With recent commitments to protect 30% of marine areas by 2030 to address global biodiversity loss, the effective planning, monitoring, and management of marine parks (MPs) are paramount to generating ecological, social and economic outcomes. Critical to achieving this is an understanding of recreational users’ knowledge about, attitudes towards, and practises (KAP) within MPs. We have developed the first field manual outlining a methodology for conducting face-to-face MP recreational users’ KAP surveys. Our methodology builds on research establishing socio-economic benchmarks for the Australian Marine Parks, further refined through First Nations partnerships and 21 co-authors in marine social and biodiversity science across Australia. The outputs of the KAP survey are both accessible and communicable, serving as a powerful and cost-effective tool to guide MP planning, tailored communication, education, compliance, and ecological monitoring. A key output is spatial recreational use data, which we have used to develop a tool to assess MP design trade-offs. This tool provides a transparent overview of the adequacy of MP design to achieve conservation outcomes, human connection potential and the opportunity cost to recreational fishers. We will demonstrate the use of this tool on MP proposals in Western Australia.