Human Dimensions of Rebounding Populations of Seals and White Sharks on Cape Cod, Massachusetts (NCEI Accession 0307598)

To contribute to messaging and management that advances wildlife conservation and responsible stewardship of interfacing human and marine ecosystems, a multi-disciplinary research team led by Salem State University in collaboration University of Massachusetts-Boston, Center for Coastal Studies, Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, Center for Animals and Public Policy of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, and Atlantic White Shark Conservancy and funded by Woods Hole Sea Grant surveyed Cape Cod residents, commercial fishers, and tourists on their views of seals and white sharks. The questionnaires for all three surveys include variables on 1) beliefs about the impact of seals and sharks on the ecosystem, fisheries, public safety, and tourism; 2) knowledge about seal and sharks; 3) attitudes toward seal and shark conflict mitigation strategies; 4) attitudes toward seal rescue and marine mammal and shark protections; 5) participation in wildlife, beach and ocean activities, including saltwater fishing participation; and 6) demographics and self-selected group affiliation.

Surveys were administered in summer 2021. Registered voter lists were used as a sampling frame for residents. Lists of 183,614 registered voters were obtained from town clerks in each of the 15 towns on Cape Cod. A systematic random sample of 1,793 voters, stratified by town, was drawn from voter lists. The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries list of 1,761 Barnstable County commercial fishery permit holders served as the sampling frame for commercial fishers. Where more than one permit holder resided in the same household or shared an email address, one person per household and per email address was randomly selected. Voter and commercial fisher samples were cross-checked for duplicates, and names occurring on both lists were removed from the voter list. The survey was sent to 1,456 commercial fisher permit holders, which represented 83% of the population of permit holders. Using multi-stage sampling design, a sample of 1,074 non-resident visitors to Cape Cod was recruited at Cape Cod National Seashore Beaches (Nauset Light, Coast Guard, Marconi, Head of the Meadow, Herring Cove, Race Point). Non-resident beach visitors (> 18 years) were intercepted and invited to sign-up to receive the survey to complete at a later date. A common survey instrument was distributed to the three samples following the Dillman et al. 5-contact method. Participants were able to complete the survey by mail or through Qualtrics, an online survey platform.

Completed surveys were received from 547 residents (response rate = 32%), 564 commercial fishers (response rate = 39%), and 699 tourists (response rate = 68%) between June and September 2021. The data set includes data on 394 variables and 1810 cases.