Social attitudes to marine conservation in NE Scotland: public perceptions and

interviews were conducted with local inhabitants / visitors and important stakeholders respectively. More than the 70 % of the inhabitants and visitors knew of the three main cetacean species occurring in the area, namely: the bottlenose dolphin, minke whale and harbour porpoise. However, the majority were not aware of their current protection status. Answers related to conservation were generally very positive, with 82 % asserting that conservation was very important, and 63 % judging a hypothetical protected area to be a good idea – since it could both preserve animals and enhance tourism in the region. Several activities occurring in the Moray Firth were perceived as a threat to marine wildlife. From the public survey, the highest degree of concern was for those factors causing direct harm to animals, e.g. entrapment in fishing gear. From the stakeholder survey, however, more subtle issues such as acoustic barotrauma and skin lesion