Local People’s Appraisal of the Fishery-Seal Situation in Traditional Fishing Villages on the Baltic Sea Coast in Southeast Sweden

Abstract

The gray seal (Halichoerus grypus) population in the Baltic Sea is flourishing. On the one hand, this can be interpreted as successful conservation management but, on the other, the gray seal has also become a persistent problem for small-scale coastal fisheries. Departing from the appraisal theory of emotion, this case study investigated local people's appraisals of the current situation of small-scale fishery and seals in three fishing villages. Survey results and interviews showed that the fishery-seal situation is perceived as being highly relevant, with negative implications, and local communities and fishers lack the tools to tackle the challenges. Successful management requires not only attention to local context and stakeholder groups, but also to people's individual interpretation or appraisal of the situation. Place-specific coping strategies should be sought, to balance the seal population with the promotion of smallscale fisheries as a sustainable local industry and as a cultural heritage.

Perceptions and attitudes of residents toward small-scale longline tuna fishing in the Galapagos Marine Reserve: conservation and management implications

“…For instance, information shared through social media and traditional communication channels significantly affects individuals' beliefs, actions, and attitudes, including in conservation and environmental management areas (Fuentes and Peterson, 2021;Casola et al, 2022). Local perceptions can shape the public understanding and interpretation of the social-ecological impacts of conservation efforts, affecting the perceived legitimacy, social acceptability, and effectiveness of management measures (Bennett, 2016;Gelcich and O'Keeffe, 2016;Johansson and Waldo, 2021). In this context, Galapagos stakeholders' perceptions regarding the ecological impact of longlining may have been formed after some participants (e.g., a naturalist guide or park ranger) witnessed the retrieval of drifting large or small-scale longlines that have entangled or hooked sharks, marine turtles, or seabirds (Castrejoń, pers.…”

Appraisals of Wildlife During Restorative Opportunities in Local Natural Settings

“…Such dispositions imply that there is a basis for appraisal of a specific animal species caused by whether the animal is regarded as intrinsically pleasant (negative valence), intrinsically unpleasant (positive valence), or neutral by the individual. Moreover, interests in nature and wildlife, and experiences of negative impacts on human property and livelihood, may moderate response to wildlife, as seen in studies concerned with large carnivores (Sjölander-Lindqvist et al, 2015;Eklund et al, 2020), moose (Dressel et al, 2020), geese (Eriksson et al, 2020), and seals (Johansson and Waldo, 2020).…”

Managing Marine Mammals and Fisheries: A Calibrated Programming Model for the Seal-Fishery Interaction in Sweden

“…In the model the seals' impacts on both revenues and costs are assumed to be proportional to the population size. Little is known from the literature on this topic, but fishers' express that the increase in seal abundance makes it difficult to avoid them (Johansson and Waldo, 2020) which indicates that more seals implies more interaction.…”