The University of Florida is conducting a research project aimed at obtaining a good understanding of the views and experiences of diverse stakeholders regarding goliath grouper and its management.
The research project involves an online survey and a workshop. The survey will provide information on the views of a large number of individual stakeholders, while the workshop is designed to allow representatives from different stakeholder groups to exchange perspectives and develop a shared understanding of the issues surrounding goliath management.
The outputs from both activities will be published and reported to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and the fisheries management councils, who may consider the results in their decision making alongside other evidence such science workshop outputs, public hearings, etc. The project itself is not part of the regulatory process but a new, pro-active way of obtaining a good overview of stakeholder views and experiences.
How you can provide input
You can provide input to the project in multiple ways:
1) Complete the online survey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TNVQP2N)
2) If you wish to make a written submission to the Goliath Grouper Stakeholder Project, please send your submission to the principal investigator, Dr. Kai Lorenzen, Email: klorenzen@ufl.edu.
You can also provide input to the regulatory processes regarding goliath grouper through the normal FWC and fisheries management council public input processes. The project does not replace existing public input processes, but rather provides additional opportunities for stakeholders to share their views.
The project stakeholder workshop
The project stakeholder workshop was designed to allow representatives from different stakeholder groups to exchange perspectives and develop a shared understanding of the issues surrounding goliath management. Because the workshop aimed to allow intensive, constructive engagement between representatives from different stakeholder groups, the number of participants was limited to 20. Invitees were selected through a participatory process to ensure representation of diverse stakeholder groups by individuals who are viewed by their own peers as being good representatives. The workshop was attended by representatives from recreational and commercial fisheries, fishing and dive charter operators, divers, dive shops and clubs, conservation organizations, and science. The workshop did involve decision making of any kind – rather, the full range of perspectives discussed were presented in the workshop report.
The University of Florida is conducting a research project aimed at obtaining a good understanding of the views and experiences of diverse stakeholders regarding goliath group and it’s management.
You can provide input to the project today by completing the online survey here.
If you prefer to make a written submission, send your submission to Dr. Kai Lorenzen at klorenzen@ufl.edu.