Words by Adam Nixon

As some of you may recall, a few months ago I was featured on the ‘Help A Researcher Out’ section of the site. I had created a survey which investigated how people in the United Kingdom value our marine environments and the resources that they provide us. This was for my master’s thesis but also and a collaboration with a variety of other organisations including the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), Essex Native Oyster Restoration Initiative (ENORI) and the University of Essex. The full results of the survey are yet to be published but I thought I’d give you an update on how I used your answers and what I found in my study. The survey is still live, so if you live in Britain and haven’t done so yet give it a go, you can access it here. It takes about 10 minutes and will give you some more context and understanding for this article.

Coastal Connectedness

So, for my thesis I wanted to investigate a term me and my supervisor had coined “coastal connectedness”, which effectively is how connected people are to the marine environment through a variety of factors, which I’ll go onto explain. I also was eager to understand how distance played a part in this. The UK is unique in that you’re never more than about a 2-hour drive from the ocean, and as the crow flies the furthest inhabited inland point is only 73 miles (117km) from the coast. Fish and chips is one of our national dishes, and the British seaside holiday is famous amongst residents. We also have a rich maritime and naval history as well as countless fishing communities. So, on the surface we are all connected to the ocean in a small way at the very least.

So, what is coastal connectedness? I came up with four factors that I felt would determine how connected an individual is to our oceans and their resources.

1. Appreciation – How much does an individual appreciate all aspects of the marine environment? do they enjoy being beside it?

2. Knowledge – How switched on are individuals to the issues influencing our oceans and how much do they know about the organisms that inhabit them?

3. Visitation – How often does an individual visit a marine space?

4. Utilisation – How does an individual use our marine spaces? How much would they be willing to donate to use and conserve them?

Using these factors, I set out with the aim of answering one simple question “Does the distance an individual lives away from the ocean influence how connected they are to marine spaces?” to do this I created three hypotheses.

H1 – People who live closer to the coast will have a greater knowledge and appreciation of the issues that affect the marine environment and will be willing to donate more to protect it.

H2 – Those who live closer to the coast will have a greater knowledge and appreciation of Oysters in both a commercial and environmental context.

(ZSL and ENORI were interested in how much the public knew about oysters in general and native oyster restoration efforts, therefor a lot of the survey was aimed at this, I felt like I could use this data on an often lesser spoken about organism to try and highlight if there was a knowledge increase with those residing closer to the coast)

H3 – People who live closer to the coast will visit marine spaces more frequently and utilise marine resources and spaces more often

Without going into too much of the statistical detail I selected the relevant questions from the survey, that provided enough data to answer each hypothesis, it was a very long process. I created a formula to get a score for each connectedness factor so that they were all directly comparable. I then used a Multivariate Analysis of Variance test (MANOVA) for the statistical analysis. This test is used to determine any differences between independent groups of more than one continuous variant. So, I would compare knowledge and appreciation vs distance away from the coast for example.

What i found

Now for the interesting part, the results. For the most part those who lived closer to the coast (Within 10 miles) often scored the highest in each category which supported all my hypothesis. They would be willing to donate higher amounts of money to Ocean conservation and were far more likely to accept an increase in taxes if it meant our oceans could be more protected. They had a higher knowledge and understanding of the importance of oysters in our ecosystems. They also visited the coast more often and used it for a variety of reasons (See table 1. below).

Overall, my hypothesis were proven correct, but there was one major acceptation to this, which formed a large section of my discussion. Those who lived closest to the ocean were found to appreciate the ocean, beaches, and the resources they both provide us far less than those who lived further away. I couldn’t find much research as to why this could be, I theorised that those who live closer become sort of immune to the coastal charm as it’s something they see every day. Those who live further away potentially appreciate marine spaces more as they see them less frequently which would increase their appreciation. I feel like understanding how people appreciate and see our coastal environments could be crucial in the fight against climate change. The information could really help some charities promote their work to different target audiences who have different views or opinions.

Whats next?

I think it would be interesting to repeat this study, but in a larger country. Take the United States for example. As I previously mentioned the oceans are an engrained part of British Culture and everyone is relatively close to the coast. In the US the furthest point from the coast is 1,000 miles away (1,650km) with dozens of landlocked states. I think if this study were transferred here, you’d get more in-depth results (Assuming results were similar what I found) as to why people inland care, understand and know less about the oceans.

I hope you found this interesting! I’m happy to say I passed my masters with flying colours and am now looking to do a PhD. I’d like to thank Samantha at Ocean Oculus for sharing the survey, it really helped. If you’d like to read the full paper (I shortened it down a lot for this article) then feel free to email me (adamnixon0410 [at] gmail [dot] com) and I’ll happily send it over to you. As soon as the entirety of the survey results have been published, I’ll also be sure to let Samantha know so she can put them on the site!

Thanks again to everyone who did the survey.

Introducing guest contributor Adam Nixon

Hi I’m Adam, I’ve recently graduated from the University of Essex with an MSc in Tropical marine biology which followed on from a BSc (Hons) in Marine and Freshwater Biology from Aberystwyth University.  I have interests in Fish Ecology and Native British Fish Conservation. I also help present on a YouTube channel Called ‘Nature Scope’ dedicated to Science, conservation and outdoor hobbies!
You can follow Adam on Twitter @adamdoesmarine.

The views and opinions expressed by guest contributors do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Ocean Oculus.