Examining awareness, attitudes and behaviours of stakeholders in Irish Fishing towards plastic

This paper explores the awareness, knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of members of the Irish fishing community towards environmental topics such as; microplastics, plastic pollution and recycling. We conducted a mixed method survey consisting of 26 questions (2021) involving members of the Irish fishing community (fishers, aquaculturists etc.). Respondents were generally aware of microplastics and the threats they can pose to different environmental matrices. They noticed litter frequently when engaged in their fishing activities (0% never noticed litter) and in large quantities (35% of respondents noticed over 10+ items) but they were likely (likely 40% and highly likely 35%) to remove it from the environment. Durability was the main reason for the selection of most fishing plastics used by respondents (ranked first in 4 of 5 plastic items) while recyclability played a lesser role. Respondents also viewed plastics as cheap and convenient with these terms accounting for 48% of positive connotations related to the word ‘plastic’, however, in general associated plastic with negative phrases. Barriers to the recycling of used fishing plastics were most frequently identified as being due to a lack of knowledge on how to or a lack of facilities. This study provides novel insight into a previously unstudied cohort in Irish society towards plastics and recycling and can serve as guidance for further work on this group.