Is the grass greener on the other side? A comparison of management preferences between stalked barnacle harvesters across Europe: Survey data

Survey data used in a perception study of stalked barnacle harvesters on the effectiveness of fisheries management practices in Spain, Portugal and France. Harvesters from the following six regions along the Atlantic Arc participated: Morbihan in Brittany (France), Asturias-East, Asturias-West and Galicia (Spain), the Reserva Natural das Berlengas (RNB; Portugal) and the Parque Natural do Sudoeste Alentejano e Costa Vicentina (PNSACV; Portugal). We administered 184 surveys from October 2019 to September 2020 and each region was treated as an independent population. The data includes: general demographic data (Region, Age, Gender, Level of Education, Main income source, Years of Experience); data of the perceived knowledge regarding management strategies (coded: k_name_of_strategy – using 0 = No; 1 = Yes: NA = No Answer); perception data of the effectiveness of the currently implemented management strategies in each region (coded: e_name_of_strategy – using Likert Scale with scores ranging from 1 = completely ineffective to 5 = very effective); data of the willingness for change of the currently implemented management (Yes, No, NA); and data of harvesters’ perceptions regarding the most important strategy to achieve sustainability in the fishery. Because the surveys were conducted both before and during the Covid-19 pandemic (the column Covid indicates whether the data was collected before or during the pandemic), we had to make adjustments in our data collection methods. We provided the following options for survey completion (see the Recollection_of_data column): by hand in a written format, online, or via an oral interview conducted with the assistance of a scientist per telephone. Results: In general, harvesters indicated a good understanding of the implemented strategies, however, some gaps were identified. Our results indicate that the majority of harvesters in the regions in Portugal and France were willing to make changes to current management strategies, reflecting their awareness of the need for improvement. In the fisheries with higher levels of governance and management success (Galicia and Asturias-West), this willingness was considerably smaller. Based on the AIC model selection analysis results, the model with the single variable region explained 83% of the cumulative model weight. The variable region was the best predictor of the trends in management strategy preferences, and presented a highly significant goodness-of-fit result (p