Communication and trust-building with the broader public through coastal and marine citizen science

The quality of communication between marine scientists and those whose lives and livelihoods are entwined with our seas and oceans can be the making or breaking of a marine research or conservation initiative. When scientists’ communication with the project participants is slow to arrive or poorly crafted, or where project communications infrastructure such as websites and apps are clunky or broken, citizen scientists have been found to consistently drop out of projects (Rotman et al., 2014). Likewise, if scientists transmit information to the public in a manner that is vague, misleading, or inappropriate (e.g. jargon heavy), confidence and trust in those experts can be quickly lost, resulting in societal inaction or non-compliance. The history of oceans research is littered with examples of well-intentioned efforts undermined by misinformation, poor correspondence, and broken trust (Wilson, 2003; Christie, 2004; van Densen and McCay, 2007; Wilcox, 2012).