Abrams, Katie

Testing a Social Marketing Approach to Encourage Respectful Sea Turtle Viewing in Hawaii

2020

NOAA Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center; Colorado State University

"This proposed project will develop an adaptable, evidence-based social marketing framework that can be applied to sea turtle viewing in Hawaii and related human-wildlife interaction contexts under NOAAs purview. The first phase of the project aims to characterize peoples actions within or near areas known for human interactions with sea turtles in Hawaii. These data, along with insights from a literature review, will inform the design and testing of a social marketing approach on peoples behaviors that negatively impact these species of sea turtles. Specifically, this project will: 1. Characterize factors that lead to undesirable human-protected species interactions, specifically those related tourism. 2. Characterize existing NOAA communication efforts pertaining to sea turtle viewing in order to understand baseline conditions. 3. Develop and test a theoretically-driven social marketing approach to determine whether it affects peoples behaviors (i.e., reduces the number of people getting too close to sea turtles, and/or harassing sea turtles). 4. Improve others understanding of a social marketing approach that mitigates undesirable human-protected species interactions."

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)

Pacific Islands Regional Office

FY2020 CRCP Project ID 177; Project Title: Hawaii Fisheries Extension Program; Principal Investigator: Michael Lameier