Abstract As the climate warms and sea ice continues to melt, an increase in overall shipping traffic to the Arctic and to local communities is expected. Specifically, an increase in cruise ship traffic has led to higher numbers of visitors to the Arctic and sub-Arctic. As a secondary effect of increased human activity in this region, invasive species prevention and removal will become a priority, especially as species’ ranges continue to shift with the warming climate. Thus, it is important to have a baseline of visitor knowledge about invasive species in the region to promote robust monitoring. To evaluate visitor knowledge, we conducted visitor intercept surveys in three Alaskan communities that experience tourism. Results show that owning watercraft is associated with an increase in knowledge, but increased knowledge did not lead to any changes in behavior. In addition, increased invasive species knowledge did not differ between visitor groups. Our research demonstrates the need to consider the potential spread of invasive species due to tourism and a need to focus on both systemic policy changes and educational campaigns to encourage cleaning gear brought on travels.
Remer et al. (Wed,) studied this question.