CONSUMER'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS LOCAL FISHERIES

Professional practice

April - June 2020

Jorge Gutierrez Serrano

University of Oviedo

International Master In Marine Biological Resources

Local Products

Management of fisheries can be easily ranked among the most outrageous examples of human mismanagement. The impact and caused by the use and exploitation have been destructive and inconsiderate. As human beings, we have taken for granted the limits of the oceans and its living resources.

The local food system has gained importance in recent years as a possible alternative to the industrialized global food system.

Growing consumer interest in local food can be due to the ability to enhance the sustainability of the system by reducing the carbon footprint, less transport distance, more sustainable packaging and by providing new opportunities to local fishermen

PROJECT

What's consumers attitude towards local seafood?

The main objective of this professional practice was to help Eva García Vázquez from the University of Oviedo, to get information to know what is needed for people to consume locally produced seafood. This is needed to reduce carbon prints from transport and packaging, exploitation of developing countries, and helping local fishermen.

This is a project carried out in the Principality of Asturias, interviewing people face to face. Due to the pandemic, this sampling method could not be carried out, so the main objective was to create an international online survey.

My responsibilities were to take part in all the creation processes, survey distribution, and response cleaning and analysis, which included translating the English version to Spanish, working together with my partner to organize and set weekly goals to reach the deadlines among others

METHOD

What did I do in the professional practice? How I create a questionnaire?

LITERATURE RESEARCH

First step for any activity, look for all the interesting information of your topic and summarize it.

PROTOYPE

Creation of a prototype questionnaire. Testing and creation of an online version.

FINAL VERSION & DISTRIBUTION

After testing the initial version, we created and tested the online version. My responsibility was to create attractive content and edit so it was understandable and easy to follow. After that, the distribution of the survey using the snowball technique.

RESULTS AND FINAL REPORT

The questionnaire was open for two weeks. The results obtained were cleaned and organized, for further statistical analysis. After organizing the results, it was time to write the final report to evaluate the effectiveness of the snowball technique.

RESULTS

A total of 260 responses obtained. This responses will serve as complementary data for the existing database.

Most of the answers are from Spain and France since we created versions in that language.
The images represent some of the charts generated by Google Forms and the evolution of responses per day.

SUMMARY OF SKILLS AND COMPETENCES

ORGANIZATION

Setting my own deadlines
Short and long-term planning
Setting priorities.

COMMUNICATION

Creativity to communicate effectively
Writing skills

TEAM WORKING

Online communication
Task division
Setting group priorities
Commitment

CONCLUSION

This professional practice has meant something completely different from what I've done on other occasions. I've been able to develop certain skills related to working remotely. It has also been an opportunity to learn about social sciences, and to realize that it is a complementary part of any researcher.

I’ve had complete freedom within the project to create the questionnaire, so I focused on raising awareness about the actual situation of global fisheries. In this way, I’ve learned about my ability to create, to transmit information to people that might not know these issues. In conjunction with demonstrating my skills to the institution and the people receiving the questionnaire, while learning from other practices within marine biology.

I already knew the importance of the transmission of science, but it has not been until now that I have seen what it implies in the real world. In this aspect, discovering social sciences and my ability to perform in it, is the best professional skill I’ve developed during the PP, and it has convinced me that it is a type of practice that I want to continue practicing in my future as a researcher.

Thanks to Theo for being THE partner and Eva for the help and supervision

LOCAL SEAFOOD AND SUSTAINABILITY

Guide For Sustainable Fish Consumption (OCEANA, 2020)

Why to buy local?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aprile MC, Caputo V, Nayga RM (2016) Consumers’ Preferences and Attitudes Toward Local Food Products. J Food Prod Mark 22:19–42.
Bollmann E Al (2010) World Ocean Review. Phys Rev E 67:232.
European Market Observatory for Fisheries and Aquaculture Products (EUMOFA) (2020). Consulted in June 2020: https://www.eumofa.eu/.
Fernández-Ferrín P, Calvo-Turrientes A, Bande B, Artaraz-Miñón M, Galán-Ladero MM (2018) The valuation and purchase of food products that combine local, regional and traditional features: The influence of consumer ethnocentrism. Food Qual Prefer 64:138–147.

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