A nudge in the right direction : the role of incentives on behaviour and preferences in recreational fisheries
2019
Marine recreational fisheries are ecologically, culturally, and economically important. However,
ensuring effective management and compliance is notoriously difficult due to factors such as
extensive coastlines, the sparse nature of recreational fishing, and lack of formal management
infrastructure. Overcoming these obstacles is facilitated by fulfilling a wide range of objectives of
recreational fisheries management. This is integral to ensuring sustainability, however, the effective
management of recreational fisheries is further complicated due to diverse motivations of
recreational fishing and uncertainty in fishers’ behavioural responses to management changes.
Understanding the behavioural aspect or human dimensions of recreational fisheries management is
necessary for effective evidence-based policy making, which contributes to fulfilling the management
objectives.
This thesis contributes towards more effective understanding of fishers by investigating the
compliance behaviour and preferences within recreational fisheries management. Fisheries
compliance literature recognises the integral role that behavioural incentives, such as social norms,
morals and, legitimacy play in the compliance decision-making process. The overall objective of this
thesis is to explore the role of behavioural incentives on compliance behaviour in recreational
fisheries management and explore management preferences of fishers. This objective is addressed
in the six subsequent chapters of this thesis.
First, a general introduction of the context of the thesis is presented (Chapter 1). Chapter 2 explores
the potential of behavioural based recreational fisheries management in detail through a narrative
review of the relevant literature. Specifically, it, explores the use of nudges, which are behavioural
tools that aim through subtle changes and indirect suggestion to make certain decisions more salient.
Chapter 3 empirically explores the influence of a descriptive social norm nudge on compliance
behaviour and compares it with a traditionally used deterrence method of inspection. This is done
through an economic laboratory experiment in a recreational fisheries context. The results show that
the presence of descriptive social norm nudge can increase compliance behaviour but to a lesser
extent than an increase in deterrence. Chapter 4 explores the results of this experiment further by
investigating the relationship between behavioural drivers and compliance responses. Information
for five psycho-social drivers - expectations of others’ behaviour, social norms, ecological values,
personality types, and risk preferences - was collected for each participant by survey. The results
highlight patterns in psycho-social drivers and behavioural responses, which vary depending on the
compliance incentive method applied to encourage compliance behaviour. Chapter 5 empirically
explores the management preferences within a consumptive recreational fishery in Tasmania,
Australia, with the aim of identifying the preferences of heterogeneous recreational fishers. This was
conducted using a combination of a discrete choice experiment and an opinion-based phone survey.
Results show that homogenous preferences were related to management that had a direct impact
on catch, whereas heterogeneous preferences were found around management tools that had an
indirect impact on catch.
Together this research highlights several drivers of heterogeneity within recreational fishing
management; from opposing responses to compliance incentives to varying psycho-social make-up
within behavioural groups to divergent management preferences. The results of the research within
this thesis provide empirical evidence of alternative compliance tools, such as nudges as well as
drivers of different behaviours and opinions. The findings underline the importance of nuance and
heterogeneity of fishers, behaviours, and drivers in the context of recreational fisheries. Knowledge
of this variability encourages better integration of accurate human dimensions and can advance
recreational fisheries towards innovation and increased effectiveness.
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