Seafood labeling and consumer behavior: A FishWise case study, Sonoma County, CA.

摘要

Decades of unsustainable commercial fishing have resulted in depletion of fish stocks, destruction of ocean habitats, and unintended capture and death of fish and marine mammals. In addition, unsustainable aquaculture practices threaten wild species and pollute surrounding natural habitats. In an attempt to combat these adverse impacts, FishWise, a seafood labeling program, was created to encourage consumers at health food stores and gourmet markets in the US to purchase seafood caught or farm raised in a sustainable manner. This study evaluates FishWise to determine its effectiveness in educating consumers about sustainable fishery issues and in influencing purchases of sustainable seafood at two gourmet markets in Sonoma County, California.;Results show that concerns about the negative impacts of unsustainable seafood as well as seafood familiarity were important to those who purchased sustainable seafood; however, seafood consumers were ultimately motivated by seafood attributes, such as taste and freshness, and health concerns regardless of the sustainability ranking of the seafood purchased. A couple of reasons for this outcome include lack of program promotion by seafood counter staff as well as ineffective seafood labels.