Public Perceptions of Aquaculture: Evaluating Spatiotemporal Patterns of Sentiment around the World - PubMed (original) (raw)

Public Perceptions of Aquaculture: Evaluating Spatiotemporal Patterns of Sentiment around the World

Halley E Froehlich et al. PLoS One. 2017.

Abstract

Aquaculture is developing rapidly at a global scale and sustainable practices are an essential part of meeting the protein requirements of the ballooning human population. Locating aquaculture offshore is one strategy that may help address some issues related to nearshore development. However, offshore production is nascent and distinctions between the types of aquatic farming may not be fully understood by the public-important for collaboration, research, and development. Here we evaluate and report, to our knowledge, the first multinational quantification of the relative sentiments and opinions of the public around distinct forms of aquaculture. Using thousands of newspaper headlines (Ntotal = 1,596) from developed (no. countries = 26) and developing (42) nations, ranging over periods of 1984 to 2015, we found an expanding positive trend of general 'aquaculture' coverage, while 'marine' and 'offshore' appeared more negative. Overall, developing regions published proportionally more positive than negative headlines than developed countries. As case studies, government collected public comments (Ntotal = 1,585) from the United States of America (USA) and New Zealand mirrored the media sentiments; offshore perception being particularly negative in the USA. We also found public sentiment may be influenced by local environmental disasters not directly related to aquaculture (e.g., oil spills). Both countries voiced concern over environmental impacts, but the concerns tended to be more generalized, rather than targeted issues. Two factors that could be inhibiting informed discussion and decisions about offshore aquaculture are lack of applicable knowledge and actual local development issues. Better communication and investigation of the real versus perceived impacts of aquaculture could aid in clarifying the debate about aquaculture, and help support future sustainable growth.

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Conflict of interest statement

I have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: MBR is a government employee for NOAA Office of Aquaculture, but was not financially supported through SNAPP. The perceived competing interest does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

Fig 1

Fig 1. Newspaper ‘aquaculture’ media sentiment.

Sentiment over time based on the frequency of newspaper headlines with negative (red), positive (blue), and neutral (gray) titles for (A) developed (n = 1,165) and (B) developing (n = 430) nations. Also depicted are the (C) proportional contributions of sentiment headlines relative to each developed and developing country, with the number of headlines from each country shown in parentheses. Only countries with more than 4 headlines are shown; 44 countries that contributed only 4.5% of the total headlines are not depicted, but can be found in the S1 Table. Headlines were compiled using the LexisNexis® platform.

Fig 2

Fig 2. Newspaper ‘marine aquaculture’ media sentiment.

Sentiment over time based on the frequency of newspaper headlines with negative (red), positive (blue), and neutral (gray) titles for (A) developed (n = 435) and (B) developing (n = 232) nations. Also depicted are the (C) proportional contributions of sentiment headlines relative to each developed and developing country, with the number of headlines from each country shown in parentheses. Only countries with more than 4 headlines are shown; 29 countries that contributed only 5.8% of the total headlines are not depicted, but can be found in the S1 Table. Headlines were compiled using the LexisNexis® platform.

Fig 3

Fig 3. Newspaper ‘offshore aquaculture’ media sentiment.

Sentiment over time based on the frequency of newspaper headlines with negative (red), positive (blue), and neutral (gray) titles for (A) developed (n = 102) and (B) developing (n = 8) nations. Also depicted are the (C) proportional contributions of sentiment headlines relative to each developed and developing country, with the number of headlines from each country shown in parentheses. All countries used in the analysis are depicted. Headlines were compiled using the LexisNexis® platform.

Fig 4

Fig 4. The most frequently (word per submission) used negative (A) and positive (B) word associations from government elicited public comments.

Depicted frequencies from 2011 USA Marine Aquaculture Policy (dark gray), 2008 USA Offshore Aquaculture Gulf of Mexico (GOM) regulatory plan (black), 2011 NZ Policy Legislation Bill (No. 3) for marine farming (light gray), and the 2009 NZ expansion plan for salmon farming (white) in Marlborough marine waters.

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