-sea ecosystems using visual Q-methodology," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 227-236.
    3. O’Bryhim, Jason R. & Parsons, E.C.M., 2015. "Increased knowledge about sharks increases public concern about their conservation," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 43-47.
    4. Ila France Porcher & Brian W. Darvell, 2022. "Shark Fishing vs. Conservation: Analysis and Synthesis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-33, August.
    5. Gibbs, Leah & Warren, Andrew, 2015. "Transforming shark hazard policy: Learning from ocean-users and shark encounter in Western Australia," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 116-124.
    6. McCagh, Christine & Sneddon, Joanne & Blache, Dominque, 2015. "Killing sharks: The media’s role in public and political response to fatal human–shark interactions," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 271-278.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sybersma, Stacie, 2015. "Review of shark legislation in Canada as a conservation tool," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 121-126.
    2. Stephanie M. Sabbagh & Gordon M. Hickey, 2019. "Social Factors Affecting Sustainable Shark Conservation and Management in Belize," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, December.
    3. Garla, Ricardo C. & Freitas, Renato H.A. & Calado, Janaina F. & Paterno, Gustavo B.C. & Carvalho, Adriana R., 2015. "Public awareness of the economic potential and threats to sharks of a tropical oceanic archipelago in the western South Atlantic," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 128-133.
    4. Jingze Jiang, 2016. "Peer Pressure in Voluntary Environmental Programs: a Case of the Bag Rewards Program," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 155-190, June.
    5. Mattauch, Linus & Hepburn, Cameron & Stern, Nicholas, 2018. "Pigou pushes preferences: decarbonisation and endogenous values," INET Oxford Working Papers 2018-16, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    6. Erhardt, Tobias & Weder, Rolf, 2020. "Shark hunting: On the vulnerability of resources with heterogeneous species," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    7. Bairong Wang & Yuhua Zhao & Yong Li, 2021. "How Do Tougher Plastics Ban Policies Modify People’s Usage of Plastic Bags? A Case Study in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(20), pages 1-8, October.
    8. Okto Irianto & Kosuke Mizuno & Safri Burhanuddin & Ninasapti Triaswati, 2022. "Formulating an Excise Duty on Plastic: A Strategy to Manage Marine Plastic Waste in Indonesia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-16, December.
    9. Slater, Anne-Michelle & Irvine, Katherine N & Byg, Anja A. & Davies, Ian M. & Gubbins, Matt & Kafas, Andronikos & Kenter, Jasper & MacDonald, Alison & O'Hara Murray, Rory & Potts, Tavis & Tweddle, Jac, 2020. "Integrating stakeholder knowledge through modular cooperative participatory processes for marine spatial planning outcomes (CORPORATES)," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    10. Rebecca L. C. Taylor, 2020. "A Mixed Bag: The Hidden Time Costs of Regulating Consumer Behavior," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 7(2), pages 345-378.
    11. Doreen Fedrigo-Fazio & Jean-Pierre Schweitzer & Patrick Ten Brink & Leonardo Mazza & Alison Ratliff & Emma Watkins, 2016. "Evidence of Absolute Decoupling from Real World Policy Mixes in Europe," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(6), pages 1-22, May.
    12. Norton, Daniel & Hynes, Stephen, 2014. "Valuing the non-market benefits arising from the implementation of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 10(C), pages 84-96.
    13. Jason Delaney & Sarah Jacobson, 2016. "Payments or Persuasion: Common Pool Resource Management with Price and Non-price Measures," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 65(4), pages 747-772, December.
    14. Ruiz-Frau, A. & Krause, T. & Marbà , N., 2018. "The use of sociocultural valuation in sustainable environmental management," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 29(PA), pages 158-167.
    15. Yong Li & Bairong Wang & Orachorn Saechang, 2022. "Is Female a More Pro-Environmental Gender? Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-11, June.
    16. Smith, Steven M., 2018. "Economic incentives and conservation: Crowding-in social norms in a groundwater commons," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 147-174.
    17. Andrew T Fields & Debra L Abercrombie & Rowena Eng & Kevin Feldheim & Demian D Chapman, 2015. "A Novel Mini-DNA Barcoding Assay to Identify Processed Fins from Internationally Protected Shark Species," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(2), pages 1-10, February.
    18. Smyth, Danielle P. & Fredeen, Arthur L. & Booth, Annie L., 2010. "Reducing solid waste in higher education: The first step towards ‘greening’ a university campus," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 54(11), pages 1007-1016.
    19. Pritish Behuria, 2019. "The comparative political economy of plastic bag bans in East Africa: why implementation has varied in Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 372019, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    20. Norton, D. & Hynes, S., 2014. "A Choice Experiment Approach to assess the costs of degradation as specified by the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive," Working Papers 186382, National University of Ireland, Galway, Socio-Economic Marine Research Unit.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:marpol:v:47:y:2014:i:c:p:1-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/marpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.