Have Marine Reserves Impacted Daily Fishing License Sales?

Each year thousands of people pack up their gear, set their out-of-office email response to a fishing emoji, and head to the Oregon coast. Some fishers may have found their usual fishing spot closed after marine reserve implementation. These fishers could change their behavior. To find out if fishing behavior has changed after marine reserve implementation, we looked at ODFW’s sales of daily fishing licenses. Read More

New Report: Qualitative Evaluation of Impacts on Fishers

This project is designed to capture the lived experience of commercial and charter fishers who are directly impacted by marine reserves. We were particularly interested in the economic, social, and cultural impacts of the marine reserves, including whether or not fishers were shifting their efforts to other species or locations following reserve implementation. Read More

Greater Familiarity Leads to Greater Concern for the Ocean

Recently, ODFW revisited survey data collected in a 2016 visitor survey to dig deeper and learn more about Oregon coastal visitors. The goal was to use more advanced statistical methods to see if we could use visitor characteristics to predict how much a visitor knows or thinks that they know about the ocean. Read More

A Natural Laboratory for Social Science Research

Over the past several years, researchers studying people’s reactions to Oregon’s marine reserves have begun to understand the complex values and experiences that underpin how different communities interact with the ocean in different ways. Many insights from our ongoing human dimensions research centers on the importance of recognizing how and why different stakeholders interact with and value the ocean in different ways. Read More

Update on Spring Field Season

We wanted to share with you that the ODFW Marine Reserves Program has made the decision to postpone our spring field season. Keeping our volunteers, contractors, and staff safe is our top priority right now. Our current plan is to postpone the field season through May 31st. Read More