3.1. Perceived indispensability of marine ecosystem services
Table 2 shows the collected responses regarding the indispen- sability of respective marine ecosystem services on a scale ranging from ‘1: strongly agreed’ to ‘5: strongly disagreed’. Respondents placed a high level of indispensability on all three items under the supporting services category contained in the MA [12]. Services related to food provision were also highly valued, while items classified under the component of cultural services by the MA [12], especially cultural services related to religion, recreation, and health received a low assessment in terms of essentialness.