New research published on understanding behaviours of recreational boaters to reduce disturbance and damage to seagrass.

Natural England have published a new report: “LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES Behaviour Change Project: Understanding the behavioural context ”, written by CEP in partnership with Plymouth University and Plymouth Marine Laboratory.

The ReMEDIES Behaviour Change Project aimed to help Natural England and partners develop evidence-based interventions to influence the behaviour of recreational boaters to reduce disturbance and damage to seagrass. This report responded to the Behaviour Change Project’s objectives to review current knowledge on:

• Recreational boating behaviours - specifically anchoring and mooring – with relation to their impacts on seagrass and the effectiveness of existing mitigation measures, and

• The behavioural context at two test sites: Plymouth Sound and Estuaries and the Solent Maritime Special Areas of Conservation.

Using the COM-B behaviour change model and associated Behaviour Change Wheel, CEP and partners studied the extent to which boaters felt that their Behaviour in relation to seagrass was influenced by:

• Capability (e.g. do boat users feel they can control the extent to which their activity causes damage?),

• Opportunity (e.g. do they have options for anchoring away from vulnerable areas?), and

• Motivation (e.g. to what extent do they feel that protecting seagrass matters to them?).

The Theory of Planned Behaviour was also used to explore boaters’ motivation in more detail.

The findings of the study explore the effects of anchoring and mooring behaviours on seagrass, potential approaches to changing behaviours to prevent damage to seagrass, and the barriers and facilitators to boaters taking action. Examples of some of the key implications for behaviour change strategies derived from the findings include:

• To be effective, interventions for behaviour change need to address the psychological (e.g. motivations, emotions), social (e.g. social norms) as well as the physical (e.g. Advanced mooring Systems) aspects of boater behaviour.

• Interventions should build on the desire of boaters to protect the ocean. Attention should be paid to incorporating messages that facilitate ocean connectedness.

• Collaborate with boaters to develop co-created solutions and encourage discussion around potential interventions to explore their strengths and weaknesses for a particular location.

The full report can be found here.

For more information about the project, please contact Clare Twigger-Ross (Project Director).

ReMEDIES Boater Behaviour Survey

The Boater Behaviour Survey as part of CEP’s research for the Life ReMEDIES Project is now live

CEP is seeking a range of recreational boaters to take part in a survey about boating practices and sea grass as part of the LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES project.

LIFE Recreation ReMEDIES is a four-year marine conservation partnership project working to Save Our Seabed at five Special Areas of Conservation along England’s south coast, through seagrass restoration, education and innovation. It is funded by the EU LIFE programme and led by Natural England in partnership with Marine Conservation Society, Ocean Conservation Trust, Plymouth City Council/Tamar Estuaries Consultative Forum and Royal Yachting Association.

The project is looking at the behaviours of people who boat for recreation specifically focussing on anchoring and mooring in seagrass. We are focusing on two special areas of conservation Plymouth Sound & Estuaries and Solent Maritime – Isle of Wight and would like to hear from people who go boating for recreation in these areas.

We are really keen to involve as wide a range of recreational boaters as possible, so if you are able to help us to publicise the survey and encourage boaters to participate please do so by sharing this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/R5H7PJ3

If you’re a sailor, powerboater or enjoy any other type of recreational boating in and around the Solent/Isle of Wight or Plymouth, we’d like to find out more about you and your boating practices. Please complete our online survey, open until Wednesday 2 December.

If you have any queries about this survey, please contact Clare Twigger-Ross (Technical Director).