Breaking Waves

The following publication is available from Oregon Sea Grant.

It may also be purchased from Oregon Sea Grant.

Oregon’s Non-Consumptive Recreational Ocean User Community: Understanding an ocean stakeholder

While some types of ocean use, such as recreational and commercial fishing, have received research attention, little research has been directed at Oregon’s non-consumptive recreational ocean users.

Surfers, kayakers, kiteboarders, boat-based nature viewers, divers, wind surfers, and boaters are among Oregon’s non-consumptive recreational ocean users. They are neighbors and business owners, community leaders and family members, employees and friends. They are an important group of people making economic and cultural contributions to coastal communities, and one with a stake in the outstanding public ocean resources near and far from Oregon’s shores.

Non-consumptive recreational ocean users are often stewards of the beaches and sea, and they are coming to play on the ocean from all over Oregon and beyond. They are also currently underrepresented in the literature, and are poorly understood. This publication seeks to remedy that situation.

A new publication from Oregon Sea Grant, An Analysis of a Survey of Oregon Coast Decision Makers Regarding Climate Change, reveals that

• most people are concerned about climate change and how it may affect the Oregon coast
• the most frequently cited risks associated with effects of climate change on the Oregon coast involved physical processes such as sea-level rise and erosion
• few are ready now to respond to climate change
• people would be willing to take action in work if there were compelling information, new funding, and a sense of local urgency
• coastal professionals have needs for assistance regarding climate change, particularly credible, relevant information to provide the public
• coastal professionals have low amounts of information on climate change topics they consider important for the performance of their work

You can order this 20-page publication (color cover, B&W insides) for $3.50 plus shipping and handling by calling 541-737-4849 or e-mailing sea.grant.communications@oregonstate.edu. You may also download it from http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/sgpubs/onlinepubs.html#socialsci

Policymakers would do well to change their approach to “selling” renewable energy by focusing on more than  just the potential environmental good.

So writes Maria Stefanovich, Oregon Sea Grant Malouf Scholar, in an editorial in a recent issue  of Sea Technology Magazine.

Stefanovich cites an Oregon  energy policy survey by researchers at OSU that found strongest support for wave energy development among conservative,  “human values”-centered males – a group not conventionally viewed  as friendly to  “green” projects.

Instead of focusing entirely on the environmental benefits of renewable energy, Stefanovich writes,  “policymakers may be more effective in getting the public to adopt renewable energy more quickly if they leverage the public’s economic bias and stress the socioeconomic benefits that wave energy could provide.”

A native of Bulgaria with degrees in Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations from the Affiliated Institution of the University of Sheffield in Greece, and   in Business Administration and Southeast European Studies the American University in Bulgaria, Stefanovich came to Oregon State University in 2007 to pursue a PhD in Environmental Science.

She is the 2009 recipient of Sea Grant’s Robert E. Malouf Marine Studies Scholarship.

Read Stefanovich’s editorial in Sea Technology.

Coastal officials and owners of coastal property in East and West coast states don’t need to be persuaded that climate change is happening. They believe that both government and individuals should begin taking action now to adapt to expected effects. These are among several insights from surveys conducted in Oregon and Maine by the Sea Grant programs in those states. The surveys, launched in parallel in early 2008, are believed to be the largest studies to date to focus on United States’ coastal populations and the challenge of adapting to the expected effects of coastal climate change, such as a rise in sea level.

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