Stakeholder perception of the danger posed by sharks in the world’s largest shark sanctuary

Shark conservation can be achieved through a combination of spatial protections, traditional fisheries regulations, and shark-based tourism development. The effectiveness of these approaches depends on stakeholder perception of the animals, and on the personal impacts legislation will have. We assessed stakeholder attitudes towards sharks in the French Polynesia sanctuary using the perception of (i) the risk that sharks pose to humans and (ii) the practice of shark feeding to support ecotourism. Despite few bites locally, about 50% of the people believed that sharks are potentially dangerous. Furthermore, 74% of people held a negative opinion about provisioning as potentially increasing the risk of bites or having negative effects on sharks. When crossed with the lack of compliance with the regulations of the sanctuary and the feeding, these results suggest the importance of local political decision-making to better integrate validated scientific data. These results could improve shark conservation and support for current efforts.