Fishers - strategies and choices: feasibility study

Annex 4: Introductory Email Template

Good afternoon,

Aquatera, Aegir and MRAG have recently been appointed by Marine Scotland to conduct a literature review supported by stakeholder engagement which aims to understand what drives and influences the reasoning and decision making of fishers who operate in Scottish waters. Fishers are constantly weighing up options and making choices as part of their short-term and long-term planning. When making these decisions, a number of factors may come into play. For example, these may be circumstantial (i.e., marine policies, marine developments, regulations, climate change), practical (i.e., making a profit, making the best use of time and resources) and personal (i.e., values, fears, family, culture). Decision making will most likely involve balancing these factors, and it may be that some factors are more influential than others.

Understanding how these factors interact, and which factors are most important and in what situations, is key for designing effective policies. We would very much welcome your input into this review process as a key fisheries stakeholder in Scotland.

This introductory email contains a questionnaire^[11] informed by the initial findings of a literature review we recently conducted into this topic. We now wish to follow up with a 1-2-1 meeting over the phone or via video conference (whichever is preferable) to discuss your responses to the questionnaire and the outputs from the literature more broadly. This will be an opportunity for stakeholders to provide specific feedback in relation to the project.

All findings will be collated into a final report which will be shared with stakeholders once published by Marine Scotland.

Please do not hesitate to get in touch should you have any further queries.