Fisheries Climate Survey Report FINAL - Flipbook - Page 5
SURVEY
New England harvesters were invited to participate in a survey (between July 1 and August 31, 2020), to
understand their perceptions of the impacts of climate change on and other stressors related to fisheries. The
survey instrument was initially developed for the U.S. West Coast (Nelson, 2021) and then adapted for the New
England context. The survey instrument contained three components: demographics and fishery participation,
harvester observations of a changing ocean, and wellbeing and vulnerability perceptions (Nelson, 2021). Likertscale questions were used to gauge harvester perceptions of changes in distribution for several commercial
species, changing ocean conditions, wellbeing, and adaptive capacity. Open-ended questions were used to
gather more detail about changing environmental conditions and challenges to adaptation.
The survey was conducted via the internet with a corresponding sweepstakes to incentivize participation.
Participants received entry information at the beginning and end of the survey. Harvesters in Maine,
Massachusetts, and Connecticut were emailed directly while harvesters in New Hampshire and Rhode Island
received a link to the survey from their respective state fishery management agency. In Maine, there were 7,053
individuals with a 2019 commercial fishing license and email addresses were available for 5,395 of them. In
Massachusetts, there were 7,031 registered permit holders in 2019 of which email addresses were available for
5,320. In Connecticut, there were 332 individual registered license holders in 2020 of which email addresses
were available for 275. Emails with an invitation and link to the online survey were sent to all individuals who
provided an email address to the state in New Hampshire and Rhode Island. New Hampshire sent the survey
link to 447 license holders in 2020 and the number of recipients in Rhode Island is unknown.
Table 1. Demographic summary of survey respondents.
State
%
ME
%
Years
Fishing
%
Years in %
Community
Income
from
outside
fishing
%
Vessel
size
%
49.8%