Recreational ports are known to be sources of pollution to the coastal marine environment due to the pouring of pollutants or the transfer of invasive species to neighboring areas. Nonetheless, the responsibility of protecting the marine environment does not lie solely on the users of the ports, but also affects the rest of citizens. Thus, an effective communication is necessary between scientists and citizens to avoid the lack of knowledge and boost cooperation against these environmental problems. In this study, (focused on the marina of Gijon, Northwestern Spain) citizens set education and social media as the main sources of information, rarely considering science outreach. Also, their environmental knowledge showed to be based on a visual perception, rather than on a cognitive one, as marine litter was considered a great environmental problem, while invasive species and biofouling went unnoticed, remarking the lack of an effective communication from scientific sources.

由于污染物的倾倒或入侵物种向邻近地区的转移，游憩港口是沿海海洋环境的污染源。但是，保护海洋环境的责任不仅仅在于港口的使用者，还影响到其他公民。因此，科学家与公民之间必须进行有效的沟通，以避免缺乏知识并促进针对这些环境问题的合作。在这项研究中（针对西班牙西北部的希洪码头），公民将教育和社交媒体作为主要信息来源，很少考虑科学推广。此外，由于海洋垃圾被认为是一个严重的环境问题，因此他们的环境知识显示其​​基于视觉，而不是基于认知。