Fishers' Behaviour and Attitudes Towards Compliance and Enforcement: Research Report

1. Introduction

The purpose of the Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate is to manage Scotland's seas for prosperity and environmental sustainability, protect Scotland’s natural marine environment, and secure the future of Scotland’s fishing industry for future generations, as outlined in Scotland’s Fisheries Management Strategy 2020-2030. Part of the Marine Directorate’s role is to ensure fishers comply with regulations (see Chapter 2: Context: Fishing Regulations in Scotland).

To support the delivery of Scotland’s Fisheries Management Strategy, the Scottish Government commissioned The Lines Between (TLB) to undertake qualitative research into the monitoring and enforcement of fishing regulations in Scotland. The research took place from April to November 2024. This research project included the following overarching objectives:

• Deliver a comprehensive qualitative review of fishers’ perspectives on the current enforcement practices of the Marine Directorate and their role in fishers’ decisions to comply or not to comply with regulations.
• Assess the effectiveness of current enforcement practices in acting as a deterrent to non-compliance, with a particular look at the role of FPNs.
• Assess what regulations fishers most struggle to meet and why, and to detect if there are any ‘quick win’ actions that can be taken to support compliance with these regulations.

The research methodology is presented in the Methodology chapter (Chapter 3). It included a foundation phase to familiarise the research team with the fishing industry and the regulatory environment. Once completed, TLB undertook two online surveys (one of the Marine Directorate’s staff and one of fishers). The Marine Directorate compliance and enforcement staff survey received 50 responses (a response rate of approximately 42%) from a cross-section of staff roles and geographic locations. The survey of fishers received 39 responses (approximately 1% of Scottish fishers and therefore a small sample). To explore the issues raised in the survey more in-depth, TLB also conducted in-depth interviews with the Marine Directorate staff (16 interviews), fishers (21 interviews) and industry stakeholders (5 interviews). The final stage of the research involved data analysis (thematic analysis and coding of all qualitative data) and report writing.

While the research achieved participation from a broad range of staff and fishers, the study had a relatively small sample especially from fisher respondents. This is a limitation of the project. Due to this, the evidence cannot be interpreted as fully representative of the entire fishing industry and caution is advised when reading and using the fisher survey findings. The findings relate to the group of participants who took part in the research. Views expressed by participants reflect their understanding and perceptions of the issue in question and may not always be factually correct.

Chapters 4 – 9 present the research findings. The main themes include: fishers’ knowledge of the regulations and factors that drive compliant and non-compliant behaviour, different types of non-compliance, staff and fishers’ experiences of enforcement action, fishers’ experiences of interactions with compliance and enforcement staff, and changes that could encourage fishers’ compliance and improve enforcement operations. Chapter 10 presents the conclusions and recommendations.