Year: 2020
Relevance
Red snapper is one of the most valuable and culturally relevant fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico. A team of researchers recently completed a complex, three-year Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium (MASGC)-funded study, termed the “Great Red Snapper Count,” to independently estimate the absolute abundance of red snapper in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Given the complexity of the project and the controversial nature of the fishery, stakeholder engagement was a critical component of the project.
Response
To engage stakeholders, MASGC specialists created and distributed five videos and five fact sheets detailing the project’s rationale, goals and methods. Then, the specialists and social scientists developed an electronic survey to measure public awareness of the Great Red Snapper Count and public satisfaction with current Gulf red snapper populations and management. The team surveyed a total of 1,000 individuals (200 per Gulf state) who saltwater fish in the Gulf of Mexico.
Results
Angler awareness of the Great Red Snapper Count was associated with up to three times higher satisfaction with red snapper management. Additionally, an in-survey video experiment demonstrated that anglers who were presented a video about a component of the Great Red Snapper Count reported higher management satisfaction than those presented a project overview video or no video. This indicates that anglers may desire in-depth, yet understandable, insight regarding scientific methodologies for assessing fish populations.
Recap
Survey data suggest that Great Red Snapper Count stakeholder engagement efforts enhanced angler satisfaction with Gulf of Mexico red snapper populations and management; moreover, respondents who had seen videos depicting the component methods of the project possessed the highest levels of satisfaction with management. (2020)