Program on the Environment

Fish is a rich source of easily digestible protein that provides nutritional benefits crucial to human health and physical and cognitive development.  However, key species that are considered sustainable and readily available are still being underutilized and undervalued – cost effective and affordable product that could not only be used to improve health and nutrition in underserved communities, but also help to improve the livelihoods of many populations as a whole.  The purpose of this project is to develop the most effective health focused marketing campaign and help garner interest in key West Coast groundfish species’.  To accomplish this task, I developed a comprehensive profile of key nutrients for 12 species which will later be used for testing.  I then created a preliminary consumer marketing survey that will be included in a larger survey in hopes to gain a better understanding of how consumers obtain information, and the health and environmental factors that drive purchasing habits.  Results from the preliminary survey yielded 57 responses across varying demographics here in the Pacific Northwest.  With this information I found that the majority of respondents expressed interest in learning more about the health and nutritional benefits of fish consumption, were familiar with groundfish, purchased fish because of both taste and health benefits, had general knowledge surrounding the environmental impacts of a range of protein sources, and expressed an overall desire for increases in marketing and communication, but feel that the cost of seafood is too high.