Human Dimensions and Environmental Benefits of Seaweed Farming and Restoration

Shelby Schumacher

doi:10.25907/01017

Seaweed is already one of the largest aquaculture crops globally. It is predicted to expand in developed countries, such as Australia, in the coming decades, providing both products (e.g., food, animal feed, nutraceuticals) and seedstock for the restoration of declining seaweed forests. In Australia, public acceptance and social licence for aquaculture can be contested, creating a barrier to new projects. Concurrently, scaled-up restoration of lost underwater seaweed forests will potentially rely on (i) contributions from citizen scientists, (ii) aquaculture. Therefore, it is essential to understand people's concerns, motivations, and benefits regarding the restorative aquaculture of seaweeds in developed countries, such as Australia, to enhance its sustainable development. Drawing on social licence to operate, ocean literacy, and marine identity perspectives, this thesis examines how participation is initiated, what motivates it, and what outcomes it produces for individuals and legitimacy. This thesis is structured across six interconnected chapters, each contributing unique insights into the human dimensions of seaweed restoration and the mechanisms that may help in driving public support of restorative seaweed aquaculture. To assess what is presently understood about aquaculture's environmental benefits and impacts, Chapter 1 reviews the literature. This chapter compares seaweed production to other types of aquacultures, highlighting its unique capacity to provide critical ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, and habitat restoration. This chapter also provides the foundation for this thesis and presents the conceptual framework that underpins the thesis. The framework proposes a pathway for a social licence for restorative seaweed aquaculture (e.g., legitimacy, trust, perceived value, and willingness to support). Chapter 2 details an experiment on recruiting citizen scientists via social media to assess the efficacy of different messaging strategies in encouraging individuals to engage with content or sign up as citizen scientists. A fully factorial experiment was conducted over an 18-day recruitment campaign period, using short-form videos to compare different messaging combinations (content with a focus on the environment, people or seaweed, with either a positive or negative ‘framing’), and engagement metrics (interactions, views, follows, etc) across three social media platforms (Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn). The study found that user engagement was platform-specific, with more users (10-15 times) viewing content on TikTok than on Instagram or LinkedIn. However, LinkedIn and Instagram users interacted more meaningfully with the content, resulting in a greater impact. The results demonstrate that video ‘views’ do not necessarily translate into meaningful engagement, and that approximately 1% of participants who engage with online content may eventually sign up and participate in real-world restoration work as citizen scientists. Chapter 3 explored the demographic traits and motivations of people who signed up to volunteer as citizen scientists with the seaweed research group. This chapter examined the emotional drivers of participation, including the roles of emotions such as awe and wonder in fostering connection and pro-environmental behaviours, as well as climate change worry and identity. These findings offer insights into some of the factors that may be crucial for inspiring public engagement, which is essential for designing effective and inclusive restoration programs and citizen science recruitment campaigns that can underpin scaled-up restoration projects in the future. Chapter 4 evaluated the mental health and well-being benefits of participating in a seaweed restoration project on the Sunshine Coast by comparing the well-being survey responses of participants before, immediately after, and two weeks after participation. The findings revealed that active involvement in ecological restoration led to a significant increase in individuals' subjective nature connectedness (INS), which persisted for at least two weeks following the event and a reduction in feelings of stress and helplessness. These findings suggest that citizen science initiatives are not only good for the environment but also human mental well-being. Chapter 5: A systematic review was conducted to assess social attitudes towards aquaculture and ecological restoration, including the economic opportunities and enhanced community resilience that it can provide. Central to this chapter is the question of how attitudes towards aquaculture production and restoration differ globally, with a particular focus on comparisons between developed and developing countries, and how these attitudes might influence perceptions of seaweed restoration and hinder aquaculture development in Australia. This review helps to provide clarity on where legitimacy and acceptance dynamics converge or diverge across restoration and aquaculture, thus informing implications for social licence to operate for restorative aquaculture in Australia. Lastly, Chapter 6 synthesises findings from the previous five chapters, drawing connections between the ecological and social dimensions of restorative seaweed aquaculture and public participation. It highlights the importance of a multidisciplinary approach, combining environmental science, social psychology, and communication strategies to create scalable solutions for marine ecosystem restoration.

Human Dimensions and Environmental Benefits of Seaweed Farming and Restoration

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