Automated content analysis of the Hawaiʻi small boat fishery

Marine fisheries provide food, employment opportunities, and income for millions of people who live near the coast. Unprecedented levels of catch threaten fisheries across the globe, while demand for seafood continues to climb. Effective fisheries management could ensure reliable food supplies and mitigate adverse socio-economic impacts on regulated fishing communities. Specifying management actions – particularly the resource extraction activities (dis-)allowed – can be highly contentious, in part because biological, economic, social, and political objectives of stakeholders are often in direct conflict. Disputes over conflicting objectives are typically central to disagreements about the right way to manage the fishery, but often more complex social conflicts can also fuel disagreements. The Conflict Intervention Triangle is a framework that can be used for understanding and addressing three types of conflicts: substance, relationships, and process, where the last two are social conflicts. All three types of conflict were present in open-ended responses on a recurring National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) survey of small boat fishers. To better understand the relationship between these types of conflict, we developed a fishery-specific dictionary that can automate categorization of fishers’ responses by topic and type of conflict. The use of the automated content analysis approach provided a nuanced snapshot of the major conflicts in the Hawaiʻi small boat fishery and revealed concealed conflicts that are often ambiguous and less easy to express. We discuss the performance of the methodology used in creating and applying the dictionary to fishery datasets as well as advantages and disadvantages compared to manual content analysis.

We developed a fishery-specific dictionary that can automate categorization of fishers’ responses by topic and type of conflict. The use of the automated content analysis approach provides a nuanced snapshot of major conflicts in the Hawaiʻi small boat fishery and reveals concealed conflicts that are often ambiguous and less easy to express.

Main Hawaiian Islands

This dataset includes responses to an open-ended survey question entered into an excel csv file for surveys conducted in 2007 and 2014.

PIFSC Data Access, Sharing and Dissemination Guidelines

Contact Kirsten Leong (kirsten.leong@noaa.gov), 808-725-5398

Non-confidential summaries for public access/display

A. The user is responsible for the results of any application of this data for other than its intended purpose. B. The developers of this data are concerned with assuring its proper use. Before the data are used to draw specific scientific conclusions, potential users are requested to contact the Data Steward for background on the data. Acknowledgement of products derived from this data set should be cited. While efforts have been made to ensure that these data are accurate and reliable, PIFSC cannot assume liability for any damages or misrepresentation caused by any inaccuracies in the data or as a result of changes to the data caused by system transfers.

A total of 281 responses to this question were completed across the State of Hawaii in 2007 and 373 in 2014.

The data represent the opinions of the fishery stakeholders who responded to the surveys.

After the data were recorded through primary in-person data collection methods (paper), data were entered verbatim into the data entry file (MS Access database).

After the data were recorded through primary in-person data collection methods (paper), data were entered verbatim into the data entry file (MS Access database).